ABN AMRO MORTGAGE GROUP, INC., et al., Appellees, v. NONA L. McGAHAN et al., Appellants., 237 Ill. 2d 526

Summary

In two cases, deceased mortgagors defaulted on notes that they signed to secure mortgages executed in favor of the mortgagee banks. The mortgagee banks then filed foreclosure complaints. The mortgagee banks did not get a personal representative appointed to represent the deceased mortgagors. As a result, the trial courts in the respective cases dismissed the complaints for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The mortgagee banks appealed. The cases were consolidated. The appellate court reversed upon concluding that foreclosure proceedings determined rights as against the whole world, not merely against certain individuals, and, thus, were in rem actions. The state supreme court found that a foreclosure case was an action that enforced obligations created by the notes and, thus, even though they involved property, a specific person created those obligations and had to be a named defendant. Therefore, it determined, a foreclosure action was a quasi in rem action, which meant that under ...