Law Commons^™

Financial Reform: Making The System Safer And Fairer, Michael S. Barr

Articles

In the fall of 2008, the financial crisis crushed the U.S. economy and plunged the country into the Great Recession. The crisis shuttered American businesses, cost millions of Americans their jobs, and wiped out home values and household savings. The macro effects hit hardest and were the longest lasting for those least able to bear the brunt of the crisis. It was devastating to middle-income families and perhaps even more so to low- and moderate-income households, who had little financial buffer (Barr 2012a). Financial stability, never robust for these families, dropped precipitously (Barr and Schaffa 2016). Both in the United …

Foiled By The Banks? How A Lender's Decision May Support Or Undermine A Jurisdiction's Environmental Policies That Promote Green Buildings, Darren A. Prum

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

A United Nations Environmental Programme report addressing climate change states that the built environment in both emerging and developed countries accounts for more than forty percent of global energy usage and at least one third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The report further asserts that the built environment offers an unsurpassed opportunity to supply cost effective, lasting, and meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In response to this call to action, state and local governments in the U.S. have turned to a variety of policies to ensure that real estate developments within their jurisdictions further green building objectives. However, …

The Constitutionality Of Using Eminent Domain To Condemn Underwater Mortgage Loans, Katharine Roller

Michigan Law Review

One of the most visible and devastating components of the financial crisis that began in 2007 and 2008 has been a nationwide foreclosure crisis. In the wake of ultimately ineffective attempts at federal policy intervention to address the foreclosure crisis, a private firm has proposed that counties and municipalities use their power of eminent domain to seize “underwater” mortgage loans—-mortgage loans in which the debt exceeds the value of the underlying property—-from the private securitization trusts that currently hold them. Having condemned the mortgage loans, the counties and municipalities would reduce the debt to a level below the value of …

Mezzanine Finance And Preferred Equity Investment In Commercial Real Estate: Security, Collateral & Control, Jon S. Robins, David E. Wallace, Mark Franke

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

This article will review both the genesis and the rise in popularity of preferred equity and mezzanine debt, examine their legal and structural differences, and provide some exposition as to how these financing techniques work from security, collateral and control standpoints. We do not undertake in this article to address the differences in tax and accounting treatment between mezzanine loans and preferred equity investments both for either the mezzanine lender or preferred equity investor on the one hand, or for the mezzanine borrower or the common equity investor, on the other hand. In deciding upon which structure to use, transaction …

Behaviorally Informed Regulation, Michael S. Barr, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir

Book Chapters

Policy makers typically approach human behavior from the perspective of the rational agent model, which relics on normativc, a priori analyses. The model assumes people make insightful, well-planned, highly controlled, and calculated decisions guided by considerations of personal utility. This perspective is promoted in the social sciences and in professional schools and has come to dominate much of the formulation and conduct of policy. An alternative view, developed mostly through empirical behavioral research, and the one we will articulate here, provides a substantially difierent perspective on individual behavior and its policy and regulatory implications. According to the empirical perspective, behavior …

Fair Lending 2.0: A Borrower-Based Solution To Discrimination In Mortgage Lending, Jared Ruiz Bybee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Fair lending laws promise that borrowers with similar credit profiles will receive similar loan products-regardless of their race. Yet, studies reveal that black and Latino borrowers consistently receive loan products that are inferior to those of white borrowers with similar credit characteristics. Despite frequent amendments since their passage during the Civil Rights Era, the Fair Lending Laws that opened doors for minority borrowers are unable to root out the subtle discrimination that persists in today's mortgage lending market. These traditional Fair Lending Laws are built on an outdated framework that focuses exclusively on punishing lenders and righting past wrongs. This …

Ability To Pay, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

The landmark Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 ("Dodd-Frank") transforms the regulation of consumer credit in the United States. Many of its changes have been high-profile, attracting considerable media and scholarly attention, most notably the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB"). Even specific consumer reforms, such as a so-called "plain vanilla" proposal, drew hot debate and lobbying firepower. But when the dust settled, one profoundly transformative innovation that did not garner the same outrage as plain vanilla or the CFPB did get into the law: imposing upon lenders a duty to assure a borrower's ability to repay. Ensuring a borrower's …

The Case For Behaviorally Informed Regulation, Michael S. Barr, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir

Book Chapters

Policymakers approach human behavior largely through the perspective of the “rational agent” model, which relies on normative, a priori analyses of the making of rational decisions. This perspective is promoted in the social sciences and in professional schools, and has come to dominate much of the formulation and conduct of policy. An alternative view, developed mostly through empirical behavioral research, provides a substantially different perspective on individual behavior and its policy implications. Behavior, according to the empirical perspective, is the outcome of perceptions, impulses, and other processes that characterize the impressive machinery that we carry behind the eyes and between …

An Opt-Out Home Mortgage System, Michael S. Barr, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir

Other Publications

The current housing and financial crisis has led to significant congressional and executive action to manage the crisis and stem the harms from it, but the fundamental problems that caused the crisis remain largely unaddressed. The central features of the industrial organization of the mortgage market with its misaligned incentives, and the core psychological and behavioral phenomena that drive household financial decisionmaking remain. While the causes of the mortgage meltdown are myriad and the solutions likely to be multifaceted, a central problem that led to the crisis was that brokers and lenders offered loans that looked much less expensive and …

Issue Brief: Overcoming Legal Barriers To The Bulk Sale Of At-Risk Mortgages, Michael S. Barr, James A. Feldman

Other Publications

This memorandum argues that the sale of loans and loan pools to new owners would help to stabilize housing prices, and that such a modification to the REMIC rules would be desirable and well within Congress’ constitutional authority. Furthermore, it would not lead to successful legal claims by investors in securitized loan pools under the Just Compensation or Due Process clauses, which provide the primary constitutional protections for property interests.

Behaviorally Informed Financial Services Regulation, Michael S. Barr, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir

Other Publications

Financial services decisions can have enourmous consequences for household well-being. Households need a range of financial services - to conduct basic transactions, such as receiving their income, storing it, and paying bills; to save for emergency needs and long-term goals; to access credit; and to insure against life's key risks. But the financial services system is exceedingly complicated and often not well-designed to optimize house-hold behavior. In response to the complexity of out financial system, there has been a long running debate about the appropriate role and form of regulation. Regulation is largely stuck in two competing models - disclosure, …

Facing The Facts: An Empirical Study Of The Fairness And Efficiency Of Foreclosures And A Proposal For Reform, Debra Pogrund Stark

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Lenders view real estate foreclosures as too expensive and time consuming a process which needlessly increases the costs of making loans. Others complain that the foreclosure process fails to adequately protect the borrower's equity (the value of the property in excess of the debt secured by the property) in the mortgaged property.

This article tests these views by gathering new data on the fairness and efficiency of the foreclosure process. Based on the data collected (which confirms some assumptions but disproves others), the author proposes a reform of the foreclosure process to promote the interest of both lenders and borrowers. …

Eliminating The Labyrinth: A Proposal To Simplify Federal Mortgage Lending Discrimination Laws, Stephen M. Dane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The object of this Article is to demonstrate that the statutory and regulatory framework established by the federal government in its efforts to fight mortgage-lending discrimination is an extremely complicated labyrinth of dead ends, false passages, and elusive goals. Instead of addressing the mortgage-lending discrimination problem directly and comprehensively, Congress has taken a piecemeal and incomplete approach that generally has failed to bring the mortgage-lending industry into equal access compliance.

After pointing out the problems and deficiencies in the current statutory and regulatory scheme, this Article suggests a bold, comprehensive solution to the problem that, if implemented effectively, should ensure …

Alternative Mortgage Instruments: Authorizing And Implementing Price Level Adjusted Mortgages, Joel J. Goldberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Of the institutions authorized to make mortgage funds available, only federally-chartered and a small minority of state-chartered savings and loan associations are presently authorized to make PLAM loans. This is due, in part, to a variety of legal and underwriting problems that may outweigh the theoretical advantages of PLAM financing. This Note evaluates these legal and underwriting problems and proposes legal measures to accommodate PLAM financing. Part I discusses the development and advantages of the PLAM. Part II analyzes the legal and practical underwriting objections to PLAM financing, including interest regulations, tax ramifications, and commercial desirability. Part II also suggests …

Selected Problems In Wrap-Around Financing: Suggested Approaches To Due-On-Sale Clauses And Purchaser's Depreciable Basis, Sanford M. Guerin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article will address two unresolved issues surrounding the WA transaction which result from the inherent flexibility available for negotiating financing terms in the absence of an institutional lender. Part I discusses the circumstances warranting exclusion of the WA loan from the purchaser's depreciable basis. Part II addresses whether, and when, a due-on-sale clause in the senior mortgage should negate the possibility of utilizing WA financing.

Secured Obligations, Benjamin M. Quigg, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The scope of this discussion probably is best defined in the words of the act itself as appear in section 302 (1): "obligations secured by mortgage, trust deed, or other security in the nature of a mortgage · upon real or personal property, owned by a person in military service at the commencement of the period of military service"; and the problems herein discussed are those which arise under the act in connection with the sale, foreclosure, seizure, or repossession of property which is security for such obligations.

Some Problems Arising Out Of Deposits To Pay Principal And Interest On Bonds, Paul P. Lipton

Michigan Law Review

Since Lawrence v. Fox contracts students have been puzzled by the numerous and varying relations that may arise when A, the debtor, delivers money to B to pay C, his creditor. Equally puzzling and much more complicated are the rights and relations of the obligor, trustee and bondholders with respect to sums deposited with the trustee to pay principal and interest on bonds.

The insolvency during recent years of many large trust companies that had been named as trustees in indentures securing corporate bonds, having on hand at the time of their failure large sums of money which …

Vendor And Purchaser-Vendor's Release Of Sub-Assignee Held A Discharge Of All Prior Assignees, Robert M. Warren

Michigan Law Review

The bank for which plaintiff is receiver sold land on contract. There followed four successive assignments of the vendee's interest, in each of which the assignee expressly assumed the contract obligation. After the fourth assignment, default occurred as to payments and taxes, and plaintiff began negotiations to sell the property to an intermediate assignee, R. To effectuate this sale, plaintiff procured an assignment in blank from the fourth assignee, W, in consideration of a release of W from further liability on the contract. The negotiations with R having failed, plaintiff brought suit against the vendee and all the …

Deeds - Covenant Of Warranty Limited By Exceptions In Another Covenant, Seward R. Stroud

Michigan Law Review

A mortgaged land to B and thereafter executed a second mortgage on the same land to C. In the second mortgage, A covenanted that "they are seized of good and perfect title . . . in fee simple and that the title so conveyed is clear, free and unincumbered except . . . (the Hixton Bank mortgage) [mortgage to B] and that they will forever warrant and defend the same . . . against all claims whatsoever." The first mortgage to B was foreclosed, and B purchased at the foreclosure sale. B sold the land to A, …

Bills And Notes - Liability Of "Irregular Lndorser" Of Chose In Action, Gerald L. Stoetzer

Michigan Law Review

Trustee bank, for the purpose of refinancing a mortgage on trust property, executed a trust deed and instrument, designated as the "principal note," which disclaimed personal liability of trustee and beneficiaries, expressly providing that the sole remedy upon default of payment of "note" or interest installment should be by foreclosure of the trust deed. Before delivery, the beneficiaries of the trust indorsed the "note" though not parties thereto. Upon default the holder brought this action against one of the beneficiaries on his anomalous indorsement. Held, (1) that the "note" was a mere chose in action; (2) that an irregular …

Assignments -Validity Of Gratuitous Written Assignment

Michigan Law Review

Deceased took defendant, his son, to a notary and there made and acknowledged written assignments of three mortgages he owned. He handed these assignments to defendant, saying "I give you these. Put them in the safety-deposit box." Defendant went away with the assignments which reappear only after the father's death; they were found in an envelope, marked with defendant's name in deceased's hand, in a safety-deposit box owned jointly by deceased and defendant. Deceased always retained possession and enjoyment of the actual mortgage instruments. Plaintiff, another son, claims these mortgages should be part of deceased's estate. The court held that …

Bills And Notes -"Massachusetts" Trust- Liability Of Trustee Under Section 20 Of The N. I. L

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued the trustee of a realty business trust in his personal capacity on three notes signed by him as follows: "Robert J. Smith, Trustee of Fair Haven Estates." The notes were given in payment of the purchase price of certain land sold by the plaintiff to the defendant, which was secured by a purchase money mortgage. The indenture of trust under which the business was carried on, and which was recorded, provided that all persons who did business with the organization should look only to the trust funds for reimbursement, and neither the trustee nor the shareholders should be …

Bills And Notes - Bad Faith On Part Of Pledgee Taking Bonds

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a Wisconsin firm, issued certain bearer bonds secured by a mortgage held by the T corporation, as trustee. A provision in the mortgage defining the duties of the trustee in the disposition of bonds delivered to it was incorporated into the bonds by reference. The trustee being insolvent, plaintiff bank, as pledgee of some of the bonds taken to secure personal loans to the trustee, petitioned the referee in bankruptcy for permission to sell them, claiming to be a bona fide pledgee for value. Held, since federal courts are bound to follow state decisions interpreting state statutes declaratory …

Subrogation -An Equitable Device For Achieving Preferences And Priorities

Michigan Law Review

Courts are seldom embarrassed in modern times by the poverty of their resources. On the contrary, with the multiplication of "substantive law" formulae and of new procedural devices, their difficulties more often result from the embarrassment of overwhelming riches. This statement may be best illustrated by a brief review of the equitable devices for achieving preferences and priorities, which have developed so rapidly within the last fifty years and have surmounted almost completely the artificial barriers of legal doctrine. In this field the chief effort of the courts must now be not to develop new machinery, but to reexamine the …

Bills And Notes-What Negligence Of The Drawer Will Enable The Drawee To Charge The Drawer's Account When The Indorsement Of The Payee Is Forged

Michigan Law Review

An attorney, representing himself to be the agent of the owner of a certain piece of real estate, applied to the plaintiff for a mortgage loan. The loan being granted subject to title, a person represented to be the landowner appeared, signed the mortgage and note, and her acknowledgement was taken by a notary public who stated that he knew her to be the identical person described in the mortgage. The title was approved and a check payable to the landowner was delivered to the attorney, who, after forging the payee's indorsement, indorsed personally and cashed. The drawer is suing …

Bills And Notes-Right To Indorsement After Transfer

Michigan Law Review

The payee assigned a note and mortgage to the plaintiff by separate paper. The plaintiff sued the payee under sec. 49, N. I. L. for indorsement and also for the balance due after foreclosing the mortgage. Held, the plaintiff was entitled to an unqualified indorsement and recovery in the absence of a contrary agreement. Parr v. Ft. Pierce Bank & Trust Co. (Fla. 1930) 130. So. 445.

Reformation Of Instruments-Mistake Of Facts Underlying Intention

Michigan Law Review

A debtor determined to mortgage all his property for the benefit of several creditors. His son, commissioned to draw the instrument, was informed that a note to the plaintiff, indorsed by the debtor, would be taken care of by the party primarily liable. So he intentionally omitted the plaintiff's note from the mortgage executed to the other creditors. The note was never paid. After foreclosure of the mortgage, leaving no surplus, the plaintiff sought reformation of the mortgage so as to be included as mortgagee, claiming that the debtor's intention to secure all bank creditors was not executed through mistake …

Financial Details, Kent Memorial, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

The following is a statement, with such details as I should think would answer the purposes of other chapters, of the ways and means adopted for securing the present building just completed at Ann Arbor.

The Lien Or Equitable Theory Of The Mortgage--Some Generalizations, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

The question is--What is the nature of the rights of a real property mortgagee in those jurisdictions which adopt the lien or equitable theory3 of the mortgage? In one sense this question calls for a full statement of the law of mortgages but that, of course, is not the sense in which the writer puts it. He means by it to put a broader and more scientific question--a question, be it at once confessed, of jurisprudence--yet a question which has an important bearing on, if it is not in fact conclusive of, several specific problems in the law, which will …