Kemp v. Countrywide Home Loans

I have a few thoughts on this case that come from my experiences with the bankruptcy court last summer. I never directly experienced the issue involved in Kemp on an objection to claim. However, the issue would constantly come up on relief from stays. In order to grant a relief from stay we would need to verify that the creditor was in fact the lienholder on the property. This would entail the creditor proving they were the deed of trust holder.

If we were to follow the Kemp decision the bankruptcy court would come to a halt. Basically every creditor was not the original deed of trust holder. This was one of the most annoying things to do while working over the summer. We would go through a paper trail to see if the current creditor in fact held the deed of trust. Many times we would take imperfect proof as long as they showed in some way they were connected with the property. I remember taking signed documents by executives saying they had merged or sold off certain deeds to the current creditor filing. If we didn't do this almost all of the hundreds of relief from stay motions would be either denied or continued. In order for the court to work efficiently we had to take imperfect evidence. While it was frustrating I think it was generally accepted practice to do this.