A decision from the Supreme Judicial Court today affirmed the current Massachusetts laws regarding affidavits of sale filed in foreclosure cases, beating back a challenge from an evicted homeowner that could have upended current practices and potentially opened more cases up to challenge.

The case, Federal National Mortgage Assoc. v. Hendricks, involved a challenge to the standard form – the affidavit of sale – which is filed in almost all foreclosure cases.  In the affidavit, the lender swears that they have the right to foreclose on the mortgage and have followed the applicable laws regarding notices and other procedural requirements.

Oliver Hendricks, the foreclosed homeowner, asserted that due to changes in the foreclosure laws which have altered the foreclosure process, the standard affidavit, which dates back to 1912, was no longer sufficient to prove that the lender had the right to foreclose. 

The court disagreed, writing that the affidavit ought to be taken at face value unless a homeowner could provide evidence and/or testimony to challenge whether the lender had in fact taken all the necessary steps to foreclose. 

"Although an affidavit satisfying the particulars of [the current foreclosure laws] may be more persuasive than its statutory form counterpart at a trial … that is a matter for negotiation between the seller and purchaser at a foreclosure sale. It does not affect the status of the statutory form as prima facie evidence of compliance," the court said.

Since Hendricks hadn’t offered any evidence to prove that the loan holder, Fannie Mae, had failed to execute the foreclosure properly, "summary judgment was correctly entered against him," the justices said. 

Such affidavits of sale were at the heart of the "robo-signing" scandal which broker in 2010, in which it became clear that many lenders were filing affidavits without following proper procedures.