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42 LEGAL INDUSTRY UPDATE NATIONAL FOCUS NATIONAL LEGAL LEAGUE PRESENTS TITLE DEFECT WEBINAR By Staff e Legal League 100 held a webinar with a focus on title defects and how they can disrupt the foreclosure process titled, "How to Lose Your Case Before It Starts—Title Defects." "We are pleased to be able to provide these type of educational opportunities for the industry," said Legal League 100 Executive Director Derek Templeton. "Whether it be by conducting webinars, producing reports, or simply providing a forum for legal professionals to collaborate with their mortgage servicing partners at the Legal League 100 Servicer Summits, we look forward to further showcasing the expertise represented by our member firms." e webinar was provided free of charge to the mortgage servicing industry and hosted by Jim DeLoach, Senior Counsel at McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLC and Chairman of the Legal League 100 Education Subcommittee. e speakers, in addition to DeLoach, were Caren Jacobs Castle of the Wolf Firm, Shaun Ramey of Sirote and Permutt, and Morgan Weinstein of Van Ness Law Firm. For approximately 45 minutes, the experts covered multiple scenarios in which title defects could rear their ugly head. Topics covered included wrongful release of a lien, servicing transfers, correcting recording issues, and statute of limitation concerns. A portion of the webinar cited case studies on hot topics specific to individual states, with the understanding that any of these issues could easily spread to neighboring states. For example, Shaun Ramey noted differences to consider in judicial states like Florida, compared to nonjudicial states. "Are we talking about maybe a single woman buying the property, but the mortgage doesn't provide if she has a spouse or not," said Ramey. "In judicial states like Florida, you may want to name an unknown spouse, so if she got married at any point, then you are also able to take out the interest of a spouse." e League plans on hosting future webinars in order to bring the leading experts of the mortgage servicing industry to your desktop. NATIONAL MORTGAGEE'S SECOND BITE AT A CLAIM FOR PROPERTY LOSS By Tobias J. Lipski and Jason J. Liss In short, while the acts, omissions, or representations of the mortgagor might entitle an insurer to deny a mortgagor's claim for loss under a homeowner's policy, the mortgagee might still be able to recover, depending on both the language in the contract(s) and the mortgagee's compliance with the same. e extent to which the mortgagee's financial interest is protected depends, however, on the nature of the policy's loss payable clause. While they may be given different labels, depending on the type of property covered, the two most common loss payable clauses are the ordinary mortgage clause and the standard mortgage clause. Of the two, the standard mortgage clause affords the mortgagee far greater protection. e Ordinary Mortgage Clause Under an ordinary mortgage clause, the mortgagee is no more than an appointee to receive the insurance proceeds up to the amount of its financial interest in the insured property. Common language in an ordinary mortgage clause states that the insurer will pay the mortgagee for a covered loss "as interests may appear" in the policy declarations. Under this type of mortgage clause, the mortgagee's right to receive payment is wholly dependent on the insured's ability to recover under the policy. erefore, under an ordinary mortgage clause, an insured's acts, omissions, and misrepresentations, over which the mortgagee has no control, may result in a forfeiture of the mortgagee's right to recover for an otherwise covered loss. e Standard Mortgage Clause In contrast, the standard mortgage clause insulates the mortgagee from the effects of any of the insured's conduct that violates a policy condition or triggers an exclusion to coverage. Land Contract vendors have the same status as mortgagees under a standard mortgage clause. ough contained entirely within the insured's policy, the standard mortgage clause is considered to establish a separate and independent contract between the insurer and the mortgage holder and has its own conditions specifically applicable to the mortgagee in the event of any default by the insured. e following language excerpted from the mortgage clause of an ISO Commercial Property Building and Personal Property Coverage Form (CP 00 10 04 02) contains all of the hallmarks of a typical standard mortgage clause: "We will pay for covered loss of or damage to buildings or structures to each mortgage holder shown in the declarations in their order of precedence, as interests may appear. If we deny your claim because of your acts or because you have failed to comply with the terms of this Coverage Part, the mortgage holder will still have the right to receive loss payment if the mortgage holder: (1) Pays any premium due under this

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