BURDEN OF PROOF | Livinglies's Weblog

How to Distinguish Between Ownership of the Debt, Ownership of the Note and Ownership of the Mortgage (or Deed of Trust)

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Amongst the lay people who are researching issues regarding who actually can enforce a mortgage, there is confusion arising from specific terms of art used by lawyers in distinguishing between a debt, a note and a mortgage. This article is intended to clarify the subject for lawyers and pro litigants. The devil is in the details.

Bottom Line: In most cases foreclosures are allowed because of the presumption that the actual original note has been physically delivered to the current claimant from one who owned the debt because they both had paid money for it. In most cases merely denying that fact is insufficient to prevent the foreclosure because the court is erroneously presuming that even if the foreclosure is deficient the proceeds of sale will still go to pay the debt.

In most cases those presumptions are untrue but must be rebutted. And the way to rebut those presumptions is to formulate discovery that asks who paid for the debt, when and who were the parties to the transaction?

The lawyers from the foreclosure mills will fight tooth and nail to prevent an order from the court directing them to answer the simple question of who actually owns the debt by reason of having paid value for it and thus who will receive the foreclosure sale proceeds as payment for the debt. The answer is almost always the same — the foreclosure mill is unable to identify such a party thus conceding the lack of subject matter jurisdiction and standing to bring the foreclosure action.

Eventually some party will be identified by changes in the law as being the legal owner of the debt. thus cleaning up the jurisdictional issue caused by utilizing parties who have neither suffered any financial injury nor are threatened with any such financial injury. But for now, the banks are stuck with the mess they created.

=======================================

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

Transfer of debt is by payment for the debt. Payment means you have a legal and equitable right to claim the debt as your own. Payor is the new owner of the debt and the Payee is the prior owner of the debt. There are no exceptions.

The note is evidence of the debt. It is not the debt.

Payment of money to a borrower creates a debt or liability regardless of whether or not any document is signed.

Signing a document promising to pay creates a liability regardless of whether or not there was ny payment of money. In fact, if someone buys the note for value they become a holder in due course and the maker is liable even if they never received any money, value or consideration.

Enforcement of the debt alone is governed by statutory and common law.

Enforcement of notes and enforcement of the security instrument (mortgage or deed of trust) is controlled strictly by the adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

Article 3 UCC governs the negotiation and enforcement of paper instruments containing an unconditional promise to pay a certain sum on a certain date.

Article 9 governs the transfer and enforcement of security agreements (mortgages and deeds of trust).

Whereas Article 3 does not require the holder of the note to be the owner of the debt for purposes of enforcement of the note, Article 9 requires the holder of the mortgage to be the owner of the debt as a condition precedent to enforcement of the mortgage. No exceptions.

Ordinarily the execution of the note causes the debt to be merged with the obligations under the terms of the note. But this is only true if the owner of the debt and payee under the note are the same party. If not, then the execution of the note creates two distinct liabilities — one for payment of the debt and one for payment under the terms of the “contract” (i.e., the note).

Before securitization it was customary that the owner of the debt had paid money to the borrower as a loan, and the execution of the note formalized the scheme for repayment. Hence under the merger doctrine the borrower who accepted the loan and the maker of the note were the same party and the Lender of the money to the borrower was also the payee named in the note.

Now this is not always the case and appears to be not the case in most loans, which is why the banks have resorted to fabricated backdated forged and robosigned documents. The Lender in many if not most loan originations was not the party named as payee on the note. And the party named as payee on the note had no authority to represent the interests of the lender. Where this is true, merger cannot apply. And where this is true, enforcement of the note is NOT enforcement of the debt. Rather it is enforcement of a liability created entirely by contract.

Foreclosure of a mortgage must be for payment of the debt, not just the liability on the note. All states have case law that says that transfer of mortgage without the debt are a nullity. This executing and receiving an assignment of mortgage and even recording it is a legal nullity unless the recipient paid money for the debt and the transferor was conveying ownership of the debt because the transferor had paid money for the debt. If those conditions are not met the executed and recorded assignment of mortgage is a legal nullity and the title record must be viewed by the court as lacking an assignment of mortgage.

The judiciary has not caught up with these discrepancies in most instances. Hence a judge will ordinarily presume that the delivery and endorsement of the note and the assignment of the mortgage was equivalent to the transfer of title to the debt, with payment being presumed for the debt. So while the law requires ownership of the debt by reason having paid for it, the courts presume that the debt was transferred along with the paper, subject to rebuttal by the maker and borrower.

The rubber meets the road when in discovery and defenses the borrower raises the issue of who paid for the debt and when. In the current world of securitization the answer will be the same: the banks won’t tell you and they won’t admit that the party named as claimant in the foreclosure never paid for the debt, despite appearances to the contrary.

Keep the Envelopes! Attention Forensic Auditors! How to Show They Are Lying About Everything

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Neil Garfield

The devil is in the details and it is in the details that actions don’t add up if one party is faking their status.

=======================================

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

Hat tip to Summer Chic

I have long described the practice of sending out correspondence and notices from, say for example PennyMac, from an address that has never been PennyMac. Summer Chic discovered with some snooping that the letter she received from “PennyMac” was sent from a Bank of America location. Bank of America claims no connection with PennyMac. In many such scenarios Bank of America claims no connection with the loan.

Of course that might very well be true. Because in the securitization game the real records are kept at the investment bank (who at least WAS the real party in interest when the loan was originated or acquired) and a central repository from which documents, notices and other instruments are created, signed, sent and filed. In most cases this central repository is Black Knight, which is the new name of Lender Processing Systems, (LPS) who had a subsidiary or division called DOCX.

This is why the claims of a “Boarding process” are pure fiction, because the records are always kept in the same place and never move.

DOCX you might remember is the place where most of not all document fabrications took place including signatures that were forged or robosigned. Fabrication as you know means that they were creating documents that did not previously exist. Those documents did not exist for only one reason, to wit: there was no transaction to document so the document was never prepared until it was necessary to fake it for the purposes of foreclosures.

Incredibly Black Knight is now used as a trusted source of information about mortgages and foreclosures despite being the central entity (operating through third party contractors) from which false documents are created and used in foreclosures.

It was necessary to fake it because under the law, it isn’t enough to allege or assert that a borrower failed to pay. Failure to pay is only a breach as to the owner of the debt who is entitled to receive the payment because he/she/it paid money for the debt and the rights to enforce. But no such payment ever occurred. If there is no rebach there is no claim.

So in order to cover-up the illusions created by fabrications of documents, it was necessary to fake the sending, filing and serving of process of documents. While this was accomplished in some corrupt courts (one right here in Florida), ordinarily it was accomplished by sending the notices not from the central repository, Black Knight, which would make it obvious that it was all coming from one place, but from different locations around the country — hundreds of them.

So in our example, PennyMac agrees to let Black Knight use its name for notices, and Bank of America agrees to have the notice sent from one of its thousands of locations. In reality the notice came from Black Knight and neither PennyMac nor Bank of America know what is contained in the notice, nor do they care.

In court, as I have repeatedly said, it is unwise to try and allege and prove all of that, because you will never get access to the real records of Black Knight, Pennymac or Bank of America. If you could you would would have one big class action lawsuit against all three of those entities. It is well hidden under agreements that might never see the light of day.

BUT, you can use discovery and cross examination to gradually educate a reluctant judge so that he/she gets increasingly uncomfortable with what they are hearing. By using discovery effectively you could even bar the introduction of certain evidence and legal presumptions because you never received an acceptable response to your requests for discovery.

The questions are quite simple: using the envelope as evidence (after proper foundation testimony or as a exhibit for ID to be later admitted into evidence) you elicit the fact that either the entity does not maintain any address at that location and never did or that the witness doesn’t know and that the employer refuses to answer.

You are asking the question “Who sent this notice?” knowing full well it wasn’t the witness or his employer or anyone else in the chain of title. If the witness slips and answers truthfully (which happens occasionally) that it was Black Knight then you’re off to the races with questions about what Black Knight is doing sending out notices on a loan with which they supposedly have no connection and on whose behalf the notices were actually sent.

Filed under: boarding process, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, expert witness, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, forgery, prima facie case, Servicer, sham transactions | 11 Comments »

Chase-WAMU: Is it time to Declare Non Judicial Foreclosure Unconstitutional As Applied?

Posted on August 9, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Faced with a notice of foreclosure sale from a company claiming to be the trustee on a deed of trust, homeowners in judicial states are forced to defend using well known facts in the public domain that are not evidence in a court of law. This is particularly evident in scenarios like the Chase WAMU Agreement with the FDIC and the US Bankruptcy Trustee on September 25, 2008.

In my opinion the allowance for nonjudicial foreclosure in circumstances where a new party appears under a lawyer’s claim that the new party is the beneficiary under a deed of trust under parole claims of securitization is an unconstitutional application of an otherwise constitutional statutory scheme.

All such foreclosures should be converted to judicial and the claimant must prove the essential element under Article 9 §203 UCC that it has a financial interest in the debt because they paid for it. Forcing homeowners to prove that such an interest does not exist is requiring homeowners to have access to knowledge that is unavailable and solely within the control of the party falsely claiming to have the right to enforce the deed of trust and promissory note.

In my opinion this is an unconstitutional application of an otherwise constitutional statutory framework. In plain language it favors expediency and moral hazard over truth or justice.

=======================================

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

I have received questions, most notably from Bill Paatalo, the famed Private Investigator who has provided so much information to lawyers, homeowners and a=everyone else about the foreclosure crisis relating to non judicial foreclosures and the Chase-WAMU farce in particular. Here is my answer:

If what you’re saying is that the FDIC never became the beneficiary under the deed of trust, that is correct. But the legal question is whether it needed to become the beneficiary under the deed of trust. As merely a receiver for WAMU the question is whether WAMU was a beneficiary under the deed of trust and the answer is no because they had already sold their interest or presold it before origination.

If WAMU was an actual beneficiary then the FDIC was the receiver for the beneficial interest held by WAMU. If that is the case the FDIC could have been represented to be beneficiary on behalf of the WAMU estate for foreclosures that occurred during the time that FDIC was receiver.

If WAMU was not an actual beneficiary and could not, as your snippet suggests, sell what it did not own, then the FDIC’s receivership is irrelevant except to show that they had no record of any loans owned by WAMU.

One key question that arises therefore is what is a beneficiary? In compliance with Article 9 §203 UCC I think all states that a beneficiary is one who has paid value for the debt, owns it and currently would suffer a debit or loss against that asset by reason of nonpayment by the borrower. Anything less and it is not a beneficiary. And if it isn’t beneficiary, it cannot instruct the trustee to send out notices as though it was a beneficiary.

So any notice of substitution of trustee, which starts the whole foreclosure process is bogus — i.e., void as in a nullity. The newly named trustee does not possess the powers of a trustee under a deed of trust. Hence the notice of default, sale and trustee deed are equally bogus and void. They are all nullities and that means they never happened under out laws even though there are lawyers claiming that they did happen.

Despite the Ivanova decision in California declaring that such foreclosures can only be attacked after the illegal foreclosure, this is actually contrary to both California law and the due process requirements of the US Constitution.

With more and more evidence of fake documents referring to nonexistent financial transactions, the time is ripe for some persistent homeowner, with the help of a good lawyer, to challenge not only the entire Chase-WAMU bogus set up, but to get a ruling from a Federal judge that the abr to preemptive lawsuits to stop collection or foreclosure activity is unconstitutional as applied.

In nonjudicial states it converts a statutory system which is barely within constitutional bounds to an unconstitutional deprivation of property and civil rights without due process, forcing the homeowners to come up with answers and data only available to the malfeasant players seeking to collect revenue instead of paying down the debt.

Filed under: burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, evidence, Fabrication of documents, FDIC, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, forensic investigation, jurisdiction, legal standing, Pleading, prima facie case, Servicer, sham transactions, standing, STATUTES | Tagged: Chase, FDIC, money, nonjudicial foreclosure, TRUTH, WAMU | 29 Comments »

How to Use Reports and Affidavits in Foreclosure Litigation: Required Reading for Forensic Audit Seminar Next Friday

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Reports and affidavits are helpful but not always useful as evidence. It seems that many people think an affidavit from me will be the magic bullet in their case. It could be but only with proper presentation and following the rules of civil procedure and the laws of evidence.

This is required reading for people attending the forensic audit seminar next Friday. In the end I am seeking your reports to conform to the style and content of what I present at the seminar, in this article and other articles appearing on this blog. The end result for homeowner and their attorneys is to file reports and affidavits that are not only admitted into evidence but also given great weight by the trier of fact.

In plain language I would like to outsource the preparation of the forensic reports on the facts and limit my involvement to what I do best: present the facts with opinion corroborated by those facts. That means learning which facts are likely to give the homeowner’s lawyer some traction and which facts are just surplus accusations that can never be proven in a foreclosure case.

Because in a foreclosure case, the issue is not whether the players are bad players, evil or even thieves. The issue is whether the players can successfully present a case in which it appears that they have satisfied the conditions precedent and the elements of a prima facie case for enforcement of the mortgage through foreclosure.

The answer to that is either yes or no. And walking into any courtroom the presumption, at the very beginning, is that the answer is yes. Our job is turn that around and persuade through logic and facts that the presumption of the existence of the elements for a prima facie case for foreclosure are missing. And while out burden of proof is only a predominance of the evidence, in practice, for homeowners, that translates as something more than “more likely than not.” Where the answer is close, the court will always lean toward the party seeking foreclosure.

=======================================

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

An affidavit is a sworn statement. It is not evidence unless a judge admits it as evidence. And it get no weight as evidence unless the trier of fact (the judge in most foreclosure cases) decides to give it weight. The judge won’t allow it or give it weight if it is merely opinions that are not persuasively presented by reference to specific facts or absence of facts. So while my affidavit may be helpful, it is not the opinion that counts nearly as much as the credibility and persuasiveness of the affidavit or report. There is also confusion as to how and when to use forensic reports or affidavits from me. So let me put it this way.

In what I call the case analysis, we ordinarily perform vigorous investigation and analysis and then sum up what we have found in the context of what we think might be the best issues on which you could get traction in court.

Sometimes we render an opinion and conclusions based upon a forensic report done by others, which we prefer to do. We then issue a report that can be formatted into the form of an affidavit. The issue being addressed in this article is for forensic examiners, homeowners and their lawyers. An affidavit is frequently requested from me under the mistaken belief that possession of such an affidavit will be crushing blow to the lawyers seeking to enforce the mortgage or deed of trust on behalf of a party who does not ordinarily qualify as a claimant.

The simple truth is that the affidavit, no matter how strong or how great does nothing by itself. The issue is how and when the affidavit is used and under what circumstances — e.g. will the homeowner seek to have it introduced as fact or opinion. And will my testimony be used to pride adequate foundation for the affidavit to be introduced as evidence in a court proceeding.

So frequently the affidavit homeowners are seeking is “limited scope.” That code for “on the cheap.” I don’t issue reports or affidavits that I don’t think I can defend easily in court under cross examination. But even if the scope is limited to one question, to wit: in my opinion is US bank a real party in interest, as you know I have already answered that in the articles I have published, although such articles are not necessarily applicable to any one specific case. The answer was “NO.”

And you say you want that answer in affidavit form. This is where consultation with local counsel is critical. There are several different ways the affidavit can be phrased and I have some doubts as to whether the answer, in the form of an affidavit, is going to help you. If you don’t know how and when to use the affidavit it won’t do you any good.

But I concede that it might do some good inasmuch as sometimes the affidavit is accepted in court in connection with a motion for summary judgment. In all other circumstances the affidavit is not admitted into evidence unless I am retained to appear in court or at deposition in lieu of live testimony in which I give live testimony providing the foundation for the admission of the affidavit into evidence.

The admission of opinion evidence is restricted based upon the court’s acceptance of my credentials, experience, education, training etc. To date no court in any state has rejected me as an expert who could give an opinion on the securitization of residential debt.

But in all cases where my affidavit or testimony was accepted it wasn’t the opinion that was given weight, it was my report on the facts, revealing an absence of necessary elements to the claim for enforcement of the debt, note or mortgage.

Opinion evidence is not admissible without a court approval or order. If it is opposed there is a hearing on whether to allow opinion evidence and if so whether it will be allowed from me.

So an affidavit that for a lay person or their lawyer could be helpful to shore up confidence in the attorney’s presentation of the defense, but not much more. It would look something like this.

“Based upon the chain of title revealed in the forensic report and my examination of the actual documents recorded, together with my education, knowledge, my proprietary database, and my experience in the securitization of businesses and assets including debt, it is my firm opinion that US Bank never purchased the debt of the homeowner nor did US Bank ever receive ownership of the debt from any person who had paid value for the debt.

*

Third party claims of possession of the homeowner’s promissory note are attenuated in terms of credibility and lack foundation as to whether such possession by third parties would be possession by US Bank. But such claims are nevertheless taken as true for purposes of this opinion.

Based upon Article 9 §203 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) there are two deficiencies in the claim of U.S. Bank to enforce the security instrument (mortgage), to wit:

a) it does not and never has complied with the condition precedent in the UCC that it paid value and therefore has a direct financial stake in the come of a forced sale through foreclosure (i.e., the sale will not produce money proceeds that are paid to US Bank either in a representative capacity nor on its own behalf and
*
b) US Bank does not possess any claim for restitution because it has suffered no loss. Nor is US Bank expecting the receipt of any funds regardless of whether or not the homeowner makes a payment. While foreclosures have been concluded in the name used as claimant in this case, the proceeds of sale of foreclosed property has never been received or deposited by US Bank or on behalf of U.S. Bank.
*
The claim to enforce the mortgage like all civil claims must present a legal person that is possessed of a claim for restitution of a legal debt owed to the claimant based upon a duty of the opposing party owed to the claimant that was breached by the opposing party that produced real legally recognized injury to the claimant.
*
Failure to own the debt is therefore failure to present a legally recognizable claim to enforce the security instrument. Such failure is generally regarded in case decisions to be construed as a lack of jurisdiction by the trial court to consider any controversy where the real parties in interest are not present in person or by proxy.
*
In this case, neither of these conditions is met. The implied trust (and/or US bank as “trustee”), if it/they has any legal existence, has never entered into any financial transaction in which the debt was sold for value or transferred by a person who had paid value. This eliminates compliance with the UCC condition precedent to enforcement and eliminates judicial standing for US Bank to even bring a claim inasmuch as it lacks a legally recognized claim for anything against the homeowner in the case at bar.
*
The affiant concedes that there is confusion in case decisions on this subject in which possession of the original note gives rise to the presumption of a right to enforce it. While it is doubtful that US Bank ever acquired possession of the original note much less rights to enforce the note, even assuming those conditions were met, that would only raise a presumption of title to the debt and the right to enforce it. But that presumption is factually and completely rebutted by the absence of any claim, transaction or instrument indicating that on any certain day the debt was sold to US Bank.
*
In fact, my specific knowledge regarding the securitization of debt is that an investment bank (brokerage firm) funded the origination or acquisition of the debt and retained ownership of the debt for usually less than 30 days. Hence no transaction in which the debt was sold could have taken place without the participation of the investment bank who advanced the funds. No such transaction ever occurred between the investment bank and US Bank.

Hence the subject debt was never sold or entrusted to US Bank. Hence possession of the note, at most, entitles the possessor to enforce the note, albeit not as a holder in due course since no value was paid. Such enforcement would be under Article 3 of the UCC and not under Article 9 relating to enforcement of secured transactions.
*
My conclusion is that none of the parties named in connection with the claim against the homeowner have legal standing nor have any of them satisfied the condition precedent to enforcement of the mortgage through foreclosure.

In answer to the specific question posed by the homeowner’s attorney as to the status of US Bank in connection with this loan agreement, US Bank is not a real party in interest with any actual financial stake or risk of loss relating to the loan agreement nor was its purpose ever to serve as an actual trustee for a legal trustee of an actual trust that had any actual financial stake or risk of loss relating to the subject loan agreement.

Although certificates were sold in the name of the trust by the investment bank and other derivative contracts were sold based upon the value of the certificates, none of those contracts transfers any right, title or financial interest, nor any right to enforce, the subject debt, note and mortgage.

Hence any representations that US Bank is serving as authorized representative or trustee on behalf of the holders of such certificates or contracts is not relevant, since none of them have the right to enforce nor any ownership of the debt, even if they did receive the risk of loss associated with the actual debt.

So here is where local counsel comes into the picture. Depending upon how he or she wants to present your defense, is the above what they want, or do they want something more, less or different? Are you getting involved in pleading, discovery, preparation for a hearing or trial?

Because my credentials give me credibility and status, and because I would rather review forensic reports than prepare them, I am giving the free forensic law seminar on August 2 which is sold out. It is my hope that the business plans of forensic examiners will be enhanced by associations with established experts like myself in which affidavits are filed not by the examiners whose credentials nearly always in doubt but rather under the signature of someone whose credentials are not in doubt.

Filed under: burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, expert witness, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, forensic investigation, investment banking, Investor, jurisdiction, legal standing, Pleading, prima facie case, sham transactions, standing | 2 Comments »

California Decision for Borrower Post Sale in Eviction Proceeding

Posted on July 19, 2019 by Neil Garfield

BIG HAT TIP TO STEPHEN LOPEZ, ESQUIRE FOR THIS SAN DIEGO WIN!!

This is the latest of a string of decisions from trial judges who took the time to carefully analyze the law and then facts. In this case the issue was whether the Plaintiff in a lawsuit for Unlawful Detainer could be awarded Summary Judgment simply because the sale had been recorded.

This decision, following the law in all jurisdictions, says that recording the sale is interesting but not dispositive. If the actual sale was void because ti was conducted in favor of a party who was not a true beneficiary under the deed of trust, then the sale itself is void.

This judge quote approvingly from otheor case decisions words to the effect that any other decision would produce the absurd result of allowing completely disinterested parties to issue instructions to sell the property and then claim possession of homestead property.

Despite the long line of “bad results” published, this case shows that a case properly presented, properly argued and based upon sound legal reasoning has a good chance of gaining traction even after the foreclosure has been allowed to proceed. That means you need to prepare and be certain as to your facts and that you don’t ask the court to presume facts in your favor.

We don’t know how this case will be decided at trial, if there is one. In all probability this case, like thousands of others like it, will most likely be buried by settlement with the homeowner and payment to the homeowner for executing a confidentiality agreement.

For those who bother to actually read the decision it looks like I wrote it. I didn’t. My point is that what I have provided in my articles is not theory. It is fact based upon established law and the real facts of most foreclosure cases. The assignments are void.

If the Plaintiff in this Unlawful Detainer case is unable to prove at trial that it is the owner of the debt it will lose because owning the debt is the key component or element of being a beneficiary under a deed of trust and a key component or element of a valid credit bid.

See 2019.07.15 – Minute order for MSJ

=======================================

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

Key quotes from this decision:

“To establish that he is a proper plaintiff, one who has purchased property at a trustee’s sale and seeks to evict the occupant in possession must show that he acquired the property at a regularly conducted sale and thereafter “duly perfected” his title.” ((Code Civ. Proc., § 1161 a, subdiv. 3.) (Id.))[California]”

“[W]here the plaintiff in the unlawful detainer action is the purchaser at a trustee’s sale, he or she ‘need only prove a sale in compliance with the statute and deed of trust, followed by the purchase at such sale, and the defendant may raise objections only on that phase of the issue of title.”‘ (Bank of New York Mellon v. Preciado, (2013) 224 Cal. App. 4th Supp. 1, citing, Old Nat’/ Fin. Servs. V. Seibert (1987) 194 Cal.App.3d 460, 465, 239 Cal.Rptr. 728.) “The statute” with which a post-foreclosure plaintiff must prove compliance is Civ. Code, § 2924. (Bank of New York Mellon v. Preciado, supra, citing Seidell v. Anglo-California Trusts Co. (1942) 55 Cal.App.2d 913, 920, 132 P.2d 12.)

The term ‘duly’ implies that all of those elements necessary to a valid sale exist, else there would not be a sale at all.” (Bank of New York Mellon v. Preciado, supra at 9-10, citing Kessler v. Bridge (1958) 161 Cal.App.2d Supp. 837, 841, 327 P .2d 241 [internal citations omitted].) This holding by the court in Preciado makes clear that in Code Civ. Proc., § 1161a post-foreclosure trustee sale cases, a focus on the sale itself (rather than simply the recorded title documentation) is part of the analysis of determining whether the title was “duly perfected.”

subsequent buyer must also prove that the trustee sale was conducted in accordance with Civ. Code, § 2924 and that title has been duly perfected. (Stephens, Parlain & Cunningham v. Hollis, supra, at p. 242.)

[l]f the borrower defaults on the loan, only the current beneficiary may direct the trustee to undertake the nonjudicial foreclosure process. “[O]nly the ‘true owner’ or ‘beneficial holder’ of a Deed of Trust can bring to completion a nonjudicial foreclosure under California law.” (Barrioneuveo v Chase Bank, N.A. (N.D.Cal.2012) 885 F.Supp.2d 964, 972.” (Id. at pp. 927-928.) Where the nonjudicial post-foreclosure trustee sale is not property initiated, ” … a borrower may base a wrongful foreclosure claim on allegations that the foreclosing party acted without authority because the assignment by which it purportedly became beneficiary under the deed of trust was not merely voidable but void.” (Yvanonova, supra, at pp. 851-852.)

“A void contract is without legal effect. (Rest.2d Contracts,§ 7, com. A.) “It binds no one and is a mere nullity.” (Little v. CFS Service Corp. (1987) 188 Cal.App.3d 1354, 1362, 233 Cal.Rptr. 923.) “Such a contract has no existence whatever. It has no legal entity for any purpose and neither action nor inaction of a party to it can validate it …. ” (Colby v. Title Ins. And Trust Co. (1911) 160 Cal. 632, 644, 117 P. 913.) “If a purported assignment necessary to the chain by which the foreclosing entity claims that power is absolutely void, meaning of no legal force or effect whatsoever, [internal citations omitted] the foreclosing entity has acted without legal authority by pursuing a trustee’s sale, and such an unauthorized sale constitutes a wrongful foreclosure. (Yvanonova, supra, at pp. 855-856; citing Barrionuevo v. Chase Bank, N.A., at pp. 973-974.

it would be an “‘odd result indeed’ were a court to conclude a homeowner had no recourse where anyone, even a stranger to the debt, had declared a default and ordered a trustee’s sale.”

“[w]hen a non-debtholder forecloses, a homeowner is harmed because he or she has lost her home to an entity with no legal right to take it. If not for the void assignment, the incorrect entity would not have pursued a wrongful foreclosure. Therefore, the void assignment is the cause-in-fact of the homeowner’s injury and all he or she is required to allege on the element of prejudice.” (Id. at pp. 555-556.) “A contrary rule would lead to a legally untenable situation – i.e., that anyone can foreclose on a homeowner because someone has the right to foreclose. ‘And since lenders can avoid the court system entirely through nonjudicial foreclosures, there would be no court oversight whatsoever.”‘

Filed under: BURDEN OF PROOF, Eviction, evidence, foreclosure, forensic investigation, jurisdiction, legal standing, prima facie case, standing, STATUTES, Unlawful Detainer | 6 Comments »

What is Fair?

Posted on July 15, 2019 by Neil Garfield

The question should not be the bipolar question of who gets a “free house,” with the answer being the borrower or a party claiming entitlement to enforce. The question should be how to create a new equitable and legal infrastructure to clean up the mess that the banks created without unnecessarily penalizing either the investors who put up the money in the first place and the borrowers who put up their lives.

This is a question that BOTH the courts and the legislatures must face for failure to do so compounds the already compounding chaos and tragedy that befell our nation when the scheme initially collapsed in 2008.

=======================================

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

The borrower was lured into a loan contract in which she thought that the named lender had a financial interest in the outcome of the contract. The actual lender was a remote investment bank about whom she had received no disclosure and, as an average person of ordinary knowledge and means, had no access to information that would revealed the true nature of the contract.

Rather than seeking to conform to law in selling such loan products the real lender sought to avoid the law.

Rather than making money through the receipt of interest payments, the real lender intended and quickly divested itself of any interest or expectation of receiving interest or principal payments. The real lender also divested itself all of all risk of loss associated with payments. In short, the real purpose of the loan was to create multiple vehicles that could be sold as private contracts, resulting in the receipt of money that far exceeded the principal amount of the loan made to the borrower.

While ordinary residential homeowners normally rely on the premise that the loan’s purpose was to generate revenue and profit for the lender through the receipt of interest payments, her named lender would not and did not receive interest payments and had no profit except from fees paid by the remote investment bank through conduits.

Thus the actual lender entered into a loan arrangement without contract for the sole purpose of selling various attributes of the loan to as many investors as possible using as many complex financial instruments as they could conjure. The borrower had entered the arrangement believing that the named lender was the actual lender and that all compensation arising from the consummation of the loan was disclosed.

The actual lender retained no direct interest in the performance or outcome of the loan. The borrower was unaware that they had signed up for an arrangement in which the other side of the equation would create millions of dollars in “trading profits” arising from the declared existence of the loan, along with her name, reputation, signature and the collateral of her home.

Hence the goal of the lender was to create such loans regardless of quality. In fact, the lower the quality the more profit they made. And foreclosures became the vehicle by which the actual lender (investment bank) covered up the violation of federal and state lending statutes and common law doctrines of fair dealing and public policy.

Since judges thought that the proceeds of a foreclosure sale would go to the owner of the debt, and thus pay down the debt, they thought that there was little harm in granting foreclosures even if the paperwork was somewhat “dodgy.” But an increasing number of judges are questioning two main issues.

The first issue, which has been repeatedly voiced by hundreds of judges since 2008, is why there have been so many changes in the name of the servicer who supposedly was authorized to administer the loan and whether the servicer was actually administering the loan for or on behalf of an owner of the debt as required by law. Because without that its records would not be allowed in as an exception to the hearsay rule. (The claimed “servicer” would just be a company that had intervened for its own financial interest which included fees for enabling a successful foreclosure. Hence their records would not have intrinsic credibility of a third party who had no interest in the outcome of litigation).

The second issue which is being raised with increasing frequency is why it was necessary to create documents of dubious origin and authenticity? In an industry that created virtually all the paperwork required for closing loan transactions, and created the industry standards for maintenance of such documents how and why did they manage to lose or destroy the original promissory note so often? (And why was it necessary to fabricate any documents?)

And a third issue which is only now being discussed with some earnest, is whether the right to resell the loan automatically includes the the right to use the personal data of the borrower for many sales of many of the loan attributes that were not contemplated by the borrower because they were hidden from the borrower.

Europe is ahead of the U.S. in understanding that personal data is a property right. But laws in the U.S. do answer the question. Where the contract in known by only one side to have attributes that are withheld from the other side it is subject to the doctrine of implied contract (assumpsit) in which the party discovering the true nature of the contract may enforce a right to receive compensation for the attributes that were previously unknown.

There can be little doubt that nearly all loan arrangements for residential property as collateral since 1996 have all the elements of an implied contract that is far beyond the scope of the written contract. Hence there can be no doubt that the borrowers are entitled to some form of compensation or damages arising from the implied contract and/or the violation of disclosure requirements in the Truth in Lending Act and state lending laws.

The scope of this issue is a fact. In 1983 there was zero in nominal or actual value of instruments deriving their value from debt. Today there is over 1 quadrillion ($1,000,000,000,000,000) dollars in the shadow banking market. The total amount of fiat (actual) currency in the world is only 85 trillion ($85,000,000,000,000) dollars.

The meaning is clear: for every dollar ($1.00) in real transactions of fiat currency there is, on average, $11.75 in trading profits for the banks and investors who trade in that market. That means that for the average of loan of $200,000 it is almost certain that the profits generated from the origination or acquisitions that loans was on average $2,352,941. In other words, payoff on the loan was incidental to the loan transaction — not the point of the loan arrangement.

The current claim by the banks is that this enormous profit from lending is the result of separate contracts and transactions that should not be included as part of the original contract with borrowers.

The claim by borrowers, while phrased in different ways, is that somehow the borrowers should be receiving some compensation or allowance as part of the package since the base transactions from which all value was derived for further instruments or agreements was their own signature, name, reputation and home as at least apparent collateral. Borrowers consider the non disclosure of the actual intention of the actual lender to be base violations of TILA and state lending laws.

In addition, with the proceeds of foreclosure sale being distributed as revenue rather than the payoff of a loan receivable, existing law is insufficient to deal with the crisis of nonpayment by borrowers most of whom have been paying servicers who have been feeding such payments into large pools of cash from which payments are made to the holders of “certificates” who only have a right to receive payments from the investment banker who was doing business under the name of a nonexistent trust.

In some sense the holders of such certificates are the ones most likely to be considered owners of the debt. But the certificates themselves and the accompanying contracts (prospectus) clearly state that the certificates convey no right, title or interest in the borrower’s debt, note or mortgage.

There is no right of investors to enforce the certificates against borrowers and the certificates are not “mortgage backed” despite claims to the contrary. This has already been decided in several tax cases. Their exemption from securities regulation is therefore unfounded.

This has resulted in various parties posing as authorized enforcers of the debt and the security instrument ( mortgage or deed of trust). Regardless of their claimed title or status, all such entities share one controlling characteristic: they all initially or eventually claim to be acting in a representative capacity even when they present themselves as the “holder” of the note or any other claim to rights to enforce the note or mortgage.

The evolution of such claims lends some perspective. Initially foreclosures were brought in the name of “servicers” and when challenged the servicing claims were then accompanied by an denial of securitization or the existence of any trust that owned the debt, note or mortgage. As it turned out the lawyers for such entities were telling the truth — there was no such trust nor would it have been the owner of the debt, note or mortgage even it had existed.

In addition foreclosures were brought in the name of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS).

Neither the servicers nor MERS ever could assert or allege that they had any right, title or interest in debt, note or mortgage. In the case of MERS it could not even alleged possession of the note or mortgage and had handled no money whatsoever in relation to any loan.

And in all cases the proceeds of foreclosure sales permitted by the courts were distributed as revenue to several participant claiming authority to act, including the lawyers, servicers, master servicers, and the investment bank. In no case were such proceeds distributed to the owners of certificates issued in the name of a “trust.” Several forensic analysts tracked the “credit bids” and quickly discovered that those bids were not submitted by a creditor.

The existence of the actual debt from the borrower has been converted from actual to theoretical; this explains the lack of any identified party who is the owner of the debt. This is not a problem created by borrowers who knew nothing of this scheme nor do they now understand it.

This all results in the posing of three issues that need to be addressed head on if this crisis is to end.

The first which everyone has voiced since the beginning of the crisis is whether the homeowner should get a “free house” merely because the paperwork is now out of order.
The second is whether the current parties receiving revenue from the sale of foreclosed homes should be allowed to receive a “free house.”
The third is whether the borrowers have always been entitled to receive compensation for the larger implied contract in which compensation and revenue was generated from the origination or acquisition of their loan.

Since this is a pervasive issue occurring through tens of millions of loan contracts, the best possible vehicle for addressing a remedy is through government action that goes far beyond the nominal settlements that have been announced thus far.

All stakeholders should be given a voice at this table. Any approach that is punitive only to one particular class of stakeholders should be rejected. Laws need to be changed to reflect the modernization of financial instruments, only after consideration of the effects of such changes. Any law that simply makes it easier to foreclose or to merely cover up the title and legal errors that have been occurring for 20 years should also be rejected.

If we are to make sense out of this chaos that was in fact conjured and created by investment banks, then we need changes in our property laws, contract laws, securities laws, lending laws, laws of civil procedure and due process, and laws of evidence. If the banks have put themselves in a position where they cannot foreclose on mortgages, that should not be the end of the inquiry.

The question should not be the bipolar question of who gets a “free house,” with the answer being the borrower or a party claiming entitlement to enforce. The question should be how to create a new equitable and legal infrastructure to clean up the mess that the banks created without unnecessarily penalizing either the investors who put up the money in the first place and the borrowers who put up their lives.

Filed under: boarding process, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, evidence, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure mill, forgery, Investor, securities fraud, Servicer, sham transactions, STATUTES, TILA | 7 Comments »

How do I Use Article 9 §203 UCC Requiring Value Be Paid for Debt?

Posted on July 11, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Many of you have essentially asked the same question referring to Article 9 §203 UCC as adopted by the laws of your state. There is no known cause of action for breach of that statute although one might be conjured. It is an interesting suggestion.

My reference to it is simple: the statute says that a condition precedent to enforcement of the security instrument (mortgage or deed of trust) is that the party seeking to enforce must have paid value for the security instrument. Translating that, it automatically means that if someone paid for it then they paid for the debt. BUT all law in all states says that if the “seller” or transferor does not own the debt then the transfer of the mortgage is a nullity.

A condition precedent means you can’t do one thing without first doing the other. We are a nation of laws and personal bias about this is irrelevant.

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

What many lawyers continue to miss is that there is a difference between the laws entitling someone to enforce a note and the laws entitling someone to enforce a mortgage. There are different public policies behind each one. For Notes, the public policy is to encourage the free flow of negotiable instruments in the marketplace. For mortgages, the public policy is to make sure that the civil equivalent of the death penalty (loss of home) is not imposed by someone who actually has no interest in the debt.

It is an added protection. As a condition precedent it means that standing to enforce the note is different from standing to enforce the mortgage. It is both factual and jurisdictional.

The grey area occurs because many states adopt the doctrine that if someone has the right to enforce the note they automatically have the right to enforce the mortgage. Although that seems to contradict the Article 9 §203 provision it actually doesn’t. That is because possession of the note by a person who is entitled to enforce it raises the legal presumption that the value was paid by the person on whose behalf the note and mortgage are enforced.

This is a fuzzy area of the law. But boiled down to its simplest components, it means that possession of the note is deemed (presumed) to be possession of legal title to the debt which, as we know from Article 9 §203 can only be true if the person has value invested in the deal.

The point of that policy is that if the forced sale of the house is not going to produce proceeds that will be used to pay down the debt, then the foreclosure should not occur. If the person on whose behalf the foreclosure is brought is not the owner of the actual debt then without evidence from the lawyers representing the party named as Plaintiff or Beneficiary, there is no evidence that the proceeds will go towards paying down the debt and the court is required, with no discretion, to enter judgment for the homeowner.

So the question comes down to whether the party claiming both possession and entitlement to enforce the note is the owner of the debt. The answer is yes if the homeowner does nothing. This presumption can be rebutted. A simple question as to whether the value was paid and if so, how many times, and demanding the dates and parties involved, would clear up the question if the banks had a factual answer. They don’t. They present a legal argument instead. As virtually all lawyers know, their job is to win however they can do it. So if they can’t dazzle the court with facts they can baffle the courts with bullshit.

Carefully educating the judge who most probably slept through the UCC classes in law school is key to winning on this basis but it has been done many times. All jurisdictions have case decisions that reflect what I have described above. You must find those decisions and present them as part of your pleadings, memoranda and argument in court.

Filed under: appeals, burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CASES, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, forensic investigation, legal standing, Mortgage, Pleading, standing, Trail Objections | 14 Comments »

Payment History as Exception to Hearsay Rule

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Neil Garfield

A recent decision from the 1st Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals applying FRE 803(6) states the current law — whether you like it or not. Pretending these decisions don’t exist or trying to avoid them is both pointless and highly likely to undermine your credibility in any other narrative or argument. Note that SCOTUS Justice Souter not only sat in on this review but wrote the opinion.

Simply stated the transaction history will be admitted into evidence every time — UNLESS the borrower disputes their content and demands a hearing on truthfulness of the foundation testimony in which the magic words are spoken, as set forth in the Federal Rule and virtually all state court rules.

That means that unless you have done the right research, the right investigation and the right discovery you will have no admissible evidence with which to dispel the notion that the transaction history is anything more than an independent reliable summary of events that is admissible as proof of the truth of the transactions that occurred, and which did not occur with respect to the borrower.

see 18-1719P-01A U.S. Bank Trust v Jones, No. 18-1719

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

The lawyers for the servicer are pretending to be the lawyers for US Bank who knows nothing about the foreclosure and doesn’t care as long as it receives its monthly check in exchange for the license it granted for use of its name to make it seem like this is an institutional foreclosure.

Those lawyers are going to throw this case at you when you challenge the payment history on grounds of hearsay or foundation. Tactically that is what you want them to do because then you can quote from the same case as follows:

the business records of loan servicers may not always carry the requisite indicia of reliability. See, e.g., Brief for National Consumer Law Center and Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization as Amici Curiae 12-18. It therefore bears repeating: the admission of integrated business records in this context must turn, as it does here, on the particular facts of each case.

So if you have been reading or listening to my work then you know that I have been saying categorically that if you are able to persuade the judge that your case stands alone or is unique in some respect and NOT try to make blanket accusations about industry practices in general as the focus of your claim, then you are much more likely to obtain a favorable result.

Souter emphasizes that this is a case by case decision and admits that servicer records might be neither truthful nor trustworthy. But that is not enough to bar them from evidence. Your defense can’t be equal to “we don’t dispute what is in those records but we dispute whether those records qualify as an exemption.” You have just slammed the door in your own face.

If you are admitting even tacitly that the debt exists, that you have not paid it, and that there is a loss attributable to your failure to make a payment, you have lost the case. If you admit that the record is accurate, even tacitly by not contesting anything within it, that record is coming into evidence.

The Judge will always find a way. And to be perfectly fair, the judge should find a way to make justice happen. If you owe the money and the party claiming the money or the foreclosure does so in an effort to pay down the actual debt, they should win and you should lose.

There is no law that says that technical deficiencies should preclude an otherwise valid claim. Sounds like I am arguing for the bank, right?

The rejoinder is that through research and discovery and investigation you have uncovered the following documents from the public records, from the claimant’s records and from regulatory authorities and the following witnesses. They will show that the homeowner disputes the content of those records and has consistently done so since discovering erroneous information on them, and that the transaction history is at best unreliable and at worst a pure fabrication, just as this same servicer has done in these cases……

The legal argument is not that the records are permanently barred or that the truth of the matters asserted are permanently barred. It is that the opposing lawyers must produce a witness who can be cross examined and who can reconcile the factual issues that the homeowner has challenged.

The opposing lawyers will then stipulate for purposes of “judicial economy” that they no longer seek to recover based upon the contested transactions, and that they will reduce their demand accordingly. That looks like you are cooked.

But the rejoinder would be that while the homeowner accepts the admission that the records are incorrect (you ARE allowed to recharacterize the statement of opposing counsel) these erroneous statements were made before the notice letters were sent, which were a legal condition precedent to the pursuit of foreclosure. You argue that they have now failed to comply with statutes that are to be strictly construed where someone is threatened with the loss of their home. Both the amount stated as due and the amount required to reinstate were incorrect.

The whole scenario comes down to the fact that you must use facts to persuade the judge that the opposing attorney must prove his case instead of relying upon legal presumptions and exceptions to the hearsay rule. You must push hard on this because you know they cannot prove the facts, they cannot prove authority, they cannot prove ownership because they are all only doing this for fees, not for recovery on the debt. The lawyers have no knowledge as to the identity of the creditor and they don’t care. You don’t need to prove that. But you do need to raise it as a question mark in the head of the judge.

Those transaction histories might have some accurate information in them but they are being produced by a party who has an actual interest in the outcome of litigation, so they are not trustworthy and they contain errors that the servicing company now admits, although candidly there is a real question as to whether the servicing company is not simply a volunteer out for profit, the same as the lawyer and US Bank.

Also remember to attack foundation this way: US Bank or a trust is asserted to be the claimant. Unless someone can provide foundation testimony based upon personal knowledge that these records are the records of the claimant, then the records of the “servicer” may be barred. No representative of US Bank comes to trial. It is always a representative of a servicer.

In discovery the absence of records showing disbursements to creditors by the “servicer” might be sufficient to establish that the transaction history is not the whole story even if it is right and they should not be allowed to enter only one part of the transaction record supposedly conducted in the name of the Trustee or Trust. To whom were they forwarding the borrower’s payments? When did they stop? Did they stop because the debt is now owned by someone else or because it was enver owned by the trustee or the trust?

Filed under: boarding process, burden of persuasion, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, expert witness, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, Motions, prima facie case, Servicer, sham transactions | 5 Comments »

McDonough v Smith: High Court Open Door on Fabrication of Evidence

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Neil Garfield

This decision is extremely important for 2 reasons.

1st, it reaffirms a right under federal law to bring an action for damages for fabrication of evidence.

2nd, and equally important, it establishes that the time to bring such a claim does not start until the conclusion of litigation, whether successful or unsuccessful.

see Article on McDonough v Smith McDonough v. Smith, No. 18-485 (U.S. Jun. 20, 2019)

See U.S. Supreme Court mcdonough-v-smith-5

see 42 U.S.C. § 1983

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable.

I am uncertain at the time of writing this as to whether or not any attorney has thought to bring an action for damages based upon this statute. but it certainly seems applicable to foreclosure actions in which assignments, endorsements, notices, correspondence, and even deeds are fabricated for the purposes of obtaining a judgment in court.

[Additional Comments: after analyzing the cases, it would appear that this federal statute provides the basis for a cause of action for money damages and injunction.

However, close analysis of the cases involved strongly indicates that a homeowner will be able to use this statute only if he prevails in the prior foreclosure action.

While many attorneys are bringing wrongful foreclosure claims, and claims based upon fraud, this federal statute is probably an important addition for 2 reasons: (1) the statute of limitations does not begin to run until the case and foreclosure is over and is probably tolled by active concealment; (2) it appears as though the burden of proof might be a mere preponderance of the evidence that fabricated instruments and fabricated testimony were used in the pursuit of a wrongful foreclosure.]

If I am right about the SOL, that eliminates a primary defense of the potential defendants. If I am right about the burden of proof, it makes it far easier to prove a case against the defendants than using a cause of action for fraud.

This statute could be used in conjunction with virtually all foreclosure defenses and which claims of securitization are made and documents are fabricated, robo-signed and forged.

At this point, as any foreclosure Defense Attorney and most pro se litigants can tell you, virtually all foreclosures are based upon some chain of title that includes various alleged transfers or apparent transfers of the subject debt, note or mortgage.

Nearly all such alleged transfers do not exist except for the paper on which a reference is made to an assignment, endorsement, power of attorney or some other document that may or may not exist, and in all probability has been fabricated, backdated, forged and/or robosigned. all such documents are only valid if they refer to an actual event in real life. In connection with loans, the only relevant events are transfers of money. And in real life, in nearly all cases, no transfer of money ever occurred in connection with the execution of documents that were fabricated for the sole purpose of obtaining a foreclosure sale.

if I am correct in my interpretation, the statute could be used to include multiple defendants that might otherwise escape liability for actions alleged in a complaint for damages related to the fabrication of evidence and the use of fabricated evidence in furtherance of the scheme to obtain a wrongful foreclosure.

Filed under: burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, forensic investigation, forgery, Pleading, Servicer, sham transactions, standing, Unlawful Detainer | Tagged: McDonough v. Smith | 17 Comments »

Illinois Court of Appeals Cracks Code of Silence on Who Pays Foreclosure Mills

Posted on June 18, 2019 by Neil Garfield

The wording of the decision strongly suggests that whether the claimant is US Bank, Deutsch or BONY Mellon et al, the third party who is actually paying the lawyer must be disclosed — at least if the homeowner asks.

Given the nature of the role that the alleged Trustee plays — i.e., none except to give the appearance of institutional involvement — this decision opens the door not only to disclosure but to possibly answering the question of who is pretending to be the creditor.

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

Hat tip Gregg DaGoose

Note that I endorse the reasoning here. The case should not used as authority as precedent except in the 1st District of Illinois. And of course the decision might further appealed.

see https://jnswire.s3.amazonaws.com/jns-media/32/15/1386226/Margules_v_Beckstedt_appeal.pdf

We conclude that neither attorney-client privilege nor the Rules of Professional Conduct shield the identity of Steck’s third-party client, so affirm the judgment of the trial court and remand for further proceedings.

Relevant here, the citation requested “[a]ll documents evidencing any payments received by [Steck] or any others employed by [him] with respect to any representation of John Beckstedt [or When 2 Trade Group LLC] or by any other individual or entity acting on [their] behalf.” In addition, the citation requested “[a]ll documents evidencing any retainer received or held by No. 1-19-0012 – 3 – [Steck] or any others employed by or in partnership with [him] with respect to any representation of John Beckstedt [or When 2 Trade Group LLC] whether paid by [them] or by any other individual or entity acting on [their] behalf.” Steck, while noting and reserving some objections, denied having been paid by the debtors or anyone purporting to act on their behalf.

Steck responded that he had “no invoices, evidence of payment or other like records” because he had never billed or issued statements to Beckstedt or When 2 Trade. It was in this series of e-mails that Steck first asserted that “any information [he] ha[d] about [his] clients other than When 2 Trade and Beckstedt is privileged, including their identity.” [e.s.]

Attorney-client privilege “must be strictly confined within its narrowest possible limits.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) People v. Radojcic, 2013 IL 114197, ¶ 41. Generally, the privilege does not protect a client’s identity. Cesena, 201 Ill. App. 3d at 104-05 (citing People v. Williams, 97 Ill. 2d 252, 295 (1983)). Two exceptions have been recognized: (i) where “the client will be prejudiced in ‘some substantial way’ if his identity were disclosed” (id. at 105 (quoting Williams, 97 Ill. 2d at 295)) and (ii) where protection would be in the public interest (id. (citing Shatkin, 128 Ill. App. 3d at 525); see also People v. Doe, 55 Ill. App. 3d 811, 815 (1977) (collecting cases)). The party asserting the privilege bears the burden of establishing that it applies. Shatkin, 128 Ill. App. 3d at 525.

plaintiffs cannot even attempt to put forward “some evidence” until they know the identity of the third party. Steck’s assertion of privilege as to his client’s identity has cut off the litigation before questions about plaintiffs’ evidentiary basis No. 1-19-0012 – 10 – could even be asked. Steck inserted the issue of attorney-client privilege into this case, and as the proponent of the privilege, he must show its application. [e.s.]

In Shatkin, the court recognized that a client’s identity is not protected by attorney-client privilege because “disclosure of the identity of an attorney’s client provides proof of the existence of the relationship, provides the opposing party with proof that his [or her] opponent is not solely a nominal party, and provides proof to the court that the client whose secret is treasured is actual flesh and blood.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Shatkin, 128 Ill. App. 3d at 525; see also Doe, 55 Ill. App. 3d at 814.

It follows then that requests could be made in discovery.

The first is whether the named claimant (e.g. US bank) has any retainer agreement with the foreclosure mill. This is relevant to the issue of an award of fees in judicial foreclosure proceedings.

The second is “all documents evidencing any payments received by [foreclosure law firm] or any others employed by it with respect to any representation of [e.g. US Bank, BONY Mellon, Deutsch] or [e.g. Ocwen, SPS] or by any other individual or entity acting on [their] behalf.” In addition, the request for production should probably include “all documents evidencing any retainer received or held by [foreclosure law firm] or any others employed by or in partnership with it with respect to any representation of [e.g. US Bank, BONY Mellon Deutsch] whether paid by [them] or by any other individual or entity acting on their behalf.”

The third is possibly a subpoena making the same demand for discovery made to the alleged servicer and its predecessors. This is relevant to the issue of whether the named claimant is in fact the real party in interest or, as set forth in the defense narrative, is acting as a sham conduit or front for third party actors.

Filed under: burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, legal standing, Pleading, Servicer, sham transactions | 5 Comments »

No the Mortgages Are Not Securities, But the “Certificates” Do Not Qualify for Exemption As “Mortgaged Backed”

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Neil Garfield

For those straining to find a way to categorize mortgage loans as securities I offer this based upon my licensing, training and experience as a Wall Street Broker and Investment Banker and as an attorney who has practiced law, including securities law for over 42 years.

You are climbing the right tree but you are on the wrong branch, in my opinion. Despite possible legal and logical arguments for your point of view there is no way any court is going to take the common mortgage loan and say it is a security, and therefore was subject to regulation, registration, disclosure and sales restrictions. And the secondary market does not rise to the level of a free exchange. While loans appear to be traded under the guise of securitization they are not actually traded.

BUT

I like your reasoning when applied to (a) certificates issued by investment banks in which the investment bank makes promises to pay a passive income stream and (b) derivative and hedge contracts issued on the basis of deriving their value from the certificates.

*

The specific challenge I think should be on the status of the certificates or “bonds” issued by the investment banks. If securitization in theory were a reality then under the 1998 exemption they would not be treated as securities and could not be regulated.

*

That would mean that the fictitious name used by the investment bank was a real entity, an existing Trust (or special purpose vehicle) (a) organized and existing under the laws of some jurisdiction and (b) the trust actually acquired loans through (i) purchase for value or (ii) through conveyance from a trustor/settlor who owned the loans, debts, notes and mortgages.

*

But that isn’t what happened in practice. The entire business plan of the investment banks who participated in this scheme was predicated on their ability to sell the loans multiple times in multiple ways to multiple layers and classes of investors, thus creating profits far in excess of the amount of the loan.

*

Right now each of those sales is considered a separate private contract that is (a) separate and apart from the loan agreement and (b) not subject to securities regulation due to exemption under the 1998 law that does not allow securities regulation of mortgage-backed instruments.

*

So the goal should be to show that

*

(a) the securitization scheme was entirely based on the loan agreement under the single transaction and step transaction doctrines and therefore was not separate from the loan transactions

*

(b) the certificates or bonds were not mortgage-backed because the holders have no right, title or interest to the loan agreements, debts, notes or mortgages and

*

(c) the derivative and hedge contracts deriving their value from the certificates were securities based upon the certificates (“bonds”) that are more in the nature of warrants and options on the value of the certificates rather than any direct interest in the debt, note or mortgage of any borrower.

*

Hence both the certificates and hedge contracts and all other derivatives of the certificates would be subject to regulation as securities. Based upon information I have that is very suggestive although not conclusive, it appears that the Internal Revenue Service has already arrived at the conclusion that the certificates are not mortgage-backed and the trusts are not viable entities because in order to have a valid trust it must have assets and active affairs. It must also have identifiable beneficiaries, a trustor etc.

*

None of those elements are present or even alleged or asserted by the lawyers for the foreclosure mills. The only “beneficiary” is the investment bank, not the certificate holders who all expressly or impliedly disclaim any right, title or interest in the loans, debts, notes or mortgages and have no right to enforce. This has already been decided in tax court. The owners of certificates are not the holders of secured debt.

*

There is no “res” or “thing” that is entrusted to the named Trustee of the so-called REMIC Trust for the benefit of identifiable beneficiaries. There is no settlor who conveyed loans to the Trustee to hold in trust for identifiable beneficiary except that as a catch-all the investment bank is named as beneficiary of any title to anything that might be attributed to the trust, if only the trust existed.

*

Attacking this from the top down is the job of regulators who refuse to do so. But the attack can occur from the bottom up in courts. As shown above, in any case where a trust is referenced in a foreclosure there is no legal standing. That is there is no existing entity that owns the debt. The investment bank funded the origination or acquisition of the loan but contemporaneously sold off the value of the debt, the risk of loss, the cash flow and other attributes of the loan.

*

The notes had to be destroyed and a new culture based upon images had to be put in place even if it violated law. The problem with the courts is not that they don;t get it; I think a lot of judges get it but don’t like the outcome of applying the law as it currently exists. So they wink and nod at fabricated notes, assignments and endorsements.

But those same judges, when confronted with unexplained deficiencies are forced to rule in favor of borrowers. And they do. This would best be done in mass joinder, class action or some other vehicle where resources could be pooled, but the procedural deck is stacked against such efforts.

===============================

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

Filed under: boarding process, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, expert witness, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, forensic investigation, forgery, investment banking, Investor, jurisdiction, legal standing, politics, prima facie case, securities fraud, Servicer, sham transactions, standing, TILA rescission, TRUST BENEFICIARIES | 8 Comments »

How to argue the “allonge”

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Neil Garfield

An Allonge is defined as follows:

Allonge. Additional paper firmly attached to Commercial Paper, such as a promissory note, to provide room to write endorsements. An allonge is necessary when there is insufficient space on the document itself for the endorsements.

So the elements for a prima facie case involving proof of an allonge are as follows:

It’s on a paper that is separate from the instrument (promissory note) itself.
It contains endorsements (technically spelled “indorsements”). The endorsement conveys an interest in the note from the current owner to a new owner. It might contain restrictive covenants as to whether it is conveyed with or without recourse.
A condition precedent seems to be that there be insufficient space on the original instrument (note). This has not gained clarity in litigation. The presentation of an “allonge” contained a simple small stamped endorsement when there was room to place it directly on the note is indicative of foul play. At the very least it requires an explanation of why the endorsement wasn’t placed on the original.
It must be so firmly and permanently affixed to the note that it is actually part of the original instrument. In normal transactions involving commercial paper this requirement is strictly construed. In securitized residential loans this has not been strictly construed and applied. It is important to note that this requirement is meant to prevent the very thing that has been occurring for the past 20 years — unauthorized trading in debts that are neither owned by the buyer or the seller.

An allonge can contain an endorsement to nobody, in which case it became “bearer paper.” Whoever has it in their possession is the owner of the note. But we have seen in securitization that being the owner of the note and being the owner of the debt are not the same thing.

Notwithstanding the difference, the note can often be enforced without evidence of ownership of the debt because of legal presumptions arising from possession of the note.

However, the fact that a party is entitled to judgment on a note does not mean they are entitled to enforce the mortgage or deed of trust which does require ownership of the debt as explicitly and expressly required by statutes in all US jurisdictions who have adopted verbatim the requirements of the Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 §203 which requires payment of value as a condition precedent to enforcement of the encumbrance (mortgage or deed of trust).

It is custom and practice of the “industry” involved in foreclosures to use fabricated allonges that are not attached and never were attached to the original note. Such allonges are often executed by either a stamped endorsement or the signature of an “authorized signer.” In many if not most cases the authorized signer turns out to have been the real estate or mortgage broker on the loan at the time of origination. As such their “authorization” can be challenged.

Upon investigation, discovery and analysis it usually turns out that neither the endorser nor the endorsee had ever paid value for an interest in the debt or the note. This revelation is useful in defeating presumptions arising from possession of the note. This revelation thus raises questions that may be sufficient to rebut legal presumptions that the court might otherwise employ in deciding the case.

In fact, it could be used to defeat the presumption that the note is now evidence of the debt or that the merger doctrine, designed to prevent dual liability, even applies. This leaves the note as a separate claim for liability — separate, that is, from the debt itself. If the mortgage or deed of trust states that it secures the note that could mean that the mortgage is void or has become void. However if the security instrument ( mortgage or deed of trust) refers to the debt, then the security instrument would not be void unless the debt never occurred — i.e., there was no loan.

You should refrain from making any decisions or taking any actions based upon “interpretations” or “advice” from the internet even if it from a knowledgeable licensed attorney like myself. You should get assistance from a professional who analyzes your specific situation to determine whether you can get traction in raising defenses or claims related to these issues.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TERA

CLICK HERE TO ORDER CONSULT (30 minutes, not necessary if PDR is ordered)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER CASE ANALYSIS

CLICK HERE TO ORDER PRELIMINARY DOCUMENT REVIEW (PDR, including Consult)

Filed under: BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, expert witness, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, forgery, legal standing, Pleading, prima facie case, Servicer, sham transactions | 3 Comments »

My Final Word On Quiet Title Strategies

Posted on May 28, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Most people do not have a clear understanding about Quiet Title, because it means one thing to them and another thing in court. The common misconception about quiet title is that it is a thing that just happens, like the result of a magic bullet. In fact quiet title is a court process that begins with a lawsuit by the homeowner and ends with a court order declaring that the mortgage or deed of trust should be removed from the chain of title.

The most typical use of quiet title claims is clearing the chain of title of recorded documents that mistakenly or fraudulently describe the wrong property. The use of quiet title against a mortgage or deed of trust does not generally get traction in a court of law.

But the more recent strategy of attacking the assignment of mortgage and seeking nullification of that instrument has met with some success and it should succeed, because you are attacking the facial and substantive validity of that specific instrument and not the entire mortgage or deed of trust. That strategy merely attacks the technical requirements for creation and recording of an an instrument affecting title to real property and attacking the substantive validity of the assignment by revealing that the debt was not transferred to the assignee by a party who owned the debt.

The current fad of proving unenforceability of the indebtedness does not provide the foundation for quiet title unless you can prove that that (a) the indebtedness never existed or (b) the debt has been satisfied. It is entirely possible for a court of law to determine that the mortgage or deed of trust cannot be enforced by the parties who initiated foreclosure. But that does not mean that the mortgage or deed of trust is a nullity. So winning the case on the debt against a particular party who sought to enforce it does not automatically mean that you proved a prima facie case that the debt was never or is not now subject to enforcement by anyone.

The elements for quiet title are fairly simple. The lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment finding, as a matter of fact and law, that the encumbrance is a nullity, which means that legally the encumbrance does not exist — not that it should not exist. In plain language that means that a judge finds that the mortgage or deed of trust does not secure any indebtedness owed by the owner of the property to the mortgagee on a mortgage or the beneficiary on a deed of trust.

The “mortgagee” or “beneficiary” includes legal successors to the named mortgagee on the mortgage or the named beneficiary (lender) on the deed of trust. Successfully attacking the assignment means that you have negated the assignment which returns the title to the mortgage to the previous party who might be the the original mortgagee or beneficiary or lender.

Where MERS has been used as a buffer in the title chain legal practitioners should be aware that the MERS relationship to the original “lender” is tenuous at best and most probably nonexistent to pretenders who claim to be successors — because most loans were table funded without any legal or equitable relationship between MERS and the investment bank that funded the origination or acquisition of the loan. Since no transfer of beneficial interest or interest of a mortgagee legally exists without transfer of the debt, it is nearly impossible for anyone to show an assignment with a legal transfer of the debt from an owner of that debt.

The only way the pretender lenders can succeed is by wearing down the homeowner who must be willing to expend considerable time, money and energy defending his property. They can do this by using legal arguments that come from legal presumptions a rising from the apparent facial validity of self serving documents they have fabricated, forged or robosigned to create the illusion of a legal chain of title.

Securitization has opened many doors to homeowners who persistently and effectively challenge the parties who initiate foreclosures. It is now almost always true that the party who initiates a foreclosure is not the actual owner of the debt nor does that party represent a legal entity that owns the debt. Transfer of a mortgage without the debt has been stated by courts throughout the 50 states to be a “nullity,” which means that the transfer never legally occurred despite the writing on a face of a document purporting to be an assignment of mortgage.

The word, “nullity” is what you are after and it probably only applies to the assignment. It probably will never be applied, despite arguments to the contrary, to the actual encumbrance except after a period of years after the attempts to foreclose have failed multiple times, it is evident that the the debt will never be enforced or is otherwise barred by the doctrine of latches or the statute of limitations.

Thus strategically it is important to start off with an analysis of legal title performed by a title analyst who has education and training to do it. That normally means an attorney but it could mean a person who writes title policies or who assesses title risk for title insurance companies. After the analysis, then you need someone who can suggest strategies and tactics that can be reviewed and implemented by local counsel or pro se with the guidance of local counsel using hybrid legal services.

We provide the title analysis if you don’t already have it based upon a current title search, including copies of the recorded documents, and we provide a 30 minute recorded CONSULT based upon a review of both the title analysis and unrecorded documents such as notices, correspondence or statements from some party purporting to be the “servicer.”

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TERA

CLICK HERE TO ORDER CONSULT(30 minutes, not necessary if PDR is ordered)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER CASE ANALYSIS

CLICK HERE TO ORDER PRELIMINARY DOCUMENT REVIEW (PDR, including Consult)

Nothing contained in this email or anywhere on this blog should be considered legal advice upon which you can rely. Get a lawyer.

Filed under: burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, evidence, expert witness, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, forensic investigation, forgery, legal standing, Pleading, prima facie case, sham transactions | Tagged: assignments, CONSULT, declaratory action, document review, forensic loan analysis, hybrid legal services, MERS, quiet title, title analysis | 4 Comments »

SCOTUS Revives Qui Tam Actions

Posted on May 22, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Until this decision I had assumed that Qui Tam actions were essentially dead in relation to the mortgage meltdown. Now I don’t think so.

The question presented is whether actions brought by a private person acting as a relator on behalf of a government entity can bring claims for damages under the False Claims Act. Such actions are barred by the statute of limitations, which requires a violation to be brought within six years of the violation or three years “after the date when facts material to the right of action are known or reasonably should have been known by the official of the United States charged with responsibility to act in the circumstances.”^[3]

In a unanimous decision the Court held that the tolling period applies to private relator actions. This does not by any stretch of the imagination create a slam dunk. Relators must have special knowledge of the false claim and the damage caused to the government. It will still be necessary to argue in an uphill battle that the true facts of the securitization scheme are only now unfolding as more evidence appears that the parties claiming foreclosure are neither seeking nor receiving the benefit of sale proceeds on foreclosed property.

Some claims might relate back to the origination of mortgages and some relate to the trading of paper creating the illusion of ownership of loans. Still others may relate to the effect on local and State government (as long as the Federal government was involved in covering their expenses) in the bailout presumably for losses incurred as a result of default on mortgage loans in which there was no loss to the party who received the bailout, nor did such bailout proceeds ever find the investors who actually funded the origination or acquisition of loans.

And remember that a relator needs to prove special knowledge that is arguably unique. The statute was meant to cover whistleblowers from within an agency or commercial enterprise but is broader than that. The courts tend to restrict the use of Qui Tam actions when brought by a relator who is not an “insider.”

See https://www.natlawreview.com/article/supreme-court-recognizes-longer-statute-limitations-qui-tam-plaintiffs-false-claims

See Review of False Claims Act 18-315_1b8e

See Cochise Consultancy, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Hunt

I also find some relevance in the decision penned by J. Thomas writing for the court as it applies to TILA Rescission, FDCPA claims, RESPA claims and other claims based upon statute:

Because a single use of a statutory phrase generally must have a fixed meaning, see Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U. S. 135, 143, interpretations that would “attribute different meanings to the same phrase” should be avoided, Reno v. Bossier Parish School Bd., 528 U. S. 320, 329. Here, the clear text of the statute controls. Cochise’s reliance on Graham County Soil & Water Conservation Dist. v. United States ex rel. Wilson, 545 U. S. 409, is misplaced. Nothing in Graham County supports giving the phrase “civil action under section 3730” in §3731(b) two different meanings depending on whether the Government intervenes. While the Graham County Court sought “a construction that avoids . . . counterintuitive results,” there the text “admit of two plausible interpretations.” Id., at 421, 419, n. 2. Here, Cochise points to no other plausible interpretation of the text, so the “ ‘judicial inquiry is complete.’ ” Barnhart v. Sigmon Coal Co., 534 U. S. 438, 462. Pp. 4–8. (e.s.)

Point of reference:

I still believe that local governments are using up their time or might be time barred on a legitimate claim that was never pursued — that the trading of loans and certificates were transactions relating to property interests within the State or County and that income or revenue was due to the government and was never paid. A levy of the amount due followed by a lien and then followed by a foreclosure on the mortgages would likely result in either revenue to the government or government ownership of the mortgages which could be subject to negotiations with the homeowners wherein the principal balance is vastly reduced and the government receives all of the revenue to which it is entitled. This produces both a fiscal stimulus to the State economy and much needed revenue to the state at a cost of virtually zero.

In Arizona, where this strategy was first explored it was determined by state finance officials in coordination with the relevant chairpersons of select committees in the State House and Senate and the governor’s office that the entire state deficit of $3 Billion could have been covered. Intervention by political figures who answered to the banks intervened and thus prevented the deployment of this strategy.

I alone developed the idea and introduced it a the request of the then chairman of the House Judiciary committee. We worked hard on it for 6 months. Intervention by political figures who answered to the banks intervened and thus prevented the deployment of this strategy. It still might work.

The Big Hoax: Are “Sales” of “Loans” and “Servicing” Real?

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Neil Garfield

References to sales of loans and servicing rights are usually merely false assertions to distract homeowners and lawyers from looking at what is really happened. By accepting the premise that the loan was sold you are accepting that the loan was (a) real and (b) owned by the party who was designated to appear as a “Seller.”

By accepting the premise that the servicing data and documents were transferred you are accepting that the transferor had the correct data and documents and that the designated servicer is actually in position to represent the accounting records of the party whose name was used to initiate the foreclosure.

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 202-838-6345. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 202-838-6345 or 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

As Reynaldo Reyes of Deutsche Bank said in deposition and in recorded interviews, the entire structure and actual events are “counterintuitive.” The banks count on that for good reason. Most lawyers and almost all homeowners assume that at least some of what the banks are saying is true. In fact, nearly everything they say, write or produce as “business records” is a fabrication. But homeowners, lawyers and judges buy it as though it was solid gold.

In defending homeowners from foreclosure, lawyers who win more cases than they lose do so because of their willingness to believe that the entire thing is a hoax. Their withering cross examination and use of discovery reveals the complete absence of any corroborating evidence that would be admissible in court.

Even the most “biased” judges will concede that the case for foreclosure has not been made and they rule for the homeowner. But this only happens if the lawyer takes the opposition to task.

Chase did not acquire loans from WAMU and WAMU did not acquire loans from Long Beach etc. At the time of the claimed “acquisition” those loans were long gone, having been funded or purchased by one of the big 4 investment banks, directly or indirectly (through intermediate investment banks or simple cham conduit fictitious names or entities). In fact the ONLY time that the actual debt was clearly owned by anyone was, at best, a 30 day period during which the investment bank had the debt on its balance sheet as an asset.

So all sales from any seller other than one of the investment banks is a ruse. And there are no references to sales by the investment banks because that would be admitting and accepting potential liability for lending and servicing violations. It would also lead to revelations about how many times and in how many pieces the debt was effectively sold to how many investors who were NOT limited to those who had advanced money to the investment bank for shares in a nonexistent trust that never owned anything and never transacted any business.

Similarly the boarding process is a hoax. There is generally no actual transfer of servicing even with the largest “servicers.” They are all using a central platform on which data is kept, maintained, managed and manipulated by a third party who is kept concealed using employees who are neither bonded nor trained in maintaining accurate records nor protecting private data.

There is no transfer of servicing data. There is no “boarding” and no “audit.” In order to keep up the musical chairs game in which homeowners and lawyers are equally flummoxed, the big investment banks periodically change the designation of servicers and simply rotate the names, giving each one the login and password to enter the central system (usually at a server maintained in Jacksonville, Florida).

BOTTOM LINE: If you accept the premises advanced by the lawyers for the banks you will almost always lose. If you don’t and you aggressively pound on the legal foundation for the evidence they are attempting to use in court the chances of winning arise above 50% and with some lawyers, above 65%.

To be successful there are some attitudes of the defense lawyer that are necessary.

The first is that they must believe or be willing to believe that their client deserves to win. A lawyer who thinks that the client is only entitled to his/her time or a delay of the “inevitable” will never, ever win.
The second is that they must believe or be willing to believe that the entire scheme of lending, servicing and foreclosure is a hoax. Each word and each document that a lawyer assumes to be valid, authentic and not fabricated is a step toward defeat.
The third is that the lawyer must fight to reveal the gaps, consistencies and insufficiencies of the evidence and not to prove that this is the greatest economic crime in human history. All trials are won and lost based on evidence. The burden is always on the foreclosing party or the apparent successors to the foreclosing party to prove that title properly passed.
Fourth is arguably the most important and the one that is most overlooked. The lawyer must believe or be willing to believe that the foreclosure was not initiated on behalf of any party who could reasonably described as a creditor or owner of the debt. The existence of the trust, the presence of a real trust in any transaction in which a loan was purchased, sold or settled to a trustee, and the various permutations of strategies employed by the banks are not mere technical points. They are a coverup for the fact that no creditor and no owner of the debt ever receives any benefit from a successful foreclosure of the property.

Yes it is counterintuitive. You are meant to think otherwise and the banks are counting on that with you, your lawyer and the judge. But just because something is counterintuitive doesn’t mean that it isn’t true.

Filed under: boarding process, burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, expert witness, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, forgery, investment banking, Investor, legal standing, originator, Pleading, prima facie case, Servicer, sham transactions, TRIAL OBJECTIONS, trial strategy | Tagged: audit, Black Knight, boarding process, Chase, DEUTSCHE BANK, Long beach, LPS, Reynaldo Reyes, Servicing transfers, WAMU | 8 Comments »

What is the difference between the note and the debt? What difference does it make?

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Neil Garfield

NOTE: This case reads like law review article. It is well worth reading and studying, piece by piece. Judge Marx has taken a lot of time to research, analyze the documents, and write a very clear opinion on the truth about the documents that were used in this case, and by extension the documents that are used in most foreclosure cases.

Simple answer: if you had a debt to pay would you pay it to the owner of the debt or someone else who says that you should pay them instead? It’s obvious.

Second question: if the owner of the debt is really different than the party claiming to collect it, why hasn’t the owner shown up? This answer is not so obvious nor is it simple. The short version is that the owners of the risk of loss have contracted away their right to collect on the debt, note or mortgage.

Third question: why are the technical requirements of an indorsement, allonge etc so important? This is also simple: it is the only way to provide assurance that the holder of the note is the owner of the note. This is important if the note is going to be treated as evidence of ownership of the debt.

NY Slip Opinion: Judge Paul I Marx carefully analyzed the facts and the law and found that there was a failure to firmly affix the alleged allonge which means that the note possessor must prove, rather than presume, that the possessor is a holder with rights to enforce. U.S. Bank, N.A. as Trustee v Cannella April 15, 2019.

Now the lawyers who claim U.S. Bank, N.A. is their client must prove something that doesn’t exist in the real world. This a problem because U.S. Bank won’t and can’t cooperate and the investment bank won’t and can’t allow their name to be used in foreclosures.

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 202-838-6345. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 202-838-6345 or 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

See 2019 NY Slip Op 29112 US Bnk v Cannella

Words actually matter — in the world of of American Justice, under law, without words, nothing matters.

So it is especially important to presume nothing and actually read words without making any assumptions. Much of what we see in the language of what is presented as a conveyance is essentially the same as a quitclaim deed in which there is no warranty of title and which simply grants any interest that the grantor MIGHT have. It is this type of wording that the banks use to weaponize the justice system against homeowners.

There is no warranty of title and there is no specific grant of ownership in an assignment of mortgage that merely says the assignor/grantor conveys “all beneficial interest under a certain mortgage.” Banks want courts to assume that means the note and the debt as well. But that specific wording is double-speak.

It says it is granting rights to the mortgage; but the rest of wording is making reference only to what is stated in the mortgage, which is not the note, the debt or any other rights. So in effect it is saying it is granting title to the mortgage and then saying the same thing again, without adding anything. That is the essence of double speak.

In the Cannela Case Judge Marx saw the attempt to mislead the court and dealt with it:

The language in RPAPL § 258, which this Court emphasized—”together with the bond or obligation described in said mortgage“—stands in sharp contrast to the language used here in the Assignment—”all beneficial interest under a certain Mortgage”. If such language is mere surplusage, as Plaintiff seems to believe, the drafters of RPAPL § 258 would not have included it in a statutory form promulgated for general use as best practice.

So here is the real problem. The whole discussion in Canella is about the note, the indorsement and the allonge. But notice the language in the opinion — “The Assignment did not go on to state that the referenced debt “…. So the Judge let it slip (pardon the pun) that when he refers to the note he means the debt.

The courts are using “the debt” and “the note” as being interchangeable words meaning the same thing. I would admit that before the era of false claims of securitization I used the words, debt, note and mortgage interchangeably because while there were technical difference in the legal meaning of those terms, they all DID mean the same thing to me and everyone else.

While a note SHOULD be evidence of the debt and the possession of a note SHOULD be evidence of being a legal note holder and that SHOULD mean that the note holder probably has rights to enforce, and therefore that note “holder” should be the the owner of a debt claiming foreclosure rights under a duly assigned mortgage for which value was paid, none of that is true if the debt actually moved in one or more different directions — different that is from the paper trail fabricated by remote parties with no interest in the loan other than to collect their fees.

The precise issue is raised because the courts have almost uniformly assumed that the burden shifts to the homeowner to show that the debt moved differently than the paper. This case shows that might not be true. But it will be true if not properly presented and argued. In effect what we are dealing with here is that there is a presumption to use the presumption.

If Person A buys the debt (for real) for value (money) he is the owner of the debt. But that is only true if he bought it from Person B who also paid value for the debt (funded the origination or acquisition of the loan). If not, the debt obviously could not possibly have moved from B to A.

It is not legally possible to move the debt without payment of value. It IS possible to appoint agents to enforce it. But for those agents seeking to enforce it the debtor has a right to know why he should pay a stranger without proof that his debt is being collected for his creditor.

The precise issue identified by the investment banks back in 1983 (when securitization started) is that even debts are made up of component parts. The investment banks saw they could enter into “private contracts” in which the risk of loss and other bets could be made totalling far more than the loan itself. This converted the profit potential on loans from being a few points to several thousand percent of each loan.

The banks knew that only people with a strong background in accounting and investment banking would realize that the investment bank was a creditor for 30 days or less and that after that it was at most a servicer who was collecting “fees’ in addition to “trading profits” at the expense of everyone involved.

And by creating contracts in which the investors disclaimed any direct right, title or interest in the collection of the loan, even though the investor assumed the entire risk of loss, the investment banks could claim and did claim that they had not sold off the debt. Any accountant will tell you that selling the entire risk of loss means that you sold off the entire debt.

* Thus monthly payments, prepayments and foreclosure proceeds are absorbed by the investment bank and its affiliates under various guises but it never goes to reduce a debt owned by the people who have paid value for the debt. In this case, and all similar cases, U.S. Bank, N.A. as trustee (or any trustee) never received nor expected to receive any money from monthly payments, prepayments or foreclosure proceeds; but that didn’t stop the investment banks from naming the claimant as U.S. Bank, N.A. as trustee.

**So then the note might be sold but the alleged transfer of a mortgage is a nullity because there was no actual transfer of the debt. Transfer of the debt ONLY occurs where value is paid. Transfer of notes occurs regardless of whether value was paid.

US laws in all 50 states all require that the enforcer of a mortgage be the same party who owns the debt or an agent who is actually authorized by the owner of the debt to conduct the foreclosure. For that to be properly alleged and proven the identity of the owner of the debt must be disclosed.

That duty to disclose might need to be enforced in discovery, a QWR, a DVL or a subpoena for deposition, but in all events if the borrower asks there is no legal choice for not answering, notwithstanding arguments that the information is private or proprietary.

The only way that does not happen is if the borrower does not enforce the duty to disclose the principal. If the borrower does enforce but the court declines that is fertile grounds for appeal, as this case shows. Standing was denied to U.S. Bank, as Trustee, because it failed to prove it was the holder of the note prior to initiating foreclosure.

It failed because the fabricated allonge was not shown to be have been firmly attached so as to become part of the note itself.

Thus the facts behind the negotiation of the note came into doubt and the presumptions sought by attorneys for the named claimant were thrown out. Now they must prove through evidence of transactions in the real world that the debt moved, instead of presuming the movement from the movement of the note.

But if B then executes an indorsement to Person C you have a problem. Person A owns the debt but Person C owns the note. Both are true statements. Unless the indorsement occurred at the instruction of Person B, it creates an entirely new and separate liability under the UCC, since the note no longer serves as title to the debt but rather serves as presumptive liability of a maker under the UCC with its own set of rules.

And notwithstanding the terms of the mortgage to the contrary, the mortgage no longer secures the note, which is no longer evidence of the debt; hence the mortgage can only be enforced by the person who owns the debt, if at all. The note which can only be enforced pursuant to rules governing the enforcement of negotiable instruments, if that applies, is no longer secured by the mortgage because the law requires the mortgage to secure a debt and not just a promissory note. See UCC Article 9-203.

This is what the doctrine of merger is intended to avoid — double liability. But merger does not happen when the debt owner and the Payee are different parties and neither one is the acknowledged agent of a common principal.

Now if Person B never owned the debt to begin with but was still the payee on the note and the mortgagee on the mortgage you have yet another problem. The note and debt were split at closing. In law cases this is referred to as splitting the note and mortgage which is presumed not to occur unless there is a showing of intent to do so. In this case there was intent to do so. The source of lending did not get a note and mortgage and the broker did get a note and mortgage.

Normally that would be fine if there was an agency contract between the originator and the investment bank who funded the loan. But the investment bank doesn’t want to admit such agency as it would be liable for lending and disclosure violations at closing, and for servicing violations after closing.

***So when the paperwork is created that creates the illusion of transfer of the mortgage without any real transaction between the remote parties because it is the investment bank who is all times holding all the cards. No real transactions can occur without the investment bank. The mortgage and the note being transferred creates two separate legal events or consequences.

Transfer of the note even without the debt creates a potential asset to the transferee whether they paid for it or not. If they paid for it they might even be a holder in due course with more rights than the actual owner of the debt. See UCC Article 3, holder in due course.

Transfer of the note without the debt (i.e. transfer without payment of value) would simply transfer rights under the UCC and that would be independent of the debt and therefore the mortgage which, under existing law, can only be enforced by the owner of the debt notwithstanding language in the mortgage that refers to the note. The assignment of mortgage was not enough.

Some quotables from the Slip Opinion:

A plaintiff in an action to foreclose a mortgage “[g]enerally establishes its prima facie case through the production of the mortgage, the unpaid note, and evidence of default”. U.S. Bank Nat. Ass’n v Sabloff, 153 AD3d 879, 880 [2nd Dept 2017] (citing Plaza Equities, LLC v Lamberti, 118 AD3d 688, 689; see Deutsche Bank Natl. Trust Co. v Brewton, 142 AD3d 683, 684). However, where a defendant has affirmatively pleaded standing in the Answer,^[6] the plaintiff must prove standing in order to prevail. Bank of New York Mellon v Gordon, 2019 NY Slip Op. 02306, 2019 WL 1372075, at *3 [2nd Dept March 27, 2019] (citing HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v Roumiantseva, 130 AD3d 983, 983-984; HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v Calderon, 115 AD3d 708, 709; Bank of NY v Silverberg, 86 AD3d 274, 279).

A plaintiff establishes its standing in a mortgage foreclosure action by showing that it was the holder of the underlying note at the time the action was commenced. Sabloff, supra at 880 (citing Aurora Loan Servs., LLC v Taylor, 25 NY3d 355, 361; U.S. Bank N.A. v Handler, 140 AD3d 948, 949). Where a plaintiff is not the original lender, it must show that the obligation was transferred to it either by a written assignment of the underlying note or the physical delivery of the note. Id. Because the mortgage automatically passes with the debt as an inseparable incident, a plaintiff must generally prove its standing to foreclose on the mortgage through either of these means, rather than by assignment of the mortgage. Id. (citing U.S. Bank, N.A. v Zwisler, 147 AD3d 804, 805; U.S. Bank, N.A. v Collymore, 68 AD3d 752, 754).

Turning to the substantive issue involving UCC § 3-202(2), Defendant contends that the provision requires that an allonge must be “permanently” affixed to the underlying note for the note to be negotiated by delivery. UCC § 3-202(1) states, in pertinent part, that if, as is the case here, “the instrument is payable to order it is negotiated by delivery with any necessary indorsement”. UCC § 3-202(1) (emphasis added). The pertinent language of UCC § 3-202(2) provides that when an indorsement is written on a separate piece of paper from a note, the paper must be “so firmly affixed thereto as to become a part thereof.” UCC § 3-202(2) (emphasis added); Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC v Kelly, 166 AD3d 843 [2nd Dept 2018]; HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v Roumiantseva, supra at 985; see also One Westbank FSB v Rodriguez, 161 AD3d 715, 716 [1st Dept 2018]; Slutsky v Blooming Grove Inn, 147 AD2d 208, 212 [2nd Dept 1989] (“The note secured by the mortgage is a negotiable instrument (see, UCC 3-104) which requires indorsement on the instrument itself `or on a paper so firmly affixed thereto as to become a part thereof’ (UCC 3-202[2]) in order to effectuate a valid `assignment’ of the entire instrument (cf., UCC 3-202 [3], [4])”).

[Editor’s note: if it were any other way the free spinning allonge would become a tradable commodity in its own right. ]

The Assignment did not go on to state that the referenced debt was simultaneously being assigned to Plaintiff.

Filed under: burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, investment banking, Investor, jurisdiction, legal standing, MBS TRUSTEE, originator, Pleading, prima facie case, Servicer, sham transactions, standing, STATUTES | Tagged: allonge, assignments, Cannela decision, debt, DEED OF TRUST, endorsement, indorsement, Mortgage, note, Obligation, REMIC trustee, U.S. Bank | 16 Comments »

Applying Common Sense and Law to Assignments of Mortgage

Posted on April 24, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Every time a homeowner wins in foreclosure the investors are actually protected. It’s the sale of the property and/or entry of the foreclosure judgment that cuts investors off from their investment. Weird, right?

An article in the recently published Florida Bar Journal illustrates perfectly the confusion that occurs within the courts and by lawyers when they stray from the simple pronouncement of accepted law in all jurisdictions.

Here is one simple proposition declared by the Florida Supreme Court which is a mirror of similar pronouncements from the Highest courts in all other U.S. Jurisdictions: The case is Johns v Gillian 134 Fla. 575, 184 So. 140 (1938).

“the mere delivery of the note and mortgage, with intention to pass title, upon proper consideration, will vest the equitable interest in the person to whom it is so delivered.”

The obvious implication is that such a person can enforce the mortgage. The other obvious implication is that a claimant who claims to have received possession by delivery of the note and mortgage cannot enforce the mortgage if there was no intent to transfer title to the mortgage, or if there was no payment of consideration.

The obvious takeaways from this simple, basic and completely accepted point of law are

delivery of note and mortgage is important and potentially dispositive BUT

defects in the instrument of assignment of mortgage are not fatal IF

intention to pass title is present AND

payment of proper consideration is present

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 202-838-6345. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 202-838-6345 or 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

The jumble occurs when anyone of those points is taken out of order or entirely out of consideration which is what the courts and even some foreclosure defense lawyers are missing.

Delivery of the original note and the recorded mortgage document is important and potentially dispositive. This is true if proper consideration was paid and there was an intent to pass title.

But the banks would have us believe that only the intent to pass title is important, even if the transferor has no title. There is no law and no case decision that agrees with that proposition. And the banks would have us believe that the intent to pass title is the only thing that matters even if no proper consideration was paid. There is no law and no case decision that supports that proposition.

By law, as adopted in the statutes of all 50 states when they adopted the Uniform Commercial Code, consideration must be paid for an effective transfer of the mortgage. UCC Article 9 section 203. All the case law agrees and there is no case law contrary to that proposition.

BUT there is plenty of case law where the courts ignore it mostly because the pro se homeowners or foreclosure defense attorney didn’t present the issue clearly.

The money proves the intent and the intent justifies the money. Without the money the transfer is a complete nullity which legally means it never happened.

While there are presumptions about transfer of the debt when the “original” note is supposedly delivered (as though transfer of the note was title to the debt), the only thing that actually transfers the debt under law is payment of money with intent to purchase and sell the debt and the mortgage.

Where’s the money?

In virtually all cases the money is absent, which leads directly to the point of the law to begin with — foreclosure should only be granted in circumstances where the proceeds of foreclosure will go to the party claiming that equitable remedy. Here is the plain truth. Those proceeds are not going to anyone who has value/consideration in the deal.

The investment bank’s legal strategy of claiming that it once paid consideration is defeated entirely by its sale of the “risk of loss” (i.e., the debt) several times over in the shadow banking market.

Dubious? Check the proposed and actual regulations concerning the retention of a share of the risk of loss by investment banks. That is the big dispute. For loans that were created up until around 2010, there was zero retention of risk.

The meaning of that eludes most people unfamiliar with the terminology of Wall Street. So here it is: if you have no risk you own no debt.

My sources say that is still true and the regulators are powerless to stop it because of the right to enter into contracts that are disguised sales of the risk of loss, which is to say disguised sales of the debt by the one party who is always the one controlling events on the ground in foreclosures — the investment bank.

Do you need to prove all that? Nope. Just demand proof of consideration. And don’t stop demanding it no matter what the opposing lawyer says and even regardless of what the judge says. In the end, you’ll be right. Every time a homeowner wins in foreclosure the investors are actually protected. It’s the sale of the property and/or entry of the foreclosure judgment that cuts investors off from their investment.

Filed under: burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, forensic investigation, legal standing, Pleading, prima facie case, standing | Tagged: ARTICLE 9, assignment of mortgage, consideration, Transfer of mortgage, UCC, UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE | 6 Comments »

C&E Strategy is the beginning of a successful attack on the claimed enforcement of a mortgage or deed of trust.

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Attacks on technical deficiencies of assignments of mortgage is a great place to start, but it is not the finish line.

This is a follow up with the radio show we did last week on cancellation of assignments of mortgage, and upon successful cancellation of the assignment(s), the further cancellation of the notice of substitution of trustee, the notice of default, the notice of sale, and/or the lis pendens and foreclosure lawsuit.

The C&E (Cancel and Expunge) strategy has some good and even essential attributes of the defense and counterattack on the would-be enforcer of a mortgage. But here are some potential weak points. If you are not ready for them the strategy will fail.

see https://livinglies.me/2019/04/11/cal-3d-dca-wrongful-foreclosure-you-can-cancel-the-assignment-notice-of-default-notice-of-sale-and-reverse-the-sale/

You are still on the right track — especially where the notary certifies that the person signing had authority to do so. That is simply a lie. The notary has no idea. The problem with the C&E strategy is that it appeals to lay people and not lawyers.

The lay people like it because it sounds like a magic bullet that enables them to avoid litigation over whether the claimant is real and whether the claim is real. The lawyers are reluctant because they know that courts will almost always side with the party who appears to be losing the benefit of an actual bargain in which the claimant paid money. It’s all about money, whether you like it or not.

The reality is that they are both right. And the place to start is always at the beginning — when and where and why the offending document was executed.

Lay people don’t understand what it means to have a facially valid document. They want to get a court to get rid of the whole document (and the presumed transaction behind it, whether it exists or not) because of some perceived invalid procedure in its execution. The world doesn’t work like that, nor should it.

The court looks at the substance. If someone paid for the loan they don’t lose their money because of a signature that is missing or in the wrong place. They are at least given opportunities to correct errors. If the errors are not corrected then that is a different matter. Even a frivolous lawsuit can result in a judgment and levy against property if the defendant failed to answer or appeal. That is the way the system works.

The court might temporarily decline to enforce an instrument because it does not comply with statutory requirements for facial validity — but it won’t invalidate the presumed transaction UNLESS the presumed transaction is either proven not to exist or the presumed transaction is not proven to exist. There is a difference between those two. Both involve proof. The difference is in who has the burden of proof.

Even with a deed lacking a witness —- the deed is valid as between the grantor and the grantee and anyone who knows about it. There are differences between states but the substance is the same.

If Person A executes a deed to Person B and Person B pays Person A then the court, in equity, will not allow person C to exercise the rights of a title owner in fee simple absolute unless Person C also paid Person A (assuming person A had title) AND the state has a race to record statute. If the state is not a “race” state, then the deed is valid against all who have notice of it.

At the end of the day courts will not ordinarily issue an order in which they think a party is getting cheated out of the benefits of a legitimate deal. The dominant public policy is preservation of contracts and legitimate transactions first, not the strict adherence to statutory requirements in execution of contracts or conveyances. So the only defense that works with consistency is the one in which either the claim or the claimant’s existence is not supported by sufficient evidence. This is the gray area that lay people don’t want to hear about.

But all that said, the attack on the assignments for lack of statutory requirements is correct in its strategy and its goals. The reason that is correct is not that the document is just defective in some technical way. The reason it is effective strategy is (a) the court should not enforce it until the needed correction is effectuated and (b) they can’t correct it without revealing the creditor who owns the debt.

The 20 year effort to conceal the identity of anyone who owns the debt is testimony to the fact that the investment banks don’t want anyone to know. The answer would be highly complex and probably involve matters of novel fact patterns and law.

By selling off the risk of loss did the investment bank thus sell the debt? If they sold the debt, but did not sell the rights to enforce the debt, note or mortgage, did the investment bank retain the right to enforce? If so, that probably conflicts with all law in all jurisdictions that requires that the enforcer of a mortgage be the owner of the debt. If the enforcement is allowed what assurances does the court have that the proceeds of foreclosure will go to the benefit of the owner of the debt, however that ownership is defined?

While the courts have assiduously avoided addressing such questions they are moving inexorably in the direction of being required to address them and to finally decide what to do with the confusion and chaos created not by borrowers, but by the investment banks who sought to and did in fact create profits that were multiples of the amount loaned without paying the borrower for use of his/her name, signature or reputation.

So the attacks on technical deficiencies of assignments of mortgage is a great place to start, but it is not the finish line.

Filed under: burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, investment banking, Investor, jurisdiction, legal standing, originator, Pleading, prima facie case, sham transactions, standing, TRUST BENEFICIARIES | Tagged: Cancellation of assignment, cancellation of instrument, Cancellation of Lis pendens, cancellation of notice of default, cancellation of notice of sale, cancellation of notice of subsitution of trustee, dismissal of foreclosrue lawsuit | 1 Comment »

Stop Feeling Guilty — Be A Warrior

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Shame is the reason why most borrowers don’t contest foreclosures. That shame turns to intense anger when they realize that they were used, screwed, abused and now they are targets in a continuing blitz to embezzle much needed money from their lives and from the financial system generally.

The genius behind companies like Citi is… Deception by Branding. “Citi” is not a company, it’s a brand of a conglomerate of companies. Even its subsidiary “Citibank N.A.” is deceptive. First let’s dispel the myth that subsidiaries are equal to their parents. Not true, not even when they are wholly-owned subsidiaries. They are separate companies, albeit owned by a common parent. —- From Anonymous Writer

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 202-838-6345. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 202-838-6345 or 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

Probably the biggest goof of the court system in foreclosure litigation (and in business litigation) is mistaking a brand for a company and not realizing that there is both a business and legal distinction between even a wholly owned subsidiary and another subsidiary or parent company.

The reason that is such a big goof is that the actual transaction is being ignored while a small part of the transaction is being treated as the entire matter. That is like taking the spark plug out of car and then selling it to someone as though it was the whole car. It doesn’t work that way.

In conglomerates like “Citi” the brand intentionally blurs the factual and legal distinctions. And these distinctions make a difference precisely because the debt, note and mortgage are split and transferred multiple times between subsidiaries wherein each one is either moved off the books entirely or each subsidiary is showing an “asset” that it sells into the shadow banking market.

These practices results in a ten-fold increase in the apparent size of the asset, which is then owned by dozens, perhaps hundreds of different unrelated investors. And that enabled the banks siphon literally trillions of dollars out of the US economy and trillions more out of the world economy.

Through the devices of branding and “off balance sheet transactions” this wealth is controlled by handful of people; but this wealth is directly derived from one simple plan — to market the signature, reputation and identity of borrowers who were led to believe that they were executing loan documents. In fact they were executing the foundation documents for a string of transactions and book entries that would result in profits far beyond the amount of the loan.

These unsuspecting consumers had become ISSUERS without ever knowing it and they still don’t know it or understand it. So they still believe that somehow the investment bank behind the scheme is actually entitled to collect on a debt that the bank sold multiple times through multiple affiliates and subsidiaries in transactions that were often “off balance sheet.” And the fact that in virtually all cases the proceeds of foreclosure sales are not applied to reduce the debt owed to the owner of the debt is completely overlooked.

The clear issue that investment banks have been avoiding is that every one of their originated loans is part of a larger intended transaction, and that the homeowner gets absolutely no clue or disclosure that the bulk of the transaction is actually very different from a loan and actually the antithesis of a loan. Clearly the two were both unrelated and related.

The borrower thought it was a loan and it was a loan but the loan was a part of a larger transaction in which the attributes of a loan were shredded. So the loan was essentially a sham entry to allow the investment banks to profit regardless of the performance of the loan. Hence the transaction was not really a loan anymore. This is true even for loans acquired after origination by an actual lender.

Risk underwriting, the most basic part of lending, was thrown to the winds because it was irrelevant. And legally required disclosures were also thrown to the winds because lending laws (TILA) clearly state that compensation received after the loan closing must be disclosed.

What would have happened if the borrowers knew their signatures, reputation and identity were the real subject of the transaction and that they would be sold in a myriad of way producing compensation far beyond the amount of the loan. How would bargaining have changed? It’s obvious.

Even the most unsophisticated homeowner would have gone shopping for someone who would offer a share of the bounty. And that is why the “free house” PR gimmick is a myth. If the investment banks had not concealed the major attributes of the transaction, the mortgage meltdown would never have occurred.

And if “securitization” had proceeded anyway then homeowners would have received immediate and possibly total reductions in the amount due. Yes I recognize that this is a contradiction because if there is no loan then there are no derivatives to be sold. But that is not a problem created by homeowners or borrowers or consumers. It is a problem created by fraud and deceit by the investment banks.

In the final analysis the investment banks used homeowners and investors to issue unregulated securities and instead of turning the proceeds over to the issuers they kept the money. In any world of law enforcement they should have been jailed for that.

The goal was to get the signature and then sell it. That is not a loan. And the failure to disclose it violated everything about Federal and State lending laws that require disclosure of identities of the real parties in interest and the amount of money they are getting as compensation for their role in “the transaction.”

The investment banks chose to unilaterally define “the transaction” as just the part dealing with the origination of the debt, note and mortgage. That was a lie. It concealed the fact that the borrower was in fact a real party in interest in a much larger transaction in which at each step profits, fees, and other compensation would be distributed in amounts vastly exceeding the amount that was disclosed to the borrower as the value of the transaction. For each $1 “loaned” there was $20 in profit.

By concealing this information the investment banks took all of the profit, fees and compensation without allowing the homeowner to participate in what amounted to a monetization of their signature, reputation and identity.

Thus the most essential part of the Federal and State lending laws was thwarted: that the “borrower” must know the identity of the parties with whom he/she is dealing and the “borrower” must know the amount of compensation being earned as result of the “borrower” signing documents at loan closing.

Instead the homeowner had become the issuer of unregulated securities, the proceeds of which were largely concealed and withheld from the homeowner. No lawyer would have permitted their client to enter into such a scheme — if the facts were known.

Borrowers get lost in the weeds when they make these allegations because they can’t prove them. Truth be told, even the bank could not prove them because of the number of transactions that occur “off balance sheet.” Abraham Briloff (in his book Unaccountable Accounting) first observed over 50 years ago, the invention of this ploy of “off balance sheet” transactions was an open door to fraud that would likely occur but might never be proven.

We are a nation of laws not opinions. Our laws depend upon findings of fact, not opinions or political views. That is the only control we have to prevent fraud or at least bring fraudsters to justice, or at the very least prevent them from continuing to reap the rewards of their multiple violations of statutory laws, common law and the duty of good faith, honesty and fair dealing.

So when the robowitness signs affidavits, certifications or other documents or testifies at deposition or in court, be aware that in nearly all cases, he/she is either an independent contractor with absolutely no knowledge or authority concerning the subject transaction (as a have defined it herein) or an employee of a subsidiary with no connection to any transaction involving the homeowner or both.

You can reveal the lack of actual personal knowledge and thus then lack of foundation for evidence proffered in a foreclosure by discovery, motions to enforce discovery, motions in limine and good cross examination which always depends upon one single attribute to be successful: follow-up.

And in many cases the robowitness is not nearly as stupid as his/her script makes him out to be. The robowintess often knows everything that is contained in this article. Good cross examination can frequently reveal that — that is where the case turns from enforcement of a legitimate debt to a case in which both the claim and the claimant have not been proven by any standard.

That is all you need to win. You don’t need to prove how they did it. You only need to reveal the gaps that exist because the substance is not there — the claiming parties have all long since divested themselves, at a profit,of any interest in the debt, note or mortgage. There is no debt left to pay, at least not to them. Stop feeling guilty and be a warrior.

Filed under: burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, discovery, Discovery -Subpoena, evidence, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, forgery, investment banking, Investor, jurisdiction, legal standing, MBS TRUSTEE, MODIFICATION, Mortgage, Motions, originator, Pleading, prima facie case, Servicer, sham transactions, standing, STATUTES, TILA, TRIAL OBJECTIONS, trial strategy | 6 Comments »

Tonight! How to use discovery in revealing fraudclosures!

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Neil Garfield

Thursdays LIVE! Click in to the Neil Garfield Show

Tonight’s Show Hosted by Neil F Garfield

Call in at (347) 850-1260, 6pm Eastern Thursdays

Tonight’s Agenda:

Interrogatories
Request to Produce
Request for Admission
Motions to Compel
Motions for Sanctions
Motions in Limine

The devil is in the details. The details in litigation lie basically in discovery — asking and responding. Very few pro se litigants know how to construct good Interrogatories, Requests to Produce, or Requests for Admission. They know even less about how to use the responses, if they get any.

And they know still less about how to use inconsistencies or lack of response as the basis for enforcement and motions for contempt and sanctions and ultimately to limit the evidence that can be introduced by the claimant in foreclosure.

Failure to know about this is fatal because it is failure to understand the nature and procedure of litigation. Most lawyers don’t suffer from that ignorance. But they often do suffer from lack of motivation and thus they head for failure when they could be heading for success.

Judges are getting increasingly irritated by sloppy and bad discovery practices by both sides in litigation.

See Exterro-EDRM Judges Survey 2019 Series-…iscovery Specialists (ACEDS) – JDSupra

Please Donate to Support Neil Garfield’s Efforts to stop Foreclosure Fraud.

Pages

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER. ========================

Spread the word

Like this:

GET FREE HELP: Just click here and submit the confidential, free, no obligation, private REGISTRATION FORM. The key to victory lies in understanding your own case.

Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 954-451-1230. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.

I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.

PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
========================