Appeals court hears dispute over mortgage notice and buyer's title in longtime foreclosure fight

A three-judge panel of the Massachusetts Appeals Court heard oral argument in case 24P0486, Espanola v. Murphy, over whether a borrower received required mortgage default notices and whether a third‑party purchaser at a 2012 foreclosure sale holds title despite a later judgment voiding the foreclosure and reinstating the mortgage.

Attorney Luke McCall, representing appellant Eileen Murphy, told the panel the underlying foreclosure was “conducted basically without her knowledge, without notice of the default,” and said the case’s long history — a 2012 foreclosure later called unlawful on appeal and a January 2017 judgment voiding the foreclosure deed and reviving the mortgage — drives the legal issues now before the court. McCall said the record shows a settlement and judgment in a superior‑court case restored Murphy’s mortgage and that multiple notice and accounting questions remained, including whether Nationstar, the mortgagee, provided required default notices under the mortgage’s paragraph 15…