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The United States District Court for the District of
Massachusetts recently denied a motion for class certification in a
case asserting that defendants failed to obtain valid assignments
prior to foreclosing. Plaintiffs claimed that, in contravention of
Massachusetts law, defendants' foreclosures were void under the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision in U.S.
Bank Nat'l Ass'n v. Ibanez, 941 N.E.2d 40, (Mass.,
Jan. 7, 2011), because the assignments were recorded after the
foreclosure sales. The Ibanez court held that under
Massachusetts law, an assignment is required before a foreclosure
sale, and that the lack of an assignment renders the foreclosure
sale void and not merely voidable. The District Court here held
that plaintiffs failed to meet the commonality and typicality
requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a), holding that, under
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (June 20,
2011), a "determination of whether the [Massachusetts
statutory foreclosure requirements were] in fact violated would
require 8,000 highly individualized and case-specific
inquiries." The key issue was that the determination of
whether an assignment existed prior to the recorded assignment
would require a case-by-case analysis. Goodwin Procter partners
James McGarry and Richard Oetheimer represent U.S. Bank, as Trustee
for certain securitization trusts. Click
here for the order.
Goodwin Procter LLP is one of the nation's leading law
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Given the limitations of discovery in the context of a bankruptcy proceeding, historically, there has been a lurking question regarding the applicability of the various "rules" on ediscovery to a bankruptcy case.
In Wright, a mortgage lender obtained relief from the automatic stay in a chapter 11 bankruptcy and proceeded with a state non-judicial foreclose sale on two properties.
Under Wisconsin’s strict tax foreclosure procedure, a tax authority can obtain property in satisfaction of a delinquent property tax bill without any public sale or other competitive bidding.
A debtor that owned a shopping center proposed a plan of reorganization that gave the spouse of the debtor's owner 100% of the equity of the reorganized debtor in return for a cash investment, but without any competitive bidding.
A chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee requested court approval of a sale of vacant land to a bank that held a first lien on the property, with the sale to be "free and clear" of the junior liens of two judgment creditors.
Chapter 15 Of The U.S. Bankruptcy Code: Accessing The U.S. Bankruptcy Courts
