Opinion ID: 2982027
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: MERS’s power to assign the mortgage to BNYM

Text: Carmack claims that MERS lacked the authority to assign the mortgage to BNYM because it was never given authority to act as the “nominee” by the “current principal,” i.e., the CWALT Trust. However, the mortgage terms belie this assertion, as the mortgage agreement conveyed to MERS (as nominee for Lender and Lender’s successors and assigns), and to MERS’s successors and assigns, the “power of sale” with respect to the property for the purpose of securing the loan’s repayment, and the “right . . . to exercise any or all of those interests” conveyed by Carmack to Lender and its successors and assigns, including, but not limited to, the right to foreclose and sell the property. Thus, the agreement recognized that MERS had the power to assign the security interest and the power to foreclose. The Michigan Court of Appeals explained: Because plaintiff granted defendant MERS the power to assign the mortgage, the assignment of the mortgage to defendant Bank of New York Mellon was valid. Furthermore, because the mortgage specifically granted defendant MERS the power to foreclose on and sell the property as nominee for the lender, defendant Bank of New York Mellon, as assignee of the mortgage, also had the power to foreclose on and sell the property. 12 No. 12-1953 Carmack v. The Bank of New York Mellon, et al. Bakri v. Mortg. Elec. Registration Sys., No. 297962, 2011 WL 3476818, at  (Mich. Ct. App. Aug. 9, 2011), abrogated on other grounds by Residential Funding Co. v. Saurman, 805 N.W.2d 183 (Mich. 2011). Although MERS did not own the note, the category of parties with an “interest in the indebtedness” under § 600.3204(1)(d) “include[s] mortgagees of record among the parties entitled to foreclose by advertisement[.]” Saurman, 805 N.W.2d at 184. MERS, as the mortgagee of record, had an interest in the indebtedness “i.e., the ownership of legal title to a security lien whose existence is wholly contingent on the satisfaction of the indebtedness” thus authorizing MERS to foreclose by advertisement. Id. at 183; see Veal v. OneWest Bank, No. 12-15695, 2013 WL 1747911, at  (E.D. Mich. Apr. 23, 2013) (explaining that Saurman “made clear that under Michigan law a mortgage granted to MERS as nominee for lender and lender’s successors and assigns is a valid and assignable mortgage”); Richard v. Schneiderman & Sherman, PC, 824 N.W.2d 573, 574 (Mich. Ct. App. 2012) (“Saurman requires a holding that MERS was authorized to foreclose by advertisement [as the mortgagee of record].”). As a result, upon assigning its security interest to BNYM, MERS validly assigned to BNYM the authority to foreclose by advertisement as the mortgagee of record.6