October 3, 2017

CLA’s Dan Bahls argues before Supreme Judicial Court

On Monday, Oct. 2, Community Legal Aid Staff Attorney Dan Bahls argued a case in the Supreme Judicial Court about loans involving reverse mortgages.

About ten years ago,  James B. Nutter & Co. (one of the nation’s largest reverse mortgage companies) started using a reverse mortgage document that promised signatories (most of whom were elders) that if and when it was necessary to foreclose, the foreclosure would occur through a judicial process rather than a non-judicial process. This protection is significant because it affords borrowers—or their heirs seeking to settle their affairs—meaningful protections, including the ability to present defenses to a foreclosure in court.  Nutter & Co. has filed about 80 foreclosure cases in the Land Court seeking a declaration that it can foreclose non-judicially (meaning that it would not have to go through a court process to foreclose). We hope that the Court will rule that these mortgages can only be foreclosed judicially.