Do you have a claim or case involving a deed of trust with missing or mistakenly executed affidavits of consideration and disbursement? This is all the rage among several bankruptcy trustees, who have been filing adversary cases seeking to invalidate recorded liens. The black letter law says that this type of defect is "self-cured" if a party to the instrument fails to make a formal challenge to the documenet within six months.

We have at least six of these cases in the office. All parties in these cases are anxiously awaiting the Maryland Court of Appeals decision in Ameriquest Mortgage v. Paramount, #52, argued on January 7, 2010. It will decide whether a lienholder may challenge an earlier recorded deed of trust on the basis of an allegedly defective affidavit of consideration and disbursement where that challange was made a full eighteen (18) months after the instrument was recorded.

We have stayed some of the cases, by agreement of the parties, as we await this important court decision.