Suffiency of Evidence

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WI Supreme Court

Case Name: Deutsche Bank National Trust Company v. Thomas P. Wuensch, et al.

Case No.: 2018 WI 35

Focus: Suffiency of Evidence

This is a review of an unpublished court of appeals summary disposition reversing the La Crosse County Circuit Court’s foreclosure judgment against Thomas P. Wuensch in favor of Deutsche Bank National Trust Company (Deutsche Bank). The circuit court admitted the promissory note signed by Wuensch (the Note) into evidence when offered by Deutsche Bank through its attorney, and permitted the Bank to enforce the Note, ruling that the original Note, endorsed in blank, was sufficient to establish possession. We reverse the court of appeals’ summary disposition and affirm the circuit court’s judgment of foreclosure.

The issue before this court is whether presentment by a party’s attorney of an original, wet-ink note endorsed in blank is admissible evidence and enforceable against the borrower without further proof that the holder had possession at the time the foreclosure action was filed. To answer this question, we must determine the evidence necessary to prove that an entity seeking to enforce a note against a borrower has the right to do so. We hold that presentment to the trier of fact in a mortgage foreclosure proceeding of the original, wet-ink note endorsed in blank, establishes the holder’s possession and entitles the holder to enforce the note.

Reversed in part. Affirmed in part.

Concur:

Dissent: A.W. BRADLEY, J., dissents, joined by ABRAHAMSON, J. (opinion filed)

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.