Attorneys in GJTBS’s St. Louis Office, Scott B. Mueller and Kristin Steinkamp recently obtained a trial verdict in St. Louis County on a contentious action in equity to reform a Deed of Trust on behalf of a national lender that contained a mistaken description of the husband and wife borrower, rendering it effectively worthless. The Court took the lender’s witnesses’ testimony and exhibits into evidence which established that the parties intended for the mortgage to secure a first priority lien on the property in question. The Court dismissed multiple affirmative defenses related to the assignment and “show me the note” defenses and promptly ordered that the Deed of Trust be reformed to accurately reflect both borrowers as “grantors” of the security instrument. This case was especially interesting and challenging as a notorious “foreclosure rescue” attorney skewered the file with off point defenses and incorrect assertions of recent “mortgage crisis” issues. The Defendants are so notorious that a local television news crew awaited and confronted them after trial for a segment that aired the next week.
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