Rhode Island Rejects Foreclosure Claim Against MERSCORP

MERSCORP Holdings Inc. has announced that Rhode Island Superior Court Associate Justice Allen P. Rubine has rejected another claim of wrongful foreclosure against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS) and other co-defendants. In Akalarian v. RBMG, Inc., et al, the borrower challenged MERS’ authority to assign the mortgage and claimed that the MERS assignment to IndyMac nullified IndyMac’s subsequent foreclosure. In his ruling in favor of the defendants, Associate Justice Rubine wrote, “This issue has been conclusively resolved by the recent Rhode Island Supreme Court decision in Bucci v. Lehman Bros. Bank, FSB wherein the Court affirmed MERS’ authority to act as a mortgagee and as nominee of the lender pursuant to a mortgage contract and to exercise the statutory power of sale granted to MERS under that contract.” Justice Rubine also found that the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s adoption of the First Circuit’s reasoning in Culhane v. Aurora supported his finding that “a mortgagee executing a mortgage assignment need not be explicitly acting as an agent of the noteholder in order to transfer its bare legal interest in the mortgage …” “With the Superior Court’s consistent rulings on this issue, and the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s decision in Bucci, the questions regarding MERS’ role in mortgage loan transactions has been consistently upheld,” said Janis L. Smith, MERSCORP Holdings vice president of corporate communications. “The law in Rhode Island is clear.”