AWARDS

• Benchmark Litigation 40 and Under Hotlist (2019-2020)
• Awarded Largest Defense Verdict of 2012 from Missouri Lawyers Media, January 2013.

RECOGNITIONS

• Martindale-Hubbell “AV” Distinction of Highest Professional Ability and Ethics.

APPOINTMENTS

• Selected to edit the Missouri Practice series materials on taxation
• Appointed to the Webster Groves Plan Commission from 2014 to 2022.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

• Juris Doctor – Saint Louis University School of Law – Saint Louis, MO (2006)
• Bachelor of Arts, History (with Honors) – Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, IL (2002) Resident Honors Program – University of Southern California (1997-2000)

REPRESENTATIONS

• Defended against an adverse possession claim in Cook County, Illinois based on the fact that the property sought to be acquired was actually local city property and not subject to adverse possession as public land.
• Successfully defended a lender faced with a post-appeal period motion to vacate a judgment of default in a foreclosure action where the borrowers claimed that the underlying mortgage transaction was based on fraudulent misrepresentations of a mortgage broker. The court denied the petition to vacate based on Illinois’ post-foreclosure sale claims bar statute.
• Obtained a swift Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings in connection with a policyholder’s claims of putative title insurer bad faith in connection with a boundary dispute between the policyholder and neighbor.
• Able to analyze and distinguish multiple claims by bankruptcy trustees to take free of clients’ mortgages based on technical errors and negotiate and resolve the matters successfully based on factual and legal scenarios holding trustees to inquiry or constructive notice.
• The Illinois Appellate Court for the First Circuit (Chicago) affirmed Scott Mueller’s successful dismissal of an adverse possession claim brought by the client’s neighbor. The neighbor plaintiff tried to use adverse possession to take over title to a previously publicly dedicated city alley that bordered both lots. But the appellate court affirmed, in a case of first impression, that a public, city alley, even if never used for public purposes, cannot support an adverse possession action as public property.
• Successfully obtained the dismissal of a national mortgage lender client in a Cook County, Illinois mechanic’s lien action through a creative use of interpleader and cross-claims for indemnification based on the innocent lender status of the client.
• Prevailed on a motion for summary judgment in favor of a lender that fell victim to defalcation during the closing of its collateral’s short sale. The title agent handling the closing absconded with the purchaser’s funds, but the purchaser attempted to quiet title to the property in its favor by using a constructive receipt argument, attempting to bind the lender client to the fraudulent misappropriation of the seller’s funds. The trial court agreed with Scott’s argument that the purpose of constructive receipt statutes and case law in Florida only apply when contractual privity exists between the parties.
• Helped to expand the doctrine of bona fide purchaser status in Cook County, Illinois. Clients had purchased property that had previously been subject to a failed contract. But the prior contract potential purchaser sought to stymy the clients’ transaction by recording the invalid contract for sale prior to the client’s taking title. The circuit court and appellate court ruled that the recordation of an invalid contract did not impart notice to the clients to prevent their BFP status.
• Successfully obtained a full relief Order from the Circuit Court after a five day bench trial involving multiple claims between lenders and a homeowner that claimed her spouse forged her name on mortgage documents. The trial court agreed with the theories that the Defendant could not prove forgery and, in the alternative, ratified, accepted and benefited from the loans at issue and thereby became bound by them based on her participation in the loan process and benefits from the payoff.
• A trustee of a large Chicago massive real estate investment failed scheme sought to set aside property sales to the client based on the manipulation of recording standards and hypertechnical interpretations of notice standards in Illinois real estate recording law. After cross motions for summary judgment were filed, the client obtained a successful settlement vesting title in the properties in it, despite the claims of the Trustee.
• Obtained summary judgment for the reformation of a client’s deed of trust to include the correct property legal description, and a ruling on summary judgment that the HOA lien that attached subsequent could not take priority and exploit the mistaken legal description. Since the HOA never searched title or took any action to prime its lien over the client’s deed of trust, but rather assumed its validity up until the time of discovery of the mistaken legal.
• Procured a dismissal and stipulation between feuding parties as to the validity of a client’s mortgage loan and thereby validated it regardless of the underlying case outcome. An incarcerated owner and borrower faced a quiet title lawsuit from an apparent interest holder who sought to take title to the client’s collateral. Successfully demonstrated to the parties and the court that the existing mortgage lien was a valid encumbrance regardless of who prevailed, and that the quiet title succeeding party would take subject thereto.
• A client in Boone County, Missouri purchased property only to learn that within a few days of closing, a judgment creditor of the seller had tried to impact the Property with its judgment lien, despite the property being held in trust. Scott Mueller prevailed in a quiet title action and the client took free of the judgment because the creditor, with notice and knowledge of the pending sale, inequitably sat by in wait for the closing funds to satisfy prior judgment liens, only then claiming an interest in the property as a purported first lien creditor.
• Secured summary judgment in Sarasota County, Florida last week on a trickier-than-it-looked matter with a common fact pattern (non-borrower spouse signature on a refinance loan), in the context of very lender-unfriendly case law regarding equitable liens. According to opposing counsel, since Florida courts in that district consider equitable liens as inheriting the default status of the preceding, satisfied lien, we were “stuck” with a bald lien, unenforceable until a disruption in the homestead status. We argued that reformation controlled, though, based on clear matches between the spousal testimony of intent and benefit and Florida reformation case law. The retroactive reformation should render the mortgage valid ab initio and bypass equitable lien and subrogation channels altogether. The court agreed.
• Obtained access and the equitable amendment of a community association provisions regarding the ability of mortgage lenders to take title to property for purposes of REO sales in Cass County, Missouri.
• Prevailed on a commercial lease and breach of contract action in St. Louis County. The court ruled in favor of the client’s argument that although a consent judgment resulted from a prior dispute, that consent judgment incorporated and adopted the terms of the prior lease and those terms could be enforced against the tenant and that a month to month tenancy did not result.
• Obtained dismissal of commercial lender included in a dispute between real estate development partners as to the authority and validity of an alleged “rogue” partner obtaining the client’s $7M refinance mortgage on a condo development in Kansas City. Regardless of the allegations’ validity or merit, we argued that the “rogue” partner was indeed vested with authority to grant our client’s mortgage; that the mortgage as a refinance mortgage qualified under replacement theory and equitable subrogation to operate as a valid lien under equity; and that the plaintiff was estopped from denying validity of a loan which it benefited from and took no action to stop by its own negligence and cloaked authority within the “rogue” partners.
• Successfully resolved inadvertently swapped titles between property owners and their lenders without the necessity of resorting to full blown litigation.

PUBLISHED DECISIONS

• Tetrault v. Yankowski, E.D. Mo. 101254 (2015)
• Fannie Mae v. Pace, 415 SW 3d 697 (E.D. Mo. 2013)
• Landrith v. Summers, 346 P. 3d 1113 (KS App. 2015)
• Fastnacht v. Ge, et al., W.D. Mo. 78705 (2016)
• Medina v. Dankowski, Ill. App. 1st. Cir, 173055-U (2019)
• Peoples National Bank, N.A. v. Patricia Fish, ED107584 (Mo. Ct. App. 2020)
• American Advisors Group v. Cockrell, 2020 IL App (1st) 190623.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• CLE Presenter: Regular CLE presenter in Missouri for NBI and other CLE providers on real estate topics.

PUBLICATIONS

• Is Equitable Subrogation Dead for Lenders and Insurers in Missouri? Journal of the Missouri Bar, August 2010.
• Illinois Appellate Court Holds Statute Bars Post-Confirmation Foreclosure Claims. ABA Litigation Section, March 2021.
• Replacement Theory as a Viable Alternative to Equitable Subrogation; Distinguishing Between Fraud Based and Mistake Based CPL Damages; Barring the “Mutual Mistake” Escape Hatch to Reformation; ABA Title Litigation Committee Newsletter, 2015-2016.
• Editor, Cases in Brief, Appraisal Journal, 2016 – 2019.

TEACHING

• Associate Adjunct Professor for Real Estate Transactions at Saint Louis University School of Law.

BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS

• Missouri
• Illinois
• Kansas
• U.S. District Courts

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• ABA’s Title Insurance Litigation Committee | Chair (2020-2022)
• Associate Adjunct Professor for Real Estate Transactions at Saint Louis University School of Law (2022-2023)

CIVIC & COMMUNITY

• Webster Groves Plan Commission | City Plan Commission Member (2014 – 2022)
• Louis County Older Residents Program | Volunteer Attorney (2007 – 2019)
• Webster Groves Baseball and Softball League | Head Coach – Wolverines (Pre K) (2017 – present)
• CASA | Guardian ad Litem (2004-2005)