Sub-Prime Mortgages in Arizona

Say it. Don’t Spray it!

Posted on February 17, 2011 in Arizona Law Regarding Business Disputes

When I was a kid, Mr. Winn, my 5th grade teacher would say… “Say it. Don’t spray it!” We all knew what he meant. I just put up about 25 pleadings from the Mortgages Limited fiasco.  The Sierra club will go nuts on how many trees we will kill in this case. Note, the lawyers on both sides write pretty good. The Defendants have 38 lawyers. No doubt another 20 will join. The Plaintiff’s have 1.

We are all trying to make a complex matter understandable. At the Scottsdale law firm of William A. Miller we try hard to write clear. Some lawyers pull this off. Others do not. We also handle, Breach of contract, Non-compete agreements, Non-disclosure agreements, Employee theft and embezzlement, Insurance purchases and enforcement of policy coverage, Negotiation and/or enforcement of commercial leases, Negligence and gross negligence resulting in losses, Intentional acts causing a company to suffer damages, Tortious interference with contractual relationships, Unjust enrichment, Real Estate fraud, Consumer fraud, Conversion/Theft, Intentional and/or negligent misrepresentation, Business torts and Real estate title & escrow.

Arizona Trial & Business Law

William A. Miller, Esq.

William A. Miller, PLLC

8170 North 86th Place, Suite 208
Scottsdale, Arizona 85258

A long winded brief filed in the Supreme Court lost its audience in the the very first sentence of the brief:

The issue presented in this case — which arises under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, 5 U.S.C. § 7101, et seq. (“Federal Labor Statute”) — is whether the most basic policies of that Act should play any role in a major area of its administration, viz., in determining whether a union acting as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of federal sector employees — having been selected by those employees through the secret ballot electoral processes provided by federal law — is entitled to the disclosure of personnel records of bargaining unit employees when such disclosure is “necessary for the full and proper” performance of that representative’s collective bargaining functions.

The writer of that sentence asked way too much. Must be they are paid by the word. By contrast, this lawyer got it right:

There is an old riddle: Which weighs more, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks? While many find the question deceptive at first, the correct answer, that a ton is a ton regardless of what is being weighed, becomes irrefutably clear once explained. But in enacting and now defending the NR Exemption, the State has managed to get the answer wrong — a ton of soybeans or chicken feed is treated as though it weighs less than a ton of baked beans or dog food.

The reader is sure to understand the point.

If you need help with any legal matters feel free to call Scottsdale, Arizona  trial lawyer Bill Miller at 602-319-6899. We take cases involving:

Breach of contract, Non-compete agreements, Non-disclosure agreements, Employee theft and embezzlement, Insurance purchases and enforcement of policy coverage, Negotiation and/or enforcement of commercial leases, Negligence and gross negligence resulting in losses, Intentional acts causing a company to suffer damages, Tortious interference with contractual relationships, Unjust enrichment, Real Estate fraud, Consumer fraud, Conversion/Theft, Intentional and/or negligent misrepresentation, Business torts and Real estate title & escrow.

William A. Miller, PLLC, is an Arizona law firm dedicated to this simple philosophy: In every case we handle, we strive to be the best! To demand of ourselves the highest standard of diligence and follow through. To turn over every stone. To return client calls immediately and not hide behind “lawyer speak” when confronted with tough issues. Our mandate is to treat our clients with the highest level of respect, integrity and empathy – to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Who’s on First

Posted on August 20, 2010 in Arizona Law Regarding Business and Real Estate

Mortgages bundled into securities were a favorite trick of Wall Street at the height of the big bubble. The securities changed hands frequently, the French bought billions, and the investment banks profiting from mortgage payments were often not the same parties that made the loans. At the heart of this disconnect was the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, a company that serves as the mortgagee of record for lenders, allowing mortgage pools to transfer without the necessity of recording. The point was investment banker fees without responsibility or accountability to the home owner!

MERS was made for the banks, but courts are now slamming down the impact of all of this financial juggling when it comes to mortgage ownership. To foreclose on real property, the plaintiff must be able to establish the chain of title entitling it to relief. As MERS has acknowledged that MERS is a “nominee”—an entity appointed by the true owner simply for the purpose of holding property in order to facilitate transactions. Recent court opinions stress that this defect is not just a procedural but is a substantive failure, one that is fatal to the plaintiff’s legal ability to foreclose.

The latest decisions came down in California on May 20, 2010, in a bankruptcy case called In re Walker, Case no. 10-21656-E–11. The court held that MERSbecause it was a mere nominee; and that as a result, plaintiff Citibank could not collect on its claim. The judge opined:

Since no evidence of MERS’ ownership of the underlying note has been offered, and
other courts have concluded that MERS does not own the underlying notes, this
court is convinced that MERS had no interest it could transfer to Citibank.
Since MERS did not own the underlying note, it could not transfer the
beneficial interest of the Deed of Trust to another. Any attempt to transfer
the beneficial interest of a trust deed without ownership of the underlying
note is void under California law
.

While not binding on courts in other jurisdictions, the ruling could serve as persuasive precedent there as well, because the court cited non-bankruptcy cases related to the lack of authority of MERS, and because the opinion is consistent with prior rulings in Idaho and Nevada Bankruptcy courts on the same issue. Call Bill Miller at 480-948-3095 a long standing Arizona Trial and Real Estate Lawyer located in Scottsdale.

Arizona Trial & Business Law

William A. Miller, Esq.

William A. Miller, PLLC

8170 North 86th Place, Suite 208
Scottsdale, Arizona 85258

To the Left to the Left

Posted on June 25, 2010 in Arizona Law Regarding Business and Real Estate

For a long time conservative like me, this is a tough issue to blog on. I lean left on the Gulf oil spill mess. So, call me a flaming liberal; no pun intended.

For over a month or two, Obama watched the oil spill spread over the Gulf of Mexico with the same powerless shock as other Americans. Regarding this, the right wing pundits got a big time pay back for Bush slander on Katrina. Yep, Bush should have stopped the hurricane & Obama could plug the leak.

Lampooned by his contingency & ‘my people’ for his impotence, Obama was spurred into action. He attacked the only available party—BP—and, to underline the stress with which he takes this problem, he gave his first Oval Office address on the subject. Lawsuits! That is what the professional/motivational speaker/professor said. Where is “mission-accomplished-bush” when you need him!

Obama’s address got poor reviews; his attack on BP better ones. Last week the firm bowed to pressure, and announced that it was, in effect, handing over $20 billion to the government to pay for compensation and clean-up, as well as cancelling the payment of any dividends this year and setting up a fund—of a mere $100m—to compensate unemployed oil workers.

This may do Obama some good. Whether it will benefit our friends in the Gulf is more doubtful. Businessmen are already blue, shot-down by the economy and nervous of their president’s attitude towards free markets.

I lean very left on this one. Where are those ‘onerous-left-wing-regulations” when you need them? Anyone who says the ‘free market’ can solve this mess needs history lessons.

Go get ‘em Obama! Sue everyone later, but fix the problem first.

May God richly bless our friends in the Gulf as this drags on.

Make sure to call Bill Miller @ 480-948-3095, a 22 year Arizona litigation and trial lawyer with any questions about Arizona law or Maricopa County courts.

Arizona Trial & Business Law

William A. Miller, Esq.

William A. Miller, PLLC

8170 North 86th Place, Suite 208
Scottsdale, Arizona 85258

Be Careful of What you Ask for…

Posted on May 5, 2010 in Sub-Prime Mortgages in Arizona

My dad always said be careful of what you ask for because you might just get it. “Drill, baby,drill” was a siren song during the last election and some were all too quick to want more off-shore drilling. Well, look what happened … The big spill has been unfolding for more than two weeks, pouring…

Read More

The Fox Teaching at the Hen House

Posted on April 13, 2010 in Sub-Prime Mortgages in Arizona

It’s not the traditional law professor career path, but disgraced securities plaintiffs attorney and all around scum bag Bill Lerach might make the transition from prison cell to ivory tower, according to ALM. The University of California, Irvine School of Law is considering having Lerach teach an upper-level course in 2011, Assistant Dean for Communications…

Read More

Think Global- Sue ’em Local

Posted on March 23, 2010 in Sub-Prime Mortgages in Arizona

As it has been said in ALM (American Lawyer Media), “In a global economy, price and convenience are valued above all else.” Global consumers demand produce out of season, buy sophisticated appliances made with cheap labor and build homes with materials shipped from abroad. And yet when these products prove to be defective, they expect…

Read More

God’s Grace

Posted on in Sub-Prime Mortgages in Arizona

I just got back from my beach house in San Diego with a sad story regarding the direction of our Country. OK, it was very late, I had my old golden retriever Rose, a backpack beach chair, a nasty beard, a surf t-shirt, G-Star jeans from France (looked gnarly by design) and a rusty beach…

Read More

A Rose is a Rose

Posted on February 26, 2010 in Sub-Prime Mortgages in Arizona

A Rose is a Rose by any other name. So is a crook and a federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of Franklin Brown, the former general counsel of Rite Aid, on fraud and obstruction charges in connection with the $1.6 billion accounting scandal that sent half a dozen executives to prison and cut the company’s stock price…

Read More

TARANTULAS

Posted on September 1, 2009 in Sub-Prime Mortgages in Arizona

“Tarantulas” was the term philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used for those who are consumed by resentment. Unable themselves to be great at anything, they burn with a feverish fervor, expressed as righteous anger, to tear down the reputations of those who are great. Nietzsche regarded it as one of our deepest, darkest motivations. I think of…

Read More

Confidential Data

Posted on March 1, 2009 in Sub-Prime Mortgages in Arizona

What should a litigant do when confronted with disclosure of confidential metadata? Conversely, what should you do if you learn that confidential metadata has been disclosed? Some recent case law may offer insight: In People v. Gomez, 134 Cal. App. 3d 874, 879 (1982), the court, dealing with privileged material in general, held that failure to…

Read More
© Copyright 2008 William A. Miller, Esq., All Rights Reserved