A split between state and federal courts has begun to emerge over the authority of the mortgage registry company MERS, according to several attorneys who work in the field.
Earlier this month, the state Superior Court reissued as precedential a decision from September finding that the company, which is estimated to have processed hundreds of thousands of mortgages across the state, has the authority to assign mortgages. The ruling in Gibson v. Bank of America reaffirmed a 2009 holding from the Superior Court that denied a mortgagor’s attempts to stall a sheriff’s sale by arguing that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems did not have authority to foreclose on a property.
