Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. v. Roberts

Opinion of the Court by

Justice NOBLE.

This case presents the question whether the doctrine of equitable subrogation may be used to reorder the priority of a mortgage lien where the mortgage holder had constructive but not actual knowledge of a pre-existing lien when it paid off an earlier mortgage as part of a refinancing deal and there was no fraud or other misconduct that would have prevented the discovery of the lien. The trial court applied the doctrine to reorder the priority of liens, and the Court of Appeals reversed, finding that the doctrine did not apply under the facts of this case.…