Bankster Attempt To Score 'Get Out Of Jail Free' Card Over MERS Mess Falls Flat; Pitchfork-Wielding Public To OR Lawmakers: Don't Even Think About It!

The Oregonian reports:

• A late attempt by the finance industry to waive Oregon mortgage recording laws in most foreclosures is dead. The Oregon House Judiciary Committee voted [] to approve Senate Bill 519 without an amendment sought last week by loan servicers, title companies and credit unions. The amendment would have relieved lenders of ensuring a property's ownership history is properly recorded in public records before foreclosing outside a courtroom.
• The committee voted with no debate to send the bill to a floor vote without the amendment. Afterward, co-chair Jeff Barker cited a public outcry over the amendment as reason for its failure and described an intense back-room negotiations to do so."There was a lot of opposition," said Barker, D-Aloha. "I probably got more emails about this than anything all session."(1)
• Document recording and signing issues have hung up foreclosures across the nation, and many of them have involved the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS.
• Federal judges in Oregon have blocked such foreclosures, saying MERS failed to record underlying documents properly as required by Oregon law in out-of-court foreclosures.(2)

For more, see MERS foreclosure amendment dies in Oregon House committee.

(1) No doubt the incensed public was driven to their pitchforks (metaphorically speaking, of course) in expressing their sentiments to state lawmakers on this issue, as evidenced by this photo of an obviously-outraged couple.

(2) For more on MERS' role in foreclosure actions:

• Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.: A Survey of Cases Discussing MERS’ Authority to Act,
• The Case Against Allowing Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) to Initiate Foreclosure Proceedings,
• Two Faces: Demystifying the Mortgage Electronic Registration System's Land Title Theory,
• The Murky Mess of MERS: The Complications of Collecting on Promissory Notes When MERS is Around,
• Foreclosure, Subprime Mortgage Lending, and the Mortgage Electronic Registration System.