REFinBlog

Editor: David Reiss
Brooklyn Law School

February 8, 2013

Arkansas District Court Dismisses Recording Fee Case

By Gloria Liu

In Brown v. Mers, No. 11-cv-06070 (W.D. Ark., 2012), the Arkansas District Judge dismissed a recording-fee lawsuit filed against MERS and held that state laws do not require mortgage assignments to be recorded. The case had transformed into a class action suit alleging that mortgage assignments were made without the payment of transfer fees to the counties. The court believed that use of the MERS System fulfills the purpose of the recording statutes and payment is made when the mortgage when the mortgage is recorded in public land records. Moreover, Arkansas law does not provide for a duty to record mortgages. Without a duty to record mortgages, the court found that MERS did not deprive defendants of any entitlement.

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