The owner or a trustee of property can encumber it through mortgages and other things like easements. What happens when a non-trustee starts to take actions on such property, often beneficiaries may occupy the property and to the untrained eye it may seem obvious they are the owners (or renters atleast) of said property. So if you sign a mortgage with such a beneficiary are you out of luck or can the court enforce it? The answer may surprise you as the Massachusetts Land Court held that Wells Fargo was entitled to enforce such a mortgage. Does this make sense? Is your Palm Beach Trust safe?
- On March 25, 2015 the Court in Plymouth County Massachusetts filed its opinion in the case of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Sullivan, where it held that Wells Fargo should be granted summary judgment and its mortgage enforced.
- Summary judgment is an order a judge may give when they find there are no genuine issues of material fact, and that the main issue is a judgment on the law, which the judge is entitled to offer (judges decide law and juries decide facts).
- These can be very common in bank related cases like this where there is a paper trail, they can be much more difficult to get in cases like a tort of assault where there is much “he said” “she said” style disputes.
Non-Trustee encumbers property without the authority to do so:
- A Family trust’s grantor i.e. the person who originally put the property into the trust, was at the time not serving as the trusteeand either as an attempt to be tricky or by pure mistake, held himself out to be the trustee and took out a mortgage from a well known bank.
- Shouldnt the bank check who owns your Boynton Beach estate before they let someone take it? Do you even know where the bank can look to find who is serving as trustee if a home is held in trust?
- The man later even appointed himself as trustee and then sought to have the mortgage declared void because he did not have the authority to sign it.
- The Court did not buy that argument… in this case. Do you think it would have been different if it was just a con-man and the property had no enjoyed the benefit of the loaned monies? Should it be different? West Palm Beach Probate. Delray Beach Guardianship litigation.
Unfortunately this case has not been formally reported by any reporters of repute but you can find an online copy by clicking here.