Original source: Atlanta Progressive News
(APN) ATLANTA -- On October 15, 2010, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of foreclosed homeowners in Fulton County who had their mortgage title transferred to MERS, an entity that is alleged to routinely engage in the fraudulent recording of deeds, in Fulton County Superior Court.
The case is called Rollins vs Mortgage Electionic Recording Systems, Inc. also known as MERSCORP or MERS.
Dustin Rollins is an affected homeowner, who filed on behalf of himself and other similarly situated persons. David Ates is the attorney representing the class.
The judge is Melvin Westmoreland.
The lawsuit argues that MERS has no legal right to foreclose on the properties, because MERS is not a lender, nor is MERS a servicing agent.
The lawsuit also states that MERS is foreclosing, without having produced the mortgage note, which would show they have a right to foreclose.
Rollins v. MERSCORP Inc. is a class action suit, which accuses MERS of wrongfully foreclosing, based on the fact that MERS had no legal right to foreclose in the first place.
Rollins v. MERSCORP Inc. hopes to reverse the previously foreclosed properties, and if the lawsuit is successful, this could be a precedent for future lawsuits.
With Georgia being a non-judicial foreclosure state, the lawsuit is important because it brings an issue before the court which would otherwise not be reviewed by the court.
The lawsuit, however, does not include households who have not foreclosed, including those currently facing foreclosure. It does not address the overall title questions impacting all the homeowners with their home titles held by MERS, including those who have not fallen behind on payments.
The Fulton County class action lawsuit is just part of an onslaught of class actions lawsuits filed around the country.
An estimated sixty percent of mortgages in the US have MERS on title.
According to author Christopher L Peterson, MERS is a shell company, with few employees, that has no legal interest in our properties.
The lawsuit claims MERS is a foreign-owned company that is not registered as a Georgia corporation with the Secretary of State's Office.
The lawsuit claims MERS is wrongfully foreclosing on millions of homes, clouding the title, while avoiding millions of dollars in county recording fees.
As previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News, MERS was created for the purpose of making the transfer and sale of loans cheap and easy. Unfortunately, as Peterson states, this is not legal, and when one separates a loan from a deed, by eliminating the need to record transfers, this clouds the title, and destroys the legal tracking system, which has caused massive legal problems.
Up until a few years ago, people used to be able to go down to the county and trace the title of a property, but today it is nearly impossible to trace the title because of MERS.
MERS shareholders, board of directors, and members are some of the very entities, that received bailouts, and contributed to the current US economic crisis. MERS shareholders include organizations such as AIG, Bank of America, Chase Home Mortgage, CitiMortgage, Fannie Mae, First American Title, Freddie Mac, GMAC, HSBC Finance Corporation, Merryll Lynch, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and Wells Fargo.
Many of these same companies made billions by packaging risky mortgages, giving them AAA ratings, selling them for a profit, and then betting that the loans would default.
The MERS system was created to avoid recording fees, while they transferred these loans over and over, causing the current economic crisis.
As previously reported by APN, banks and financial gambling institutions were literally transferring mortgages via Excel spreadsheet.
Peterson claims MERS may have robbed counties across the US of millions maybe billions of dollars in past and future recording fees.
There is an epidemic of wrongful foreclosures, mortgage fraud, and countless homeowners are being thrown out of their homes, for no good reason.
Peterson warns those who are fortunate enough to pay off their mortgage, they may not have good title. For those who are paying their mortgages, they could be paying money, only to find out the entity they are paying to is not the legal noteholder.
These lawsuits may take years to settle. The companies are quickly seeking to lobby for the passage of federal legislation, to make MERS a legal way of doing business.
Meanwhile, county attorneys do have discretion to sue for past and current recording fees, and to make sure counties start receiving fees on all transfers.
