The Massachusetts Court of Appeals recently held that a foreclosing lender must use reasonable efforts to get the best price and, when those efforts reveal the potential to develop the property to increase the sale price, the lender should take such potential into account and share it with prospective bidders.
Don’t get nervous lenders. The
The Boston Redevelopment Authority d/b/a Boston Planning and Development Agency has the right to challenge a foreclosure that purportedly terminated a covenant restricting the use of property to affordable housing.
Continue Reading Affordable Housing Covenants Have Protected Status in Foreclosures
The Massachusetts Legislature and Governor Baker have taken a much needed step to limit further problems resulting from the Ibanez decision and its progeny. Those cases made clear that a foreclosure by a party that did not yet hold an assignment of the mortgage failed to convey good title. As a result, many third party
In its recent decision (pdf) in Abate v. Fremont Investment & Loan, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) affirmed a Land Court judgment dismissing a foreclosed borrower’s “try title” action. “Try title” is a nineteenth century cause of action that allows an owner of land to force someone with an adverse claim to the land
In its decision earlier this year in U.S. Bank Natl. Assn. v. Schumacher (pdf), the Supreme Judicial Court addressed the impact of a failure to comply with requirements for providing notice of the mortgagor’s right to cure a default pursuant to M.G.L. c. 244, § 35A (our post on Schumacher is here). The recent
In the last few weeks the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) decided two more cases dealing with the effects of botched foreclosure sales.
The more important decision is U.S. Bank National Association v. Schumacher (pdf). Schumacher arises from M.G.L. c. 244, §35A, which the Legislature enacted in 2007 in response to the foreclosure crisis. This statute requires foreclosing banks
As a result of the First Circuit’s recent decision in Lemelson v. U.S. Bank National Ass’n., 721 F.3d 18 (2013), U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young was forced to reconsider his prior ruling in a “try title” case filed by a homeowner who claimed that the bank seeking to foreclose was not, in
Educational opportunities abound this spring! Next Tuesday, April 2, 2013, at the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) headquarters in Downtown Crossing, my current Rackemann colleague and fellow MLUM contributor Gordie Orloff, and my former Rackemann colleague, Land Court Justice Robert B. Foster, will be among the panelists in a program entitled, “Resolving Common & Complex Title Issues.” Among other topics, this program will cover how to spot
The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is soliciting amicus briefs in Galiastro v. Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc., an appeal that presents the issue of whether the defendant, MERS, has standing to foreclose in its own right as the named mortgagee in a mortgage, when it does not have any ownership interest or rights in the underlying promissory note. The SJC
This morning the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued its decision in Fannie Mae v. Hendricks (pdf), a summary process case that raised the issue of whether the Massachusetts statutory form of foreclosure affidavit – which has been in use for 100 years – is sufficient to show compliance with a power of sale, thereby entitling a foreclosing mortgagee to possession of the premises. The SJC held