Mark, the assignment can only be filed if the fee is paid. There are two issues here.

1) In the majority of cases there were no assignments filed at all. The creators of MERS decided they would keep the records on there system, thus saving the servicers money when rights to servicing were transferred/assigned. The chain of title was broken when the assignments were not recorded. The counties lost millions of dollars that the taxpayers had to make up by increases in property taxes due to lost revenue.

2)Most of the assignments that were actually filed were robo-signed even tho the fee was paid to record them. The assignment is therefore not valid because it was fraudulent when it was recorded. The Servicers/debt collectors are having the court accept the fraudulent documents making the court complicit in the fraud.