Office 2007 Professional Key acknowledgment Ohio

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Finding new and different ways to invalidate a mortgage has been the consummate "cottage industry" for Ohio bankruptcy trustees over the last few years. Typically,Office 2007 Professional Key, these involve the use of sections 544(a)(3) and 551 of the Bankruptcy Code by a Chapter 7 Trustee to attempt to avoid the mortgage as defective and preserve the winnings for the bankruptcy estate
A while back I wrote a post about what could happen if a mortgage accidentally failed to include a legal description and only identified the mortgage property by street address. Happily for lenders, the answer there was that it still works, at least in urban settings where a street address probably really is enough to identify real property.
Since then, in representing various lenders,Windows 7 Professional Key, I've had occasion to learn about all the different ways there are to screw up a mortgage in Ohio and render it ineffective. In other words, the smallest, most insignificant,Office Home And Business 2010 Key, discrepancy or mistake in a mortgage can result in a lender going from worrying about whether the value of the property is enough to pay off the full amount owed to wondering how they're going to get paid anything at all.
Mortgage Acknowledgements "By the Book" -
Ohio Rev. Code 5301.01(A) sets out the requirements for a valid mortgage. It requires that a mortgage
be signed by the mortgagor have the signing of the mortgage acknowledged by the mortgagor before a notary public have the notary public certify the acknowledgment have the notary public subscribe his or her name to the certificate.
Ohio law provides a suggested form of acknowledgement, which if used, guarantees the effectiveness of the acknowledgement. According to Ohio Rev. Code 147.55(A) an acknowledgement of an individual signing in the following form makes you "golden":

State of
County of
The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me this (date) by (name of person acknowledged)
(Signature of person taking acknowledgement)
(Title or rank)(Serial number, if any)

Slightly different forms - all using the language "acknowledged" -- are set out for corporations and partnerships. However, Ohio Rev. Code 147.54 also provides that an acknowledgement is acceptable if it contains the words "acknowledged before me" or their "substantial equivalent". In addition, Ohio Rev. Code 147.55 itself specifically states "[t]he authorization of the forms in this section does not preclude the use of other forms." And of course that's where all the legal action is.
The Problem Children -
There are two main problem areas, namely forgetting to write the name of the mortgagor in at all and not completing the acknowledgement properly.
No-No #1 - Blank Acknowledgements : One of the favorite targets for bankruptcy trustees has been to focus on mortgages with notary acknowledgements failing to even mention the name of the folks signing the mortgage. See,Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise, e.g. In re Nolan, 383 B.R. 391 (BAP 6th Cir. 2008); In re Leahy, 376 B.R. 826 (S.D. Ohio 2007). Under no circumstances should the notary acknowledgement clause leave blank the NAME of the MORTGAGOR. It's easy to see how this happens - over and over and over again. But as a lender, you've ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY have got to make sure this doesn't happen, or if it does, make everyone re-sign EVERYTHING, or at the very least the mortgage, before any $$$ go anywhere.
No-No #2 - Sufficiency of Acknowledgement: Then there are all sort of other cases focusing on the specific language used in the acknowledgement. Ohio Rev. Code 147.53 requires that the person taking the acknowledgment certify that
the person acknowledging actually appeared before them that person acknowledges executing the subject document the person taking the acknowledgment either knew that person or received satisfactory evidence that the person acknowledging was the person referenced in the acknowledgement
These cases are much more fact dependent and often turn on the presence or absence of particular words. Now pending in the United States Sixth Circuit is a case (Drown et al. v. Citifinancial, Case No. 09-4448) which may shed some light on this category of cases. The case involves two consolidated cases (Hardesty v. Citifinancial,Office 2010 Keygen, Inc. (In re Roberts), Adv. Pro No. 08-2171 (Bankr. Case No. 08-51945) and Drown v. Citifinancial, Inc. (In re Friesner), Adv. Pro No. 08-2207 (Bankr. Case No. 08- 54576)), originally before Judge Preston, which focused on the limited issue of whether use of the words "executed before me" instead of "acknowledged" renders a mortgage defective. Judge Preston granted summary judgment for the lender in both cases with the opinion being issued in the Roberts case - see 402 B.R. 808 (S.D. Ohio 2009) and this decision was affirmed by the U.S. Sixth Circuit B.A.P., 419 B.R. 20. Oral argument was heard on the pending appeal in the Sixth Circuit in early December 2010. Several other cases which present similar facts are being held in abeyance pending this ruling.
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