The Mortgage Follows The Note: Litigation Continues Apace On Standing To Foreclose Securitized Real Estate Mortgages

LexisNexis (May 24, 2017, 1:48 PM EDT) -- We continue to see a strong flow of securitized real estate mortgages, born of the "mortgage meltdown" and still in the process of foreclosure.  One big lesson coming from this litigation is that the secured lender's right to foreclose is very much dependent on the law of negotiable instruments under Article 3 of the UCC.  That's because the "mortgage follows the note" and any defect in the transfer of notes through the pipeline can knock the creditor out on "standing" grounds.  As illustrative examples, we offer two recent judicial decisions.  The first case, from Florida, involves the "lost note" problem; the second deals with the "allonge" problem.  In both cases, correctly applying the rules of UCC Article 3, the court ruled in favor of the secured lender's standing to foreclose the mortgage....