Mass. court rejects developer bid in transfer case
By Ross KerberBOSTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - A developer who acquired
property in a faulty transfer cannot sue the original owner,
Massachusetts’ highest court ruled on Tuesday, the second time
it has sided with a homeowner in a high-profile housing case
this year.The decision by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court turned
on technical reasons and left the developer facing the prospect
of suing banks and title companies that had left him with
faulty documentation, rather than the original homeowner.The result could make it easier for individuals to fend off
financial companies in similar cases elsewhere, said an
attorney who had argued against the developer’s case.”The banks are the ones that violated the law, so why
should homeowners have to pay for the violations?” said Max
Weinstein, an attorney and Harvard Law School lecturer who had
filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the homeowner.An attorney for the developer, Francis Bevilacqua, did not
immediate return messages.Housing industry executives had previously warned a ruling
against Bevilacqua could destabilize the real-estate finance
system.SECOND CASE FOR COURTIn January, the state’s highest court voided the seizure of
two homes by Wells Fargo & Co and US Bancorp
after they failed to show they held titles at the time of the
foreclosures.Issues of foreclosures done without proper documentation
have flared up nationwide as banks and regulators grapple with
the aftermath of the housing boom and the loose oversight that
accompanied it.In this case, banks and mortgage companies had lined up
behind the developer, while state officials and housing
activists had cited his claims as examples of a flawed system.The matter began when US Bancorp transferred to Bevilacqua
the title for a building in Haverhill, Massachusetts, a suburb
north of Boston. He turned it into four condominiums.In a bid to establish clear title, Bevilacqua sued the
previous owner who had been foreclosed upon. But a lower court
ruled that Bevilacqua did not hold title to the property and
said his lawsuit would be better directed at those that gave
him the faulty title.The original owner and defendant in the suit, Pablo
Rodriguez, has not appeared at hearings or filed motions in the
case.The Supreme Judicial Court upheld the lower court ruling
dismissing Bevilacqua’s lawsuit, but left the door open for him
to refile his lawsuit in a different form.The case in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts is
Francis J. Bevilacqua III vs. Pablo Rodriguez, SJC-10880.
