In a case of first impression, an Allegheny County trial court has found that statements made by an assignor prior to an assignment of a mortgage are admissible under the party-opponent exception to the hearsay rule.
In Alaska Seaboard Partners Limited Partnership v. Kelly, Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Alan Hertzberg ruled that statements made by a PNC Bank representative before PNC assigned a mortgage to plaintiff Alaska Seaboard Partners were admissible because, under the 1997 state Superior Court ruling in Smith v. Cumberland Group, Pennsylvania law places an assignee “in the shoes of the assignor.”
