MERS Tagged Again With Another Suit By Municipality Accusing Bankster With Dodging Recording, Fee Payment Requirements

In Le Mars, Iowa, the Sioux City Journal reports:

• Plymouth County has filed a class-action lawsuit against a national electronic mortgage registry company it says has enabled banks to avoid paying Iowa mortgage recording fees.



• Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond filed the suit on behalf of all 99 Iowa counties against MERSCORP Holdings Inc. and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., known as MERS, which tracks mortgages sold and traded among banks that subscribe to the company's service. The suit also names several of the nation's largest banks and mortgage companies.



• In the lawsuit, Raymond said MERS has allowed banks to skirt Iowa's public information and recording laws by trading mortgages through an electronic registry that lists MERS as the mortgage holder, even though the banks are buying and selling the mortgages.



• Iowa law requires a document called an assignment of mortgage to be filed in the county recorder's office when a mortgage is sold. The MERS system enables banks to avoid that practice and the payment of the accompanying filing fees, the lawsuit said.



• Plymouth County is asserting claims of unjust enrichment and civil conspiracy, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages and has asked that the defendants record all past mortgage transactions that were not recorded from Jan. 1, 1998, through the present.



• The suit was originally filed in Plymouth County District Court, but was transferred last week to U.S. District Court in Sioux City. No hearings have been scheduled. Plymouth County is not the first to file suit against MERS to recover recording fees. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Pennsylvania, Texas and North Carolina.

For more, see Plymouth County sues over mortgage recording practices.

For the lawsuit, see Plymouth County, Iowa v. Merscorp, et al.