Free Chain of Title by David Dayen Page A

confined to lying still on her back. Lisa would lie beside her, breastfeeding or staring at the ceiling, which the hospital used for immobile patients as a projection screen. Lisa would point out the objects or colors that flashed against the ceiling, and Jenna loved it. Dogs and clowns and play pals would come by every day, activities known inside the hospital as “child life.” Sometimes nurses would put Jenna in a wagon and ride her around the corridors.
    Loaded up with drugs to relieve the pain, Jenna would also sleep for hours and hours, and Lisa could only wait out the slumber. But Children’s Hospital did have an Internet connection. Lisa brought an old Acer laptop, sat by her daughter’s bedside, and day and night continued her research. There were moments when Lisa was the only person awake in all of Children’s Hospital, the blue light of the computer screen illuminating her face, eyes darting from article to article.
    The family returned to Palm Beach for months of recovery, Lisa staying home with Jenna for a few weeks. Finally, on June 3, 2009,Florida Default Law Group (FDLG), the foreclosure mill law firm litigating on behalf of U.S. Bank, responded to the motion to dismiss. Count II, the “Re-establishment of Lost Note,” had been removed. FDLG now maintained that its client found the note and the assignment of mortgage. They submitted them, along with a bundle of other affidavits and documents. Lisa finally possessed the raw materials to assess U.S. Bank’s case. And she got right to it.
    The newly found note was not endorsed in blank but directly endorsed from DHI Mortgage to JPMorgan Chase Bank. Kathy Harman, an assistant secretary at DHI Mortgage, signed the endorsement. In Lisa’s view, U.S. Bank had to receive the endorsed note under the pooling and servicing agreement. But the chain of title stopped at Chase. The wrong entity was foreclosing.Furthermore, the mortgage assignment went directly from theassignor, “Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, incorporated as Nominee for DHI Mortgage Company,” to the assignee, U.S. Bank. Lisa made a mental note to Google “Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems” later, but she knew enough to see a fatal error. The assignment skipped a link in the chain. It should have gone from DHI Mortgage to JPMorgan Chase, with an additional assignment from JPMorgan Chase to U.S. Bank. But that was not what this assignment showed. It looked like whoever put these things together had no idea which entity belonged in which spot. One affidavit had asterisks wherever the name U.S. Bank appeared, and a handwritten footnote,“**Chase Home Finance LLC as-attorney-in-fact-for.”
    U.S. Bank’s address was listed on the assignment as 3415 Vision Drive, Columbus, Ohio. Googling the address revealed it was actually the headquarters of Chase Home Finance, her mortgage servicer. How did two banks fit in the same headquarters? Then there was the date on the assignment: “Assignor has executed and delivered this Instrument on May 21, 2009.” That was three months after Lisa Epstein was served with foreclosure papers. According to this document, U.S. Bank had not yet been assigned the mortgage at the time they sued Lisa.
    Here in Lisa’s hands was clear evidence of securitization FAIL, documented proof that the transactions on her mortgage were either improperly done or not done at all, with the assignment mocked up after the fact. Lisa rechecked the pooling and servicing agreement for her trust; like all of them, it stipulated thatJPMorgan Chase had a ninety-day closing window back in 2007 to deposit the mortgage and note into the hands of U.S. Bank. The documents showed that U.S. Bank never got assigned the mortgage in time, meaning the securities based on her loan were invalid and unenforceable. And this poorly drafted cover-up was presented to a court, entered into the public record for everyone to see. Lisa