Tag Archives: Assignment of Mortgage

In a newly published paper posted on the New York Federal Reserve website, Robert Hockett, a Cornell University professor of financial and monetary law, proposes using government's eminent domain authority as a solution to underwater mortgage debt. In reviewing Hockett's suggestion, the Wall Street Journal concentrated not on the idea itself, but on the fact that Hockett ""turns out to have been on the payroll of none other than Mortgage Resolution Partners."" There may be a lot of good reasons to discard Hockett's suggestion, but his past relationships are not among them. His idea deserves a fair hearing, not a digression.

A U.S. district judge in Missouri has dismissed a recording fee suit filed by officials in Jackson County against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), on the grounds that the county ""cannot enforce a nonexistent obligation."" Missouri is the fifth state in which judges have granted MERS' motions to dismiss similar recording fee lawsuits.