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ARTICLE · 02 MAY 2013

Mortgage Errors: How Not To Correct A "Boo-Boo"

Pepper Hamilton LLP
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"Whether one is baking a cake, building a house, or recording a mortgage, sometimes even the slightest deviation from the directions can lead to catastrophe.

United StatesInsolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-Structuring
Vicki Harding
Vicki Harding

Seelen v. Couillard (In re Couillard), 486 B.R. 466 (Bankr. W.D. Wis. 2012) –

"Whether one is baking a cake, building a house, or recording a mortgage, sometimes even the slightest deviation from the directions can lead to catastrophe.  Cakes don't rise, buildings fall down, and ... mortgages aren't perfected."  So starts the opinion in Couillard.

The Coulillards refinanced a purchase money mortgage.  The legal description attached to the refinancing mortgage included an easement parcel, but omitted the two principal parcels.  A couple of months after the mortgage was recorded, an "affidavit of correction" to correct an "error" in the mortgage legal description was recorded that attached the missing parcel descriptions.  A few years later the Couillards filed bankruptcy.

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