DO-OVERS DENIED IN MASSACHUSETTS FORECLOSURE LAWSUITS
 

Following Land Court Justice Keith C. Long's March 26, 2009, ruling that invalided two mortgage foreclosures conducted by U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, those banks moved to vacate the Court's judgment.  In U.S. Bank National Association v. Ibanez & two companion cases, Land Court Miscellaneous Case Nos. 384283, 386018, 386755 (KCL) (Mar. 26, 2009), the Court found that two foreclosures were invalid because their published notices of sale failed to name the mortgage holders as required by G. L. c. 244, § 14, and because the banks were not assigned an interest in those mortgages until after the foreclosure sales had taken place.  Although both banks bid successfully at the foreclosure sales, and subsequently recorded all the relevant documents, neither bank had a record interest in the properties at the time of either publication or foreclosure.  Consequently, the Court found the banks' foreclosures void as a matter of law.