Vasquez v. Saxon Mortgage, Inc., et al.
Nov 17, 2011OUTCOME: Answer to Q 1: No, as Mr. Mandel argued. Answer to Q2: unnecessary to answer, as Mr. Mandel argued.
The Arizona Supreme Court accepted jurisdiction of two non-judicial foreclosure questions of critical importance to the lending industry, including whether, under Arizona law, each and all assignments ... of a deed of trust must be recorded in the county land records before the party seeking to foreclose on distressed commercial or residential property may record a notice of substitution of trustee and a notice of trustee's sale. A ruling that such assignments must be recorded threatened to unravel well over a 100,000 trustee's sales that had already occurred in Arizona and potentially to render 100s of thousands of defaulting borrowers foreclosure-proof. In addition, an adverse ruling would have nullified hundreds of years of established precedent that the mortgage automatically follows the promissory note and that a negotiable instrument signed in blank is freely negotiable. The second question was whether the party seeking to foreclose must be the same party that holds the promissory note. The Arizona Supreme Court selected this case as one of only two cases for oral argument at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law on September 22, 2011. Mr. Mandel briefed and presented oral argument to the Supreme Court.
