In MERS ruling, Oregon Supreme Court clears way for out-of-court foreclosures to proceed
Oregon Live-
The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for banks to return to their preferred out-of-court method of foreclosing on delinquent mortgages.
The court ruled that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a lending industry database that chronicles loan ownership, doesn't meet the definition of "beneficiary" under state law. As a result, foreclosures can't move forward under MERS' name, as was common in the early years of the foreclosure crisis.
But the high court disagreed with the Oregon Court of Appeals, a lower court, that previously ruled banks had to record each change in ownership in county records to initiate an out-of-court foreclosure.