Wednesday, November 14, 2012

"Possession of the Note Determines Standing to Foreclose"

In Everhome Mortgage Co. v. Janssen (2D11-4592), the Second District reversed the trial court's order vacating a judgment and dismissing a complaint for lack of jurisdiction. The court stated:
We are compelled to point out that possession of the note determines standing to foreclose. See Taylor v. Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC, 74 So. 3d 1115, 1117 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011). The holder of the original note endorsed in blank has standing. Id. "[A] mortgage is but an incident to the debt, the payment of which it secures, and its ownership follows the assignment of the debt. If the note or other debt secured by a mortgage be transferred without any formal assignment of the mortgage, or even a delivery of it, the mortgage in equity passes as an incident to the debt . . . ." WM Specialty Mortg., LLC v. Salomon, 874 So. 2d 680, 682 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004)(quoting Johns v. Gillian, 184 So. 140, 143 (Fla. 1938)). More fundamentally, however,"[e]ven if [the plaintiff] lacked standing when it filed suit, the final judgment is merely voidable, not void." Dage v. Deutsche Bank Nat'l Trust Co., 95 So. 3d 1021, 1024 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012) (citing Phadael v. Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas, 83 So. 3d 893, 895 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012)).
As a result, the trial court's order was reversed.