REFinBlog

Editor: David Reiss
Brooklyn Law School

June 6, 2013

REMIC Armageddon on the Horizon?

By David Reiss

Brad Borden and I have warned that an unanticipated tax consequence of the sloppy mortgage origination practices that characterized the boom is that MBS pools may fail to qualify as REMICs.  This would have massively negative tax consequences for MBS … Continue reading

May 10, 2013

Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts Finds Bank had Failed to Prove it was Present Title Holder of the Mortgage, Denies Relief from Automatic Stay

By Joseph Kelly

In In re Moreno, 08-17715-FJB, 2010 WL 2106208 (Bankr. D. Mass. May 24, 2010), the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts found that creditor/Property Asset Management, Inc. (“PAM”) had failed to prove its burden that it had standing to … Continue reading

April 22, 2013

Cherry Bombs in Michigan

By David Reiss

An ongoing Michigan state case, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Cherryland Mall L.P. et al.,  has been generating a lot of heat over an obscure but important issue for commercial mortgage borrowers, the scope of carveouts from standard nonrecourse provisions … Continue reading

April 12, 2013

Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court Denies Motion for Relief from Stay

By Gloria Liu

In In Re Hayes, 393 B.R. 259, 261-62 (Bankr. D. Mass. 2008), the Debtor, Hayes, filed a voluntary Chapter 13 petition involving property encumbered by a mortgage, which secured an adjustable rate note. The note and mortgage identified Argent Mortgage … Continue reading

April 11, 2013

Careful When Putting Shoe on Other Foot

By David Reiss

Nestor Davidson has posted a very useful article to SSRN, New Formalism in the Aftermath of the Housing Crisis.  The article notes that as “borrower advocates have responded to [the] surge in mortgage distress, they have found success raising a … Continue reading

April 9, 2013

U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Western District Missouri Holds that Agency Relationship created when MERS is Designated as a Nominee

By Gloria Liu

In re Tucker, 441 B.R. 638 (Bankr. W.D. Mo. 2010), court held that designation of MERS as a nominee in the Mortgage is “more than sufficient to create an agency relationship between MERS and the Lender and its successors in … Continue reading

March 28, 2013

Kansas Bankruptcy Court Finds that Agency Relationship Exists With Use of the Word “Nominee”

By Gloria Liu

Martinez v. MERS, et al., No. 09‐40886, 2011 WL 489905 (Bankr. D. Kan. Feb. 10, 2011), the court held that assignment of the Note and Mortgage to different entities does not render them void because such a split may be … Continue reading