August 6, 2014

A trustee’s (foreclosure) sale has been stopped in Williamson County, Tennessee on Motion of the homeowner who is represented by Jeff Barnes, Esq. and local TN counsel John Higgins, Esq. This is the second sale which has been stopped by Mr. Barnes and Mr. Higgins in TN in a span of 11 days.

The case involves an origination by America’s Wholesale Lender (which stopped doing business in 2008) and an alleged transfer to a 2005 securitization Trust via MERS. Nationstar Mortgage LLC sought foreclosure as the servicer to the Trust.

Nationstar’s attorneys Rubin & Lublin PLLC sent a letter to the homeowner claiming that she had a loan with MERS. This statement was not only false in fact (as MERS does not lend money, is not the “Lender” on the Note, and is never a “lender”), but was also made more than six months after the Court of Appeals of Tennessee issued its decision in the MERS v. Ditto (No. E2012-02292-COA-R3-CV, opinion issued January 2, 2014) which held that MERS has no independent or protected interest despite MERS being named as the “beneficiary” or “nominee”.

To further confound the matter, on May 2, 2014, Nationstar advised the homeowner that the foreclosing party is The Bank of New York Mellon FKA The Bank of New York as successor Trustee to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. as trustee for the Structured Asset Mortgage Investments II Trust. However, 7 weeks later (on June 23, 2014), Nationstar’s attorneys Rubin & Lublin claimed that an entity styled Bank of New York Mellon Corporation as the Trustee for the Structured Assets Mortgage Investments II, Inc. was the foreclosing party. The letter advised that the sale was scheduled for August 7, 2014.

It gets worse. On July 7, 2014, Nationstar sent a letter to the homeowner claiming that JPMorgan Chase Bank as Trustee for a trust with a different description was the owner of the loan. Four days later, Nationstar’s attorneys sent a letter to the homeowner again claiming that the homeowner had a loan with MERS, and again claimed that BNY “Corporation” as trustee for the Trust “Inc.” was foreclosing. There is no explanation for the change in entities, or how the loan rights went first to the 2005 Trust for either of the BNY entities, then to JPM, then back to BNY.

Accordingly, the Court, on papers researched and drafted by Mr. Barnes and filed by Mr. Higgins who handled the TRO proceeding, stopped the sale.

Jeff Barnes, Esq., www.ForeclosureDefenseNationwide.com