About An Oregon judge overturned a foreclosure and subsequent eviction. This case, like many nationwide, also involves MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System.
MERS was created, in part to avoid the expense of paying recording fees to the local county recorder.
A Wells Fargo & Co. unit foreclosed on Flynn after she fell behind in her payments. Wells Fargo sold the mortgage to U.S. Bank, the second lienholder, in December 2010, Cutler said.
I don’t understand how Wells Fargo could have sold the mortgage. This may due either to Oregon law or a reporter getting the story wrong.
U.S. Bank tried to evict Flynn from her Vernonia home during a May 24 court hearing. But on June 23, Columbia County Circuit Judge Jenefer Grant ruled against the bank and awarded legal costs to Flynn.
Grant found that the original lender, Eagle Home Mortgage, held beneficial interest in the property. But while Eagle Home eventually sold the mortgage to other parties, the exchanges were never recorded, or assigned, in the county’s recorder office.
“I am concluding the recording never occurred,” she wrote in a two-page ruling. “MERS does not become the beneficiary, irrespective of what is stated in the deed of trust.”
Oregon law requires any transfer of ownership of debt to be recorded at the county recorder. The banks, by using MERS decided that it was not necessary to comply.
Read more on MERS and Oregon Foreclosure law.