March 8, 2013
The Georgia Northern District Court Holds that Homeowner does not have Standing to Stop Non-Judicial Foreclosure because Homeowner’s claim that MERS Fraudulently Assigned Homeowner’s Deed is not Casually Connected to the Foreclosure on her Property
In Dehdashti v. Bank of New York Mellon, et al., 1:12-cv-595-TCB, (N.D.Ga. June 7, 2012), the Georgia Northern District Court dismissed homeowner’s claims because she did not have standing.
Manizeh Dehdashti alleged that Bank of New York Mellon and other Defendants lacked standing to foreclose on her home because MERS fraudulently assigned the deed securing Dehdashti’s home loan. Dehdashti also alleged that she made payments on her loan that were not properly accounted for. As a result, she sought to quiet title to her home, obtain money damages, and to have the court vacate the security deed. The Bank and MERS filed a motion to dismiss arguing that Dehdashti lacked standing to challenge the validity of the assignment because she was not a party to the assignment.
The court stated that in order for Dehdashti to have standing, she must have suffered an injury that was traceable to Defendants and would likely be redressed by a favorable decision. The court held that although the foreclosure of Dehdashti’s home was sufficient to establish an injury in fact, there was no connection between that injury and the action she complained of—MERS’s assignment of the security deed. The assignment did not affect whether the security deed’s power of sale could be exercised; instead, it affected who could exercise it. Further, “the only interest or right which an obligor of a claim has in the instrument of assignment is to insure him or herself that he or she will not have to pay the same claim twice.” But here, there was no risk that the power of sale would be exercised twice. Thus, Dehdashti’s claims were dismissed for lack of standing.
The court also dismissed Dehdashti’s claim that her loan payments were unaccounted for, because Dehdashti failed to show how those payments, if they were properly accounted for, would have prevented default.
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