Ethridge v. Tierone Bank

MICHAEL A. WOLFF, Chief Justice.

Introduction

When David Ethridge refinanced the home that he and his wife, Mary, held as tenants by the entirety, the lender prepared loan documents that shghted the wife. As the wife later said, her husband was “head of the household.” That legally quaint assumption appears embodied in the lender-drafted refinancing papers that list David Ethridge, a married man, as the sole owner and the sole borrower. The law, as set forth in precedent cases dating to 1887, is harsh and unforgiving of such slights.

TierOne Bank, successor to the refinancing lender, seeks to…