Fraudulent Mortgage Assignments
There are a variety of types of fraud which banks engage in related to the assignment of mortgages. Sometimes the assignment contains signatures of individuals claiming to be corporate officers of the bank and/or mortgage company when in fact they were never employed by these institutions. On other occasions, mortgage assignments are signed by individuals who claim to be corporate officers of financial institutions which went out of business or filed bankruptcy many years earlier. There are also many examples of assignments of mortgages which are notarized by notaries who were actually in a different state at the time of the transaction. These notaries never witnessed the signatures of the individuals they notarized.
Ownership of the Note and Mortgage
There is a United States Supreme Court Case which stands for the proposition the foreclosing institution must own the note and mortgage at the time of the initiation of the foreclosure lawsuit. The case is Carpenter v. Longan, 83 U.S. 271. In this case, the United States Supreme Court stated “plaintiff failed to show that it owned the mortgage at the time the complaint was filed.” As a result the court ruled the plaintiff financial institution did not have standing in the foreclosure case. The financial institution must not only be the holder and owner of the original note, but also must be the holder and owner of the mortgage as well. In Carpenter v. Longan, the United States Supreme Court held the plaintiff lacked standing to initiate and prosecute the foreclosure case and therefore the case was dismissed.
Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq., is a foreclosure lawyer representing homeowners throughout the Metropolitan New York area. He defends homeowners whose homes are subject to being foreclosed upon. He also helps homeowners obtain mortgage modifications.
