Federal Judge: Pennsylvania Law Requires, Not Merely Permits, Recording Of All Mortgage Assignments; Refuses To Dismiss County Suit Tagging MERS For Failing To Cough Up Associated Recording Fees

From a client alert from the law firm Ballard Spahr:

• A Pennsylvania federal court recently refused to dismiss a putative class action filed against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) by a county recorder of deeds seeking to compel MERS to record past, present, and future mortgage assignments and pay the associated recording fees.
  
  In Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Recorder of Deeds v. MERSCORP, Inc., and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., the court interpreted Pennsylvania's recording statute to require, rather than merely permit, the recording of all conveyances.
  
  Although a mortgage is recorded naming MERS the mortgagee as nominee for the lender and its assigns, no assignment is recorded when the note secured by the mortgage is transferred to a new owner who is a MERS system member. Instead, the change in beneficial ownership is registered in the MERS electronic database.

For more, see Pennsylvania County Recorder Can Sue MERS for Failure to Record Mortgage Assignments, Federal Court Rules.