Brooklyn Judge Presides Over A Corporate "Kansas City Shuffle" In Foreclosure Action?

In a Brooklyn, New York foreclosure action decided in January, 2008, certain actions involving the acquisition of a mortgage in default and the subsequent execution of the assignment documents by the mortgage "entities" IndyMac Bank, Deutsche Bank and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems left one Brooklyn trial judge scratching his head. In denying foreclosure (with a right to refile the action) against a local homeowner, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Arthur M. Schack (wondering if he was presiding over a corporate "Kansas City Shuffle"- explained below) writes:

• With the assignor MERS and assignee DEUTSCHE BANK appearing to be engaged in possible fraudulent activity by: having the same person execute the assignment and then the affidavit of facts in support of the instant application; DEUTSCHE BANK's purchase of a non-performing loan from INDYMAC; and, the sharing of office space in Suite 400/500 in Kansas City, the Court wonders if the instant foreclosure action is a corporate "Kansas City Shuffle," a complex confidence game. In the 2006 film, Lucky Number Slevin, Mr. Goodkat, (a hitman played by Bruce Willis), explains (in memorable quotes from Lucky Number Slevin, at www.imdb.com/title/tt425210/quotes):

• "A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left . . . It's not something people hear about. Falls on deaf ears mostly . . . No small matter. Requires a lot of planning. Involves a lot of people. People connected by the slightest of events. Like whispers in the night, in that place that never forgets, even when those people do."

• In this foreclosure action is plaintiff DEUTSCHE BANK, with its "principal place of business" in Kansas City attempting to make the Court look right while it goes left?

For more, see Deutsche Bank Natl. Trust Co. v Maraj; 2008 NY Slip Op 50176(U) [18 Misc 3d 1123(A)]; Decided on January 31, 2008, Supreme Court, Kings County.

For an article containing some observations on this case, see New Rules Toughen Servicers' Foreclosure Procedures.

For other posts that reference the failure of some mortgage lenders and their attorneys to file the required loan documents when starting foreclosures, Go Here, Go Here, Go Here and Go Here. missing mortgage foreclosure docs gamma