By Porter Wright on Ohio is a relatively new adopter (September 20, 2019) of laws permitting electronic on line notarization. These new laws generated a great deal of excitement when they went into effect on September 20, 2019, creating new licensing, education and requirements for “electronic notarial acts”. There are however, several relatively mundane aspects of the law that … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Earlier this month, SB 220, the Ohio law that amended Ohio’s version of the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA) became effective. The amendment to the UETA confirms that records, contracts, and signatures that are secured through blockchain technology, i.e., a technology that creates an unalterable electronic ledger, will be considered an electronic recording holding the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Let’s say your client is a bank based outside of Ohio, and suppose further your client wants to set up a banking business in Ohio. Most of the time a merger transaction will result in a non-Ohio bank doing business in Ohio through an out-of-state franchise of course. But in light of changes to Ohio … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Ohio Judicial Conference has issued a bench card, a copy of which is attached, that gives Ohio’s Common Pleas Court judges a checklist they may use when presented with an order seeking judgment on a note containing a warrant of attorney. While the bench card is merely advisory, it represents a victory for those … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Last year, the Ohio Legislature made a number of important changes to Ohio’s statutory banking code. These are the first comprehensive changes in more than twenty years. Most of the changes were effective January 1, 2018. The heavy lifting of the new Ohio banking bill is language that consolidates a number of existing financial institution … Continue Reading
By Tami Hart Kirby on The Good Funds Law went into effect on April 6, 2017 amending Section 1349.21 of the Ohio Revised Code to require stricter controls for all residential real estate transactions involving the sale, purchase, or refinance of such real estate. The law was passed as an attempt to combat and thwart fraudulent activities associated with the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Another attack on the use of warrants of attorney to confess judgment was recently introduced into the 132nd Ohio General Assembly. H.B. 67 was introduced on February 16, 2017 by Representative Ron Young, a Republican of Leroy Township in Lake County. The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee. The bill seeks to … Continue Reading
By Tami Hart Kirby on The D.O.L.L.A.R. Deed Program for Ohio (the “Program”) was created following the passage of Substitute House Bill 303, and went into effect on September 28, 2016 in order to provide an additional loss mitigation option for homeowners in default of their residential mortgage obligations. The acronym “D.O.L.L.A.R.” stands for Deed Over, Lender Leaseback, Agreed Finance. … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Bankers and other business persons should carefully consider a significant change this year to the state’s law regarding contractual default clauses. The change was made by a little-noticed Ohio Supreme Court decision that requires the fairness of such clauses to be assessed from the perspective of the relationship of the parties at the beginning of … Continue Reading
By Jason Gerken and Porter Wright on On September 9, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a decision that parties in foreclosure proceedings should read carefully. In MSCI 2007-IQ16 Granville Retail, LLC v. UHA Corporation, LLC, Case No. 15-3524, the court addressed whether the sale of foreclosed property during the pendency of an appeal moots … Continue Reading
By Walter Reynolds and Tami Hart Kirby on For years, it was generally accepted that mortgage creditors and bankruptcy trustees could assert the status of a bona fide purchaser and treat a defectively notarized mortgage as if that mortgage did not exist. On February 16, 2016, our Supreme Court provided clarity regarding the legal effects of R.C. §1301.401 and provided protection to lenders … Continue Reading
By Steven Hoying and Porter Wright on The Ohio General Assembly is currently considering a bill that would greatly restrict creditors’ ability to ask debtors to sign cognovit notes. A cognovit note allows a creditor, upon a debtor’s default, to enter judgment against the debtor without the usual notice or hearing. Current Ohio law, specifically Ohio Revised Code Section 2323.13, generally enforces … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In September, at the request of an Ohio-based national bank, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an opinion challenging the application of the Ohio Financial Institutions Tax (FIT) to national banks with their principal office in Ohio. The opinion held that the FIT contradicted a federal statute that provides a national bank … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Determining whether a security interest is properly perfected by using a state’s online lien search may be leading you astray. Perfecting a security interest in collateral establishes the priority of the secured party’s claim to such collateral, providing the perfected secured party with an interest in such collateral superior to the rights held by most … Continue Reading
By Jason Gerken and Porter Wright on In what most pundits agreed would be a swift reversal, the Ohio Supreme Court did in fact unanimously reverse the Ninth District Court of Appeals in Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Horn, Slip Opinion No. 2015-Ohio-1484, a 20-paragraph decision that helps to explain a sometimes-misunderstood line from Schwartzwald. In Horn, Wells Fargo filed the foreclosure … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on I. Introduction Effective March 23, 2015, Ohio’s antiquated receivership statute (Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 2735) will be modernized, particularly as it relates to the appointment of a receiver in commercial mortgage foreclosures and the ability of a receiver to sell real estate free and clear of liens. II. Appointment of a Receiver Previously, commercial mortgagees … Continue Reading
By Guest Blogger on Editor’s Note: This post was prepared by Susan A. Choe, Deputy Director & General Counsel, The Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation. As an update to our guest blog post of April 10, 2014, the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation is pleased to report that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) will join the Ohio Office of the … Continue Reading
By Matt Moberg on “Great cases…make bad law” declared Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in his dissenting opinion in the Northern Securities antitrust case of 1904. One of the most oft-quoted phrases any aspiring lawyer will hear in law school, this maxim stands for the proposition that decisions in cases of great importance from a public or … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Does a conflict of interest arise under the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct (“Rules”) when an attorney confesses judgment on a cognovit note? No, according to a recent opinion (Opinion 2014-3, August 8, 2014) issued by The Supreme Court of Ohio’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline (“Board”), so long as the cognovit note … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Legislation has been introduced in the Ohio House that would amend Ohio’s foreclosure law in a manner favorable to licensed auctioneers and realtors and unfavorable to county sheriffs and appraisers. As set forth below, House Bill 586 would, among other things, permit “private selling officers” to conduct judicial sales of real property; permit written or … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In K One Limited Partnership v. Salh Khan, et al., 10th Dist. No. 13AP-830, 2014 Ohio 2079, the Tenth District Court of Appeals for Franklin County, Ohio reexamined the limited meritorious defenses available to obtain relief from a cognovit judgment under Civ. R. 60(B) and held that such defenses are restricted “to the integrity and … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Earlier this month the Supreme Court of Ohio resolved a split of authority between the Fifth District and Seventh District regarding whether a foreclosure decree is a final appealable order when it includes unspecified amounts advanced by the mortgagee for inspections, appraisals, property protection and the like. Prior to the May 15 decision in CitiMortgage, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on From time to time we like to pass along educational opportunities that may be of interest to our subscribers. I am including details on an upcoming event that members of our Appellate and Supreme Court Practice are offering on the benefits of amicus advocacy before the Ohio Supreme Court. Too often, the Ohio Supreme Court … Continue Reading
By Brad Hughes on Last Spring, we discussed on this blog a trifecta of noteworthy lending cases pending before the Ohio Supreme Court. Today, the Court resolved one of them, and in doing so also resolved a certified conflict among Ohio’s appellate districts regarding whether Ohio’s Statute of Frauds bars a party from relying on an oral forbearance agreement … Continue Reading
