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ยป VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 75 IN THE NEWS Massachusetts Court Rules in Favor of MERS e Appeals Court of Massachusetts became the latest court to uphold the validity of the assignment of a mortgage by Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), according to a recent announcement from MERSCORP Holdings, parent company of MERS. e borrowers in the case of Hoyt v. BAC Home Loan Servicing had previously challenged a lower court's ruling that MERS' assignment of a mortgage was valid. e Appeals Court ruled that under Massachusetts law, a mortgage's legal interest may be separated from the beneficial interest in the debt it secures. e court also ruled that the assignment of the mortgage by MERS was valid, and because MERS held the record legal interest in the mortgage when it executed the assignment, the assignment conveyed legal interest in the mortgage to the foreclosing entity. e Appeals Court went on to rule that the foreclosing entity (assignee of the mortgage) had the legal right to foreclose on the property because a foreclosing entity was not legally required to hold the mortgage note at the time the foreclosure was initiated. Moreover, the Appeals Court ruled that the lower court was not in error with its judgment that the borrower lacked standing to challenge MERS' assignment of the mortgage. "MERS has legal authority to execute mortgage assignments," MERSCORP Holdings VP for corporate communications Janis Smith said. "is authority is granted by plain language in the mortgage document signed at closing by the borrower." MERS has won victories in courts in many states in the last two years over borrowers facing foreclosure who challenged the company's authority to act as mortgagee or assign the deed of trust, including Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Hampshire, Montana, Idaho, Arkansas, and Texas. e latest such decision occurred in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in late March. Massachusetts RANK: 19 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate MARCH 2015 2.43% 1.72% 4.8 YEAR AGO 3.49% 1.57% 5.9 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -30.4% 9.2% -1.1 Top County FRANKLIN COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate MARCH 2015 0.42% 3.66% YEAR AGO 2.24% 3.55% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -81.3% 3.2% Top Core-Based Statistical Area GREENFIELD TOWN, MA 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate MARCH 2015 4.42% 3.61% YEAR AGO 5.51% 3.24% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -19.9% 11.5% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the March 2015 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary March 2015 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. New Hampshire RANK: 33 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate MARCH 2015 1.66% 0.98% 3.9 YEAR AGO 2.08% 1.06% 4.5 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -20.3% -7.7% -0.6 Top County SULLIVAN COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate MARCH 2015 2.59% 2.11% YEAR AGO 2.93% 1.78% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -11.6% 18.9% Top Core-Based Statistical Area CLAREMONT-LEBANON, NH-VT 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate MARCH 2015 1.64% 1.59% YEAR AGO 2.10% 1.33% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -22.0% 19.5% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the March 2015 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary March 2015 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. New Jersey RANK: 1 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate MARCH 2015 2.83% 5.15% 6.5 YEAR AGO 3.29% 6.53% 6.8 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -13.8% -21.2% -0.3 Top County SALEM COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate MARCH 2015 4.82% 9.16% YEAR AGO 5.09% 11.56% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -5.2% -20.7% Top Core-Based Statistical Area VINELAND-BRIDGETON, NJ 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate MARCH 2015 6.38% 8.10% YEAR AGO 6.50% 10.40% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -1.8% -22.1% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the March 2015 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary March 2015 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. The serious delinquency rate in New Jersey for March, the highest in the nation for the month. Source: CoreLogic STAT INSIGHT 8.9%