Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. v Tammy Church, No. 09-2513 (6th Cir. May 19, 2011):

It sometimes pays to check a map. The mortgage lender in this case did not, and as a result it recorded an interest in Tammy Church’s property in the wrong county. Luckily for the public fisc, the IRS, which also placed a lien on Church’s property, did not make the same mistake. When the lender realized what had happened, it sued, seeking in equity what it could not get in law — a declaration that it had the superior claim to the property. Equity does not save the lender in this instance, and we therefore affirm.