Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins is not worried a U.S. District Court in Kentucky sided with Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS, in a county recording fee case.
The Dallas DA is one of several parties that filed suit against MERS, and its parent MERSCORP, claiming the county is owed filing fees on mortgage assignments that were passed through the MERS registry but never recorded at the county clerk’s office.
The U.S. Court for the Western District of Kentucky sided with MERS in a similar case over county recording fees this week. The court said county clerks lack standing to sue MERS in the Christian County Clerk v. MERS case.
DA Watkins released a statement to HousingWire, saying, “The February 22, 2012, decision in Christian County Clerk et al v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. does not have any effect on the Dallas County case.”
He added, “The Christian County case was decided based upon Kentucky statutes. The Dallas County action is based upon Texas law which provides the county with express statutory authority to assert claims included in the action.”
— Kerri Panchuk
