Livinglies's Weblog

Charles Marshall, California attorney and Bill Paatalo, private investigator, discuss the implications of two Hawaii cases that are mirroring other decisions across the country.

Hawaii Schranz Case

Hawaii St. John Case

The above links go to two recent Hawaii cases dealing with legal standing. The fundamental fact of law is that standing must be ACTUAL NOT PRESUMED.

Specifically the issue is whether the foreclosing party actually had the original note at the time the foreclosure was commenced. Reasserting that standing is jurisdictional and therefore must be proven (with actual facts) present before a party takes any action, the courts here reversed (not for publication) Summary Judgments in favor of U.S. Bank and BONY Melon respectively.

The basis of the ruling is really that summary judgment could not have been granted based upon the submissions of so-called trustees of the probably nonexistent trust that never owned the debts. These decisions can be read as brushing aside presumptions and requiring actual proof of the facts that were heretofore assumed or presumed. The reason is simple. Standing is jurisdictional. Since any case that proceeds without jurisdictional is void and subject to being vacated, the proof must be actual and not presumed.

The interesting reasoning in these decisions is that many courts, including these decisions in Hawaii are starting to rethink their formal and informal presumptions. At the height of the tidal wave of foreclosures the courts took to the notion that the foreclosing party would not have filed if they were not the creditor or at least the possessor of the note with rights to enforce. The giant leap that came thereafter was a ruling that presumed the foreclosing party had possession of the note and the right to enforce it.

These decisions show that there is more movement toward requiring proof rather than the sue of legal presumptions. In plain language the courts are beginning to distrust the banks who bring these actions on behalf of alleged trusts.

Since there was question of fact, the summary judgment could not be granted. Thus the court decisions lay out the procedure, requiring actual proof of contested facts rather than resolving them strictly on the basis of applying legal presumptions which we all know leads to erroneous factual and legal conclusions.

Filed under: foreclosure | Tagged: BoNY-MELLON, legal presumptions, PROOF, summary judgment, US BANK |