The allegations go beyond foreclosure — loan assignments are in the crosshairs
Rocket Mortgage and MERS are facing a federal lawsuit in Mississippi over allegations of improper foreclosure, questionable deed of trust assignments, and servicing violations.
The case, filed on February 13, 2026, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, was brought by Hancock County homeowner Tramica Shantrell Newton. The suit names Rocket Mortgage LLC, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., and two individual defendants, Mark Necaise and Kimberly Necaise. No determination on the merits has been made.
At the heart of the dispute is a familiar industry flashpoint: a force-placed insurance issue that allegedly spiraled into foreclosure. Newton claims she purchased her Kiln, Mississippi home on May 8, 2020, for $425,000 through Rocket Mortgage, carrying a monthly payment of $1,906.98 that she says was paid on time for three years. That changed, she alleges, in May 2023, when an agent from Quicken Loans — also known as Rocket Mortgage — called to say a review of her loan showed she had lacked homeowner's insurance since 2021. The lender, she claims, placed a new policy on the loan and bumped her payment to $2,909.98. Newton says she pushed back, telling the agent she carried a conventional loan and was responsible for her own coverage.
What followed, according to the allegations, was a rapid unraveling. Newton says she made her June payment at the original amount, but when she tried to pay in July, the online system would not accept it. She alleges the company told her it could not take partial payments and would only accept the higher amount. By August 2023, she says she received a nonjudicial foreclosure notice from Rubin Lublin LLC stating her home would be sold on September 21, 2023 — without, she contends, ever receiving the acceleration notice required under her deed of trust.
The suit also takes aim at the mechanics of how the loan was transferred. Newton alleges that a June 7, 2023, assignment of the deed of trust, signed by Jeffrey Osgood as Vice President for MERS and recorded with the Hancock County Recorder's Office, transferred all rights, title, and interest to Rocket Mortgage. She argues the assignment was invalid, contending that MERS is a registry system that never owned the note and, under its own terms, holds no rights to payments, servicing, or mortgaged properties.
Newton further alleges that the defendants never held a properly secured lien on the property under Mississippi law and that the original loan documents bore only the signatures of the previous owners.
The suit raises claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act alongside state-level claims for wrongful foreclosure, breach of contract, slander of title, and fraud. Newton is seeking damages, injunctive relief, and a court declaration voiding the deed of trust assignments and the notice of default.
The case is Newton v. Necaise et al., No. 1:26-cv-00046, and remains in its earliest stages.
