A Court Ruling Makes Mortgages Vanish Into Thin Air

For generations, budding lawyers have been taught that if the bank forecloses on your mortgage and can’t sell your house for the amount of the loan, the bank can come after you personally for the rest. Apart from a handful of “non-recourse” states (California being the most prominent), this has long been the rule. But a mystifying recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit might inadvertently lead to a reevaluation of what had been settled law — and potentially change the way the secondary market values mortgage loans.

The facts of the case are simple but instructive. CitiMortgage, Inc., had purchased hundreds of home loans from Equity Bank, a regional bank doing business in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The contract stipulated that if CitiMortgage later discovered defects in any of the loans, Equity was required to cure the defects or repurchase the loans. The dispute arose from 12 mortgages that Citigroup found defective and Equity refused to buy back. Six had already been foreclosed.