Ohio Court Rules That The Owner Of A Lost Mortgage Note Is Precluded From Foreclosing

LexisNexis (January 26, 2017, 11:27 AM EST) -- In a recent case from Ohio, the court ruled that the assignee of a home mortgage (U.S. Bank) was not entitled to enforce the mortgage through a foreclosure action because there was no evidence that the mortgage assignee was in possession of the mortgage note, or was entitled to enforce it in spite of the lack of possession, as allowed by Ohio's version of UCC 3-309.  Since enforceability of the mortgage was dependent upon enforceability of the note, the bank was not entitled to foreclose. The case would have come out differently had Ohio enacted the 2002 amendments to the UCC, which give greater protection to non-holders who seek to enforce lost promissory notes. In any case, we think the Ohio decision is problematic....