Anyone with a basic understanding of corporate and agency law understands that not every employee of a corporation can bind that corporation. The teller at my local Bank of America cannot bind the whole Bank of America corporation if she signs a deed transferring every piece of real property owned by Bank of America to me, right?
And if someone wanted to come into my office and deed a property owned by a corporation, I know that deed would not be valid unless I carefully reviewed a corporate resolution which clearly (and correctly) authorized that person to deed that corporation’s property. Not just any old corporate resolution would do, the resolution appointing that person would have to be properly authorized by the Board of Directors of the corporation and the resolution would have to be authorized by the corporation’s bylaws.
So here’s the inquiry with every MERS assignment. Great, there’s a Robo signed MERS assignment. Show any proof that the robo signer had any corporate authority. Great, now you’ve shown a copy of a corporate resolution. Now show where that resolution was properly adopted by the Board of Directors of MERS.
It ain’t nearly enough to stop when you see a MERS assignment. When you see the assignment, it’s time to dig real deep down into that assignment, who signed it, where they signed it and what actual authority they had when it was signed. Two great examples of digging deep down into these questions can be found here:
