DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA

FOURTH DISTRICT

SELVA ADRIANA CALVO and MARCOS FABIAN CALVO,

Appellants,

v.

U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR STRUCTURED

ASSET SECURITIES CORPORATION MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH 

CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2006-BC-1,

Appellee.

No. 4D14-1424

[December 16, 2015]

Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, 

Broward County; Cynthia G. Imperato, Judge; L.T. Case No. 10-21967 CA 

06 11.

Bruce K. Herman of The Herman Law Group, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for 

appellants.

Donna L. Eng, Michael K. Winston and Dean A. Morande of Carlton 

Fields Jorden Burt, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

STEVENSON, J.

Selva and Marcos Calvo appeal a final judgment of foreclosure. We find 

the trial court erred because U.S. Bank National Association did not 

establish its standing to foreclose when the complaint was filed. We thus 

reverse. 

The original lender in this case was Aegis Funding Corporation. U.S. 

Bank filed this foreclosure action on May 24, 2010, attaching copies of the 

mortgage and note to the complaint. The note attached to the complaint 

did not include any indorsements.

More than three years later, counsel for U.S. Bank filed a document 

entitled “Certification of Possession of Original Promissory Note.” The copy 

of the note attached to the certification included two stamped 

indorsements including an indorsement in blank. At trial, U.S. Bank filed 
2

the original note, also bearing an indorsement in blank.1 

U.S. Bank’s only witness was an employee of the servicer. She testified 

that counsel for U.S. Bank had possession of the original note when the 

complaint was filed. She did not testify as to when the indorsements were 

placed on the note, and she did not know whether the original note the 

attorneys had in their possession when suit was filed included the 

indorsements. 

If a note is indorsed in blank, it is payable to the bearer and is 

“negotiated by transfer of possession alone.” § 673.2051(2), Fla. Stat. 

(2014) (emphasis added). Where the plaintiff’s status as holder relies on a 

blank indorsement, the plaintiff must establish that it had possession of 

the original note, indorsed in blank, when the complaint was filed. See

Snyder v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, Nat’l Ass’n, 169 So. 3d 1270, 1273 (Fla. 

4th DCA 2015); McLean v. JP Morgan Chase Bank Nat’l Ass’n, 79 So. 3d 

170, 173 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012).

While it is not necessary for the plaintiff to prove the exact date the 

indorsement was placed on the note, the plaintiff must present competent, 

substantial evidence that the indorsement was placed on the note before

suit was filed. “We have said before, and apparently need say again: if an 

indorsement is undated and appears for the first time after the complaint 

is filed, some evidence must be introduced that will support a finding that 

the indorsement was made prior to the complaint’s filing.” Jelic v. BAC 

Home Loans Servicing, LP, 40 Fla. L. Weekly D2476, D2476 (Fla. 4th DCA 

Nov. 4, 2015).

At bar, U.S. Bank’s witness was testifying from screenshots. The 

screenshots set forth the date the note changed hands, but did not set 

forth whether the note that was changing hands included the blank 

indorsement. U.S. Bank thus failed to establish its possession of the 

indorsed note on the requisite date. 

Accordingly, U.S. Bank did not prove that it was the holder when this 

action was commenced, and we find that U.S. Bank did not establish its 

standing to foreclose when the complaint was filed. We thus reverse the 

final judgment of foreclosure and remand for entry of an order of 

1 Our review of the record reveals that the last page of the original note differs 

from the previously-filed copies. The borrower’s signature is not the same, and 

the indorsements are in reverse order and signed by different people. Because 

the appellants do not raise this issue of authentication, it is not considered by 

this court as grounds for reversal.
3

involuntary dismissal of the action. See Sosa v. U.S. Bank Nat’l Ass’n, 153 

So. 3d 950, 952 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014).

Reversed and remanded.

DAMOORGIAN and CONNER, JJ., concur.

* * *

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.