The Texas Supreme Court recently delivered two significant decisions concerning the home equity provisions of the Texas Constitution. In Wood v. HSBC Bank USA, N.A. and Ocwen Loan Servicing, L.L.C., the Court rejected a 4-year statute of limitations on a borrower’s right to request a cure of a defective home equity loan. The 14th Texas Court of Appeals had held that home equity liens that do not comply with the requirements in §50(a)(6) of the Texas Constitution are voidable,

Martin Leigh PC law firm is very proud to announce that Bev Weber has been selected to the 2016 class of The Kansas City Business Journal's Women Who Mean Business. To be eligible, applicants must be engaged in for-profit business and be an entrepreneur, a top-ranking corporate woman in the Kansas City region, a partner leading a practice group or serve on an executive committee. Bev is all of these and more. She dedicates herself to leading the Firm and mentoring attorneys

Strapped for cash while years-old foreclosure cases languish in the New Jersey Court system, Homeowner and Condominium Associations are using a new legal tactic to try to shake down foreclosing lenders for monthly association dues. Associations have started to file actions in the Special Civil Division (Small Claims Court) claiming that a lender becomes a mortgagee in possession once they secure and winterize a vacant property. At first, many lenders were willing to quickly

In Holm v. Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac, Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District No. 78666, the Missouri Court of Appeals addressed a wrongful residential foreclosure lawsuit. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment against Wells Fargo (servicer) which included $2,959,123 in punitive damages and $200,000 in emotional stress damages. The appellate court reversed the judgment regarding $89,762.30 awarded to the borrower concerning a claim for a post-foreclosure loss in

For a creditor, the “bar date” in a Chapter 13 case is an important deadline. It is the date by which a creditor must file its proof of claim in order to be included in a debtor’s Chapter 13 plan. Many bankruptcy courts do not strictly enforce the bar date and will allow creditors to file a late claim, so long as the debtors and their attorneys consent to the untimely filing. However, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has recently dec

On May 20, 2016, the Texas Supreme Court issued a pivotal opinion regarding the applicability of the Texas statute of limitations on a claim regarding the validity of a lien securing a constitutionally established home-equity loan. The Texas Supreme Court held that “liens securing constitutionally noncompliant home-equity loans are invalid until cured and thus not subject to any statute of limitations” and that therefore “no statute of limitations applies to cut off a homeown

On April 7, 2016, Cook County enacted General Administrative Order No. 2016-03 which details the requirements for motions to reform legal descriptions in mortgage foreclosure cases. Reformation counts have become increasingly more frequent in mortgage foreclosure cases over the past few years. This is mostly due to the fact that many investors will not accept indemnification letters from title companies for incorrect legal descriptions Lenders’ and servicers’ counsel are oft