So here, in black and white, is yet another appellate decision  confirming what I have said for 12 years: The assignment of the mortgage is merely the delivery of a piece of paper. It conveys nothing in terms of an interest in the real property or the right to foreclose the mortgage. BUT if the assignment of the document is accompanied by a sale or assignment of the allegedly underlying debt, then the assignment can be used as evidence of an encumbrance and the contractual right to seek foreclosure.

Just as a promissory note can be used as EVIDENCE of a debt and is not the debt, so too is the mortgage EVIDENCE of an encumbrance and the right to foreclose. Confusion on this issue has led to millions of defective foreclosures.

“ ‘[a]n assignment of the mortgage without an assignment of the debt creates no right in the assignee.’…