Massachusetts court issues long-awaited decision on foreclosures - Lexology

Massachusetts court issues long-awaited decision on foreclosures - Lexology: ".

To begin with, Massachusetts is one of the states2 which permit mortgage holders to foreclose without the filing of an adversarial judicial case, a process known as “non-judicial foreclosure.” In Massachusetts, the mortgage holder must simply certify that it is exercising its contractual right to sell the property as a result of a default and that the mortgagor is not protected by the Servicemembers Act (a federal statute restricting foreclosures on property owned by a person serving in the military). The question presented in Ibanez was whether the plaintiffs, who were trustees of securitized mortgage pools, had acquired clear title as a result of their purchases of the properties in conjunction with the exercise of the non-judicial foreclosure powers granted by the mortgages on the properties."