Mortgage Foreclosure in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina caused widespread property destruction in the city of New Orleans. This Article analyzes data gathered from the Orleans Parish Recorder of Mortgages office and the Civil District Court and concludes that foreclosure filing rates in the year after Katrina decreased significantly from the rates for the corresponding period in the year prior to the storm. This Article evaluates in detail the legal and market responses to mortgage default after the storm that contributed to the reduction in foreclosure actions. Secondary mortgage market initiatives provided the principal means for relief; however, even though these initiatives were successful in protecting mortgage debtors after Katrina, their limited scope make them inadequate to address the years of financial distress that might likely follow any future disaster of Katrina\u27s magnitude. Thus, although the experience demonstrates that secondary market interventions can effectively reduce debtor distress after a major disaster, such interventions should not be seen as a substitute for traditional legal responses to mortgage debtor distress after disasters or other economic crises

Bondage, Domination, and the Art of the Deal: An Assessment of Judicial Strategies in Lender Liability Good Faith Litigation

In the 1980s the contractual obligation of good faith and fair dealing achieved preeminence in the area of lender liability. This raised concerns that expansive judicial interpretation of the obligation would, in effect, rewrite the parties\u27 contracts and result in the imposition of undue economic liability upon lenders. In this Article Professor Overby first traces the statutory, common law, and theoretical attempts to provide transactors with legal standards of conduct through the obligation of good faith. She then examines the judicial approaches to good faith in the lending context, rejecting as unfounded concerns over economic liability or widespread judicial activism. Professor Overby demonstrates that the underlying divergence in the courts over proper interpretation of the obligation of good faith is the primary cause of the lender liability crisis Finally, the Article proposes an effectiveness of express terms approach to good faith lending under which the obligation of good faith in no way overrides the explicit terms of the lending agreement absent proof of opportunism