Remember that tee-hee about OJ's mortgage and how a note in the WaMu file said the judgment against him wasn't any good because (he said) he didn't do the crime (tee-hee)--? My friend Bob Lawless suggests that WaMu was in fact very likely on sound ground. Florida has an unlimited homestead exemption, so the judgment lien may in fact not have reached his Florida home. But homestead exemptions aren't valid against secured lenders (for more on this, go here).
Amplifying in an off-line exchange, Bob points out that there probably was some kind of lawyer protocol on record telling the folks tweendecks that the mortgage would have priority, and so the note in the file was just chatter.
I am persuaded, with one minor exception. That is: a handful of Florida cases seem to have let creditors wiggle in past the unlimited homestead. It's hard to find a golden thread through these cases, except to say that the judge seems to have found the creditor particularly unattractive.
But this is a pretty slender reed. I'm inclined to say game, set and match for Bob. But what am I missing this time?
1 comment:
I suspect that the "note" in the file from O.J. Simpson was probably a release/transfer of the homestead to WaMu. This story has all the earmarks of a water cooler tale that has moved a little bit beyond the truth.
All of this still begs the question of why WaMu would be giving a second mortgage to O.J. Simpson. It gives a whole new meaning to "know your customer."
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