Law Commons^™

Bankruptcy & The Underwater Home: A Case For Real Property Redemption, David Sheinfeld

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code exists to satisfy the claims of creditors and preserve an economic “fresh start” for the debtor after bankruptcy. In exchange for surrendering her property to the trustee to have it monetized (i.e., sold), the debtor receives a discharge of her debts and an injunction against future creditor in personam actions to recover them. However, the in personam injunction is insufficient to protect consumer debtors who are in default on mortgages encumbering underwater homes because the creditor’s in rem rights remain; after the conclusion of the case, the creditor can continue foreclosure proceedings, which …

Stop Shutting The Door On Renters: Protecting Tenants From Foreclosure Evictions, Eloisa Rodriguez-Dod

Eloisa C Rodríguez-Dod

This article discusses existing and proposed federal and state law affecting tenants’ rights in foreclosure. As “Foreclosure” signs rapidly join “For Sale” signs across the country, the national foreclosure crisis has not only displaced homeowners, but a plethora of renters as well. The approach taken by states concerning tenants affected by foreclosure varies greatly. Furthermore, a recently enacted Federal law, created specifically to help tenants in foreclosure, does not relieve the uncertainty in resolving this issue. In addition to being the first to critique the new federal law, this article offers recommendations for legislation that may better protect tenants from …

Dismissing Provenance: The Use Of Procedural Defenses To Bar Claims In Nazi-Looted Art And Securitized Mortgage Litigation, Christian J. Bromley

Christian J Bromley

The litigation surrounding an estimated 650,000 works looted by the Nazis in the Second World War and the millions of securitized mortgages foreclosed in the wake of the Great Recession converge on a fundamental legal principle: who really holds rightful title? Seemingly worlds apart, these separate yet remarkably similar forms of property challenge the American judiciary to allocate property rights between adversaries steadfast in their contention of rightful ownership. The legal fulcrum in this allocation often rests not on the equity or righteousness of either parties’ claim—whether museum versus heir or bank versus former homeowner—but instead on procedural defenses that …

Making Debtor Remedies More Effective, Melissa B. Jacoby

Melissa B. Jacoby

Commissioned for a conference on credit markets at Harvard Business School in February 2010, this paper explores functional system design and the role of lawyers and intermediaries in providing debtor remedies in a complex legal system. The thesis of this paper, which proceeds in the “law and society” tradition, is that the location of a remedial right within the debtor-creditor system substantially affects the costs and benefits of the remedy for debtors, creditors, the system, and society. In other words, merely adding specific substantive provisions does not directly translate into actual protection. Relatedly, policymakers must recognize that lawyers and other …

Stop Shutting The Door On Renters: Protecting Tenants From Foreclosure Evictions, Eloisa Rodriguez-Dod

Faculty Publications

This article discusses existing and proposed federal and state law affecting tenants’ rights in foreclosure. As “Foreclosure” signs rapidly join “For Sale” signs across the country, the national foreclosure crisis has not only displaced homeowners, but a plethora of renters as well. The approach taken by states concerning tenants affected by foreclosure varies greatly. Furthermore, a recently enacted Federal law, created specifically to help tenants in foreclosure, does not relieve the uncertainty in resolving this issue. In addition to being the first to critique the new federal law, this article offers recommendations for legislation that may better protect tenants from …

The Cra: A Welcome Anomaly In The Foreclosure Crisis, Warren W. Traiger

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

California's Foreclosure Statutes: Some Proposals For Reform, Cynthia Mertens

Faculty Publications

Spurred by the harsh economics of the Great Depression, California enacted several statutes designed to protect pledgors of real property from unfair and often ruinous deficiency judgments. This legislation includes Code of Civil Procedure sections 580a,the fair value section, 580b,the purchase-money anti-deficiency statute, 580d; the nonjudicial foreclosure anti-deficiency statute, and 726, the "one-action" rule. Three decades of judicial interpretation, however, have created a body of case law which fails to advance the legislative purposes upon which the courts purportedly base their decisions.

The time has come for California to substantially revise its Depression-era anti-deficiency legislation in order to express and …

Constitutional Law--Impairment Of Obligation Of Contract--Mortgage Moratorium--Determination Of The Existence Of An Emergency, George Brody

Michigan Law Review

In 1943 the New York State Legislature extended its moratorium legislation for another year, thereby continuing the suspension of mortgage foreclosure proceedings on real property due to default in payments on principal. The legislature declared that an emergency still existed and therefore the continuance of legislative action, first taken in 1933, was justified. The law made payment of interest, taxes, insurance and amortization charges a prerequisite to suspension of foreclosure. Appellant brought an action to foreclose a mortgage on appellee's property for the non-payment of principal, contending that the suspension of foreclosure proceedings resulted in an impairment of the obligation …