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State Supreme Court rules against MERS in mortgage
foreclosure challenge

By Connie Thompson Published:
Aug 20,
2012 at 7:27 PM PDT
Last Updated: Aug 20, 2012 at
7:27 PM PDT

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A new state Supreme Court ruling could put hundreds of home foreclosures in
question in this state, where the foreclosures were initiated by an organization
known as MERS.

MERS stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration System. It's a central
tracking system that essentially represents the person  or investor that
holds the note on a loan when a mortgage is sold.

Lenders have been using MERS to initiate foreclosures, even though MERS
doesn't actually hold the loans. MERS and lenders maintain that under their
system MERS is a legal beneficiary of the promissory note.  But in a 9-0
decision justices ruled that's not what Washington state law
intended.

When Kristin Bain hired an attorney to fight illegal lending
practices involving her Tukwila condo, she never dreamed the case would end up
in Olympia.  Bain's case is one of two similar cases argued before the
state Supreme Court last Spring.

Years earlier, Bain was the victim of a
predatory mortgage loan that Huelsman says violated the law and stuck Bain with
unfairly high mortgage rates and mortgage payments.  While settling that
case, Bain got laid off, and began to miss mortgage payments.

She was sent to foreclosure by MERS.  Attorney Melissa Huelsman cried
foul when no one could identify the actual loan holder and.  Citing state
law, Huelsman filed lawsuits, and stopped the foreclosure while attempting to
identify the loan holder who could rightfully address Bain's concerns about the
foreclosure process.

Huelsman says the loan holder was never
identified.  Her lawsuit made it's way to the state Supreme Court in March,
where Huelsman presented oral arguments against MERS, the lenders and their
Attorney Robert Pratte.

In a unanimous
decision, the 9 justices just ruled August 16th that under our state
law,  the beneficiary must hold the promissory note.

The
bottom line- based on Washington state law, MERS is not a legal beneficiary
unless it actually held the promissory note secured by the deed of trust when
foreclosure was initiated- which in Bain's case, it did not.

"Obviously
the court said no, MERS cannot be that entity, because it is not the note holder
and it never is the note holder," explained Huelsman.

Huelsman says the
implications are huge- with the potential to affect hundreds, perhaps thousands
of foreclosures initiated by MERS in this state in the past 10 years.

The ruling could open the door for legal action by homeowners who've been
foreclosed by "MERS,"  instead of an actual loan holder who's name is on
the promissory note.  It also has the potential to affect foreclosures
currently being challenged because of MERS.

But the justices ruled that
simply having MERS on your loan doesn't mean you  have a case. The question
is whether you suffered unfair ramifications because of MERS.

Washington
state is one of several states where the legality of MERS initiated foreclosures
is being challenged in court.

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forsakeme4all 6 pts

This battle is wayyyyy long from over. However, that does mean good things
for other home owners out there and I wish the rest of them the best of
luck.

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ScaredinPacific 158
pts

Congratulation to Kristin and the fantastic Melissa Huelsman.

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jcman 34 pts

One more twist to this is that when the lenders use MERS to transfer loans
they don't pay the county filing fees which has cheated the counties of this
country out of millions of dollars.

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wamplady57 5 pts

The law of the Universe has been violated, they will get theirs along with
anyone else who had a part in this scheme!!

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AXJPRESS 5 pts

This is a Ponzi Scheme violating RICO and it is about time Judges come down
hard on MERS and all the Banks that devised it to unlawfully keep your home
without ever telling you who the real lender is. California and New York
Attorney Generals and the OCC are after the Banks and MERS so contact your
attorney asap if you are, have, or will be foreclosed upon in the near
future.

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Audio
Cat 386 pts

Get this through your greedy evil heads - a computer program can not own
property any more then a corporation is a person.

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AXJPRESS 5 pts

Audio Cat Exactly, MERS is like
the DMV and can never repo your car, in this case your home. File criminal
charges against MERS, all its employees and attorneys asap for fraud, Ponzi and
RICO felonies.

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