” the judge may react by saying something like, “You mean to tell me that some technicality of negotiable instruments law lets someone who’s failed to pay the mortgage get away with it if the promissory note can’t be found, and that I have to slow down my overly crowded docket in the hundreds of foreclosure cases I’ve got pending to hear about this nonsense?””

So, judge – do you know where your original note is at the moment? Oh, that’s right your half a million dollar mortgage was miraculously paid off in 2008 – I’m sorry, I forgot.