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STATE OF MINNESOTA IN SUPREME COURT A08-397 Certified Question, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota Anderson, Paul H., J. Dissenting, Page, J.

Jewelean Jackson, Ethylon Brown, William Brown, Brenda Doane, and David Williams, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, vs. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., and Richard W. Stanek, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Hennepin County, Defendants. ________________________ Filed: August 13, 2009 Office of Appellate Courts

Amber M. Hawkins, Galen Robinson, Colleen Daly, Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and William H. Crowder, Vildan A. Teske, Kathleen Finnegan Lamey, Crowder Teske, PLLP, St. Paul, Minnesota, for plaintiffs. Melissa Briggs, Eric Halperin, Daniel Mosteller, The Center for Responsible Lending, Washington D.C., of counsel for plaintiffs. Robert J. Pratte, Sonya Braunschweig, DLA Piper US LLP, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for defendant Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. Myron Orfield, Geneva Finn, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for amici curiae Myron Orfield, Minneapolis Urban League, Jewish Community Action, and ACORN Housing Corporation.

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Marc D. Simpson, David A. Applebaum, Leonard, Street and Deinard, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for amici curiae American Land Title Association and Minnesota Land Title Association. ________________________

SYLLABUS The assignment of an underlying indebtedness, unaccompanied by an assignment of the security instrument, is not an "assignment of the mortgage" which must be recorded before commencement of a mortgage foreclosure by advertisement under Minn. Stat. ch. 580 (2006). Certified question answered in the negative. OPINION ANDERSON, Paul H., Justice. This case comes to us as a certified question from the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. The reformulated question is: Where an entity, such as defendant [Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.], serves as mortgagee of record as nominee for a lender and that lender's successors and assigns and there has been no assignment of the mortgage itself, is an assignment of the ownership of the underlying indebtedness for which the mortgage serves as security an assignment that must be recorded prior to the commencement of a mortgage foreclosure by advertisement under Minn. Stat. ch. 580? Our answer to the federal district court's question turns on the legal question of what constitutes an assignment of a mortgage within the meaning of Minnesota's foreclosure by advertisement statutory scheme. We answer the certified question in the negative,

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holding that transfers of the underlying indebtedness do not have to be recorded to foreclosure a mortgage by advertisement under Minn. Stat.

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Minnesota Law