Friday, January 30, 2009

Coming and Going

Good things come to those who wait.

Or at least that’s how the old saying goes.

The latest in Carlton Knight legal news is a doozy.

When I last wrote about him, Inland Bank and Trust’s lawsuit to get their million dollars was evolving into a page turner.

Well I’m proud to report its officially crack-a-lackin’---simply delightful reading material.

Let me break it down for y’all:

Inland Bank filed two separate cases against Mr. Knight regarding the Dixie Highway property in Harvey. The first was for a complaint to foreclose (CH07-10840) and the second was for a complaint for a confession of judgment.

A confession of judgment is when a defendant confesses to the accuracy of the plaintiff’s complaint or signs a “cognovit actionem, a written confession made out earlier by the defendant.”

The cognovit note says in writing that the debtor owes a particular sum and has voluntarily submitted himself or herself to the authority of the court. If the debtor later fell into arrears, the creditor could obtain a judgment against the debtor without even bothering to notify the debtor of the proceedings.”
Explanation courtesy of Answers.com

Carlton’s lawyers in turn filed a motion (07-L-051164) to consolidate both of the cases while hoping to vacate the confession of judgment and/or “stay any further enforcement and allow the court hearing the mortgage foreclosure case to determine the alleged issue regarding the legality of the note.”

In short, if the cases get consolidated and there are grounds for dismissal on either point, the whole thing goes away.

That is the pimpiest of pimp legal moves I have ever seen.

At one point I questioned the prowess of one of Carlton’s legal team but I do have to say that these new kids (or at least new to me) from Cook, Revak & Associates are good.

Sharp cookies, indeed.

Inland fired back by stating:

Mortgagee has several remedies (personal judgment, foreclosure, or recover possession of the property) that may be pursued to enforce payment. These remedies are concurrent or successive, as the mortgagee deems appropriate. When a mortgagee chooses to pursue remedies concurrently, they must be maintained separately.”

“The plaintiff may choose its remedy-or remedies-as it deems necessary and may pursue multiple remedies concurrently. It is clear that the proceedings must be tried separately. Therefore the plaintiff was proper in bringing both a mortgage foreclosure proceeding and the confession of judgment proceeding and the court should not consolidate the cases
.”

Boo-ya, baby!

Apparently Inland isn’t taking the possible loss of over a million dollars lightly.

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