Bestest Legal Opinions EVAH! (Schack on Foreclosure Foulups)

Or at least until the next bestest legal opinion comes along. In the NY Times, there's a story about Judge Arthur M. Schack of New York State Supreme Court who has the crazy notion a bank shouldn't be allowed to foreclose on someone's home unless it can prove that it actually holds the mortgage. Nuts, I tell ya! As one observer noted, "His rulings are hardly revolutionary; it's unusual only because we so rarely hold large corporations to the rules."

So, in the vast multitude of suck that has become the U.S. political system, occasionally someone does right by people who happen to not be corporations. But that's not what this post is about. What I love is what he puts into his opinions:

Last year, he chastised Wells Fargo for filing error-filled papers. "The court," the judge wrote, "reminds Wells Fargo of Cassius's advice to Brutus in Act 1, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar': 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.' "

Then there is a Deutsche Bank case from 2008, the juicy part of which he reads aloud:

"The court wonders if the instant foreclosure action is a corporate 'Kansas City Shuffle,' a complex confidence game," he reads.

Yes, that is a Lucky Number Slevin reference:

"In the 2006 film 'Lucky Number Slevin,' Mr. Goodkat, a hit man played by Bruce Willis, explains: 'A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left.' "

And with that bit of legal erudition, I leave you with this lil' song: