A recent appellate court case, Gelinas v. Barry Quadrangle Condominium Ass’n, 2017 IL App (1st) 160826 (February 14, 2017) Cook Co., 1st Div., revolves around a dispute between a condominium owner and the condominium association. Gelinas owned a unit in the Barry Quadrangle Condominium Association. In June of 2012, a fire started in his unit which resulted in six-figure damage to the condominium association. There was no dispute as to the origin of the fire. The association filed a claim against its insurance and paid the $10,000 deductible. The insurance company reimbursed the association for the claim. The association’s bylaws state the following: “If, due to the act or neglect of an Unit Owner, or of a member of his family or household pet or of a guest or other authorized occupant or visitor of such Unit Owner, damage shall be caused to the Common Elements or to a Unit… read more →
Last week, we looked at a case about whether a loan as valid when the lender was never licensed under the Residential Mortgage License Act. This week, let’s look at a similar case — Nationstar Mortgage LLC v. Missirlian, 2017 IL App (1st) 152730 (February 10, 2017) Cook Co., 5th Div. – which discusses whether a loan is valid when it’s assigned by an entity that was not licensed. The facts are straightforward: The defendant borrowed money from Lehman Brothers Bank FSB in 2007. The original mortgagee was Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS). The defendant stopped making payment in March of 2009, and in June of that year, MERS assigned the mortgage to Aurora Loan Services. Aurora Loan Services filed a foreclosure action against the defendant. In 2012, Nationstar took over the servicing of the loan in question, although Aurora Loan Servicing did not formally assign the loan to… read more →
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Maka, 2017 IL App (1st) 153010 (February 3, 2017) Cook Co., 5th Div. revolved around a case where the defendant was foreclosed, and then insisted that the bank should never have foreclosed him because the loan they made was invalid to begin with. Why? Because when the loan was originated, the lender was not licensed under the Residential Mortgage License Act of 1987. In support, the defendant cited a 2014 case, First Mortgage Co. v. Dina, 2014 IL App (2d) 130567, which stated that a violation of the Residential Mortgage License Act resulted in an invalid mortgage. The First District Appellate Court, however, disagreed with the Second District Appellate Court’s 2014 Dina decision, and stated that the Dina decision is “no longer viable in Illinois.” Not only were the facts of the Dina case very different from the instant case, but the legislature has subsequently… read more →
In a recent case, In re Estate of Cargola, 2017 IL App (1st) 151823 (February 17, 2017) Cook Co., 6th Div., the appellate court determined, not surprisingly, that adverse possession must in fact be adverse. According to the appellant, the roots of the case lay in her messy divorce back in 1991. At the time she wanted to purchase a house, but she was afraid her husband would try to claim it. So she recruited her mother to purchase it for her. According to the appellant, she paid or reimbursed her mother for all costs associated with the purchase. Her mother took the mortgage, but appellant made the payments. Appellant also paid all other costs of ownership – utilities, maintenance, taxes, etc. Eventually, appellant’s mother refinanced the house, adding appellant’s name to the note and mortgage documents. According to the appellant, both she and her mother believed that by adding… read more →