Opinion ID: 683240
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A Mortgage is a Constitutionally Protected Property Interest.

Text: 13 Property interests are not created by the Constitution, but are defined by existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577-78, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2709, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). Florida courts have determined that a mortgage can be a constitutionally protected property right. In Sarasota County v. Andrews, 573 So.2d 113 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991), the court found that a county's attempt to assert that a lien created by an ordinance was superior in right to a prior recorded mortgage, was a substantial impairment of the first mortgage lien for federal and state constitutional purposes. Id. at 115. Although Sarasota was decided under a contract impairment analysis, it nevertheless stands for the proposition that a mortgagee, who is in essence a party to a security contract, has a property right in preservation of its mortgage interest. See also Mailman Development Corp. v. Segall, 403 So.2d 1137, 1138 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981) (holding that a mortgagee should not be required to accept a substituted security interest since a mortgagee lien is a property right....). 14 Moreover, Florida law gives a mortgagee the right to foreclose and reforeclose its liens. Fla.Stat. Sec. 697.01 (1993). Therefore, a mortgage is a cause of action creating a lien on property. See United of Florida, Inc. v. Illini Federal Savings & Loan Association, 341 So.2d 793, 794 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977). The Supreme Court has specifically held that a cause of action is a species of property protected by the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 428, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 1154, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 (1982). See Tulsa Collection Services v. Pope, 485 U.S. 478, 485-86, 108 S.Ct. 1340, 1345, 99 L.Ed.2d 565 (1988). Thus, as a mortgagee, Zipperer has a constitutionally protected property interest in his mortgage. 15