Key Points | FLORIDA’S FOURTH DCA PUTS AN END TO CHALLENGES TO STANDING BASED ON ALLEGED INVALIDITY OF SIGNATURES ON THIRD PARTY CONTRACTS

Last week Florida’s Fourth District reversed a final judgment which involuntarily dismissed Bank of New York Mellon’s (BNYM) foreclosure action against co-mortgagors, Remonde and Samuel Lopez (collectively, “Lopez”) based on BNYM’s alleged failure to prove its standing to enforce the note and mortgage. Bank of New York Mellon v. Lopez, No. 4D2024-0570, 2025 WL 542474, at *1 (Fla. 4th DCA Feb. 19, 2025).
At trial, the lower court sustained the borrowers’ (Lopez) objection to admission of the note and allonge agreeing with Lopez that two of the four endorsements on the note were invalid rendering the document inadmissible and BNYM unable to prove its standing to foreclose. BNYM appealed the order of dismissal arguing it was a holder in due course and Lopez, as a non-party to the endorsement contracts, lacked standing to challenge the validity of the endorsements. The Fourth DCA agreed, reversed the dismissal order and directed the trial court to enter a foreclosure judgment.
The Fourth DCA explained that endorsements and assignments are third party contracts to which mortgagors are neither a party, nor a beneficiary and therefore they lack standing to challenge them. This opinion remains subject to rehearing through March 6, 2025. Assuming it becomes final, the opinion is obviously a welcome development on the ever-evolving issue of standing and can be relied upon to counter challenges to standing in foreclosures and other matters involving third party contracts.