Forbes Interviews Manatt Partner on California City's Mortgage Seizure

"Richmond, Calif. Ignores Critics, Votes to Seize Performing Mortgages"
Forbes

September 11, 2013 - Forbes interviewed Manatt's Edward Burg, a partner in the firm's Litigation Division, on why Richmond, California might have a problem implementing its plan to seize underwater mortgages.

Forbes reports that in order to cut down on foreclosures, the City of Richmond is planning to seize underwater mortgages. However, the plan, which is being promoted by a San Francisco financial firm and Cornell Law School Professor Robert Hockett, faces a number of legal impediments. For example, California law requires the supermajority of the city council approve every exercise of eminent domain, and the supermajority of Richmond's city council has yet to do so. The plan has only gotten four votes, where five are required.

"It's full of these procedural and substantive traps that show me this is a thing that was hatched by academia," said Burg, who specializes in condemnation law. Hockett has "probably never tried an eminent domain case, and I can assure you none of the council members in that meeting last night has tried an eminent domain case."

Read the article here.