Thousands of foreclosed homes continue to have clouded titles after Judge Keith Long of the Massachusetts Land Court reaffirmed his March decision stating lenders without properly accorded assignments cannot foreclose.

Long ruled in Hampden County Land Court on March 26 that two foreclosures in Springfield were invalid because the foreclosing institutions could not prove they owned the property at the time of the foreclosure auction.

Ablitt Law Offices, the lawyers for U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo, the two loan servicers involved, filed memos in June to have Long vacate his own decision.

Today, Long denied the motion to vacate, stating in his decision that the issues "are not merely problems with paperwork or a matter of dotting i’s and crossing t’s," instead that "they lie at the heart of the protections given to homeowners and borrowers by the Massachusetts Legislature."

Wells Fargo Bank and U.S. Bank did not officially have proper title for the properties when they published the foreclosure notice, or when they held the foreclosure auction, as the law requires. The servicers had assignments dated 10 and 14 months after the auction, respectively, but had backdated their title claims so the assignments were effective prior to the auction date.

Ablitt began this process by filing a suit to get the opinion of the court whether a foreclosure notice posted for a property in Springfield could be published in the Boston Globe, instead of the Springfield Republican.

Ablitt and its clients can appeal the decision in the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Calls to Ablitt Law Offices seeking comment were not returned by press time.