The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri dismissed a county's lawsuit alleging several defendants' failure to record deeds of trust assignments and pay applicable recording fees. The county could not recover because no legal duty to record assignments existed under Missouri law. MERSCORP Inc. owns and operates a national registry that tracks ownership interests and servicing rights associated with residential mortgage loans. Assignees of mortgages record assignments with the appropriate county recorder. After MERSCORP developed Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS) MERSCORP was able to track ownership and servicing rights for loans "in-house." Jackson County, Mo., sued MERSCORP, MERS and various mortgage companies alleging a conspiracy to use MERS to avoid recording mortgage assignments and paying recording fees. As a result of the alleged scheme, lenders, loan servicers and other entities saved more than $8 billion that otherwise would have been paid to counties. The defendants argued that the county's causes of action failed because there was no obligation under Missouri law to record deed of trust assignments. The district court found that the unjust enrichment claim warranted dismissal.

Attorney General Jack Conway claimed in a lawsuit filed on January 23, 2013, in Franklin Circuit Court. Virginia company created by the mortgage industry violated Kentucky's Consumer Protection Act by failing to disclose when mortgages were sold or transferred from one bank to another. The 36-page suit alleges that MERSCORP Holdings Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, MERSCORP, Inc., both in Reston, Va., were required to record mortgage assignments in the appropriate county clerk's office, which collects a $12 fee for each mortgage recorded. Many banks and mortgage lenders sell outstanding loans to free up money for new loans. They use a mortgage assignment to legally grant the loan obligation to the new mortgage holder. MERS directly violated that law by creating this system that provides no public record of sales or transactions and deliberately circumvents paying recording fees to states. The process makes it difficult for consumers to access data to find out who owns their loans, and the Commonwealth is ripped off when it comes to recording fees. Conway declined to put a number on how many alleged violations might have occurred in Kentucky with MERS, but Conway said the suit calls for fines of as much as $2,000 for each violation.

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against several of the nation's largest banks charging that the creation and use of a private national mortgage electronic registry system known as MERS has resulted in a wide range of deceptive and fraudulent foreclosure filings in New York state and federal courts, harming homeowners and undermining the integrity of the judicial foreclosure process. The lawsuit asserts that employees and agents of Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, acting as "MERS certifying officers," have repeatedly submitted court documents containing false and misleading information that made it appear that the foreclosing party had the authority to bring a case when in fact it may not have. The lawsuit names JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Bank of America Corporation, Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as well as MERSCORP, Inc. and its subsidiary, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. The lawsuit further asserts that the MERS System has effectively eliminated homeowners' and the public's ability to track property transfers through the traditional public records system. Instead, this information is now stored only in a private database - which is plagued with inaccuracies and errors - over which MERS and its financial institution members exercise sole control. Additional defendants include BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP, Chase Home Finance, LLC, EMC Mortgage Corporation, and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Inc.