Michigan Judge Rules MERS Assignments Invalid

In an interesting ruling that came down yesterday in Washtenaw County, a judge ruled MERS assignments to an Asset-Backed Security invalid because the originating lender, First Franklin and US Bank as the Trustee for Mortgage Loan Asset-Backed Certificate 2006 FF18 violated the terms of the Pooling and Servicing Agreements and New York law.  Judge Archie C. Brown wrote that because they did not record the mortgage assignment with the Washtenaw County Register of Deeds prior to the cutoff date that would invalidate the mortgage assignment. Judge Archie C.  Brown then said because of this First Franklin which at the time was a whole owned subsidiary of National City would be the only one with legal standing to execute the foreclosure.

Hendricks v. USBank