Chester County’s Recorder of Deeds Richard T. Loughery has filed suit against some of the nation’s largest banks in an attempt to collect as much as $10 million in recording fees for mortgage assignments the banks allegedly failed to record in the county’s public land records.

Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank and others are defendants in the suit filed Oct. 10 in the county’s Court of Common Pleas.

Loughery alleges the banks conspired to circumvent his office through a Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) to privately track mortgage assignments and evade payment of recording fees.

Loughery said because of the MERS, property owners are no longer able to verify the true identity of mortgage holders because up to tens of thousands of mortgage assignments have not been publicly recorded and do not appear in county records.

“As bad as the damage defendants have caused to the integrity of our public land recording system, their failure to pay required recording fees has also hurt the county by depriving it of much-needed revenue to fund essential county services,” Loughery said.

“Without this revenue, the county has fewer resources for programs at a time when some of these banks are making billions of dollars in profits,” he said.  “I find this unconscionable and wrong.”

“The lawsuit, said Loughery, “has been brought to require the banks to record every mortgage assignment affecting title to land within the county and to recover the funds the county lost because of the defendants’ unlawful conspiracy.”

The lawsuit is pending before Judge Jeffrey Sommer and is expected to go to trial next October.

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