WILLEMSTAD – The Court of First Instance of Curaçao has ruled that mortgage rights held by Maduro & Curiel’s Bank (MCB) did not expire as a result of Curaçao’s constitutional changes in 2010, rejecting an attempt by two residents to stop the forced sale and eviction from their home.
The ruling was issued on February 21, 2025, but was only published last week.
The case involved two residents and several companies connected to them that had taken out various loans with MCB. Mortgages on their home were among the securities provided to the bank.
After payment arrears developed and previous attempts to restructure the loans failed to produce a lasting solution, MCB terminated the credit agreements and moved to recover the outstanding debt.
As of December 12, 2024, nearly XCG 469,000 remained outstanding. The property was sold at public auction the following day for XCG 497,000. Its appraised value in a private sale had been set at XCG 485,000.
The residents challenged the bank’s actions in court, arguing, among other things, that the mortgages had ceased to exist in October 2010 because of the constitutional changes that resulted in Curaçao becoming an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The court rejected that argument.
According to the ruling, MCB’s mortgage rights remained legally valid following the constitutional transition. The bank was therefore entitled to exercise its right of immediate foreclosure after the borrowers failed to meet their payment obligations.
Under that right, a mortgage lender can arrange for a mortgaged property to be sold publicly when the debtor defaults, without first having to obtain a separate court judgment authorizing the sale.
The court also found no evidence that mandatory legal formalities had been violated during the auction.
Because the house had already been sold to a third party, the former owners no longer had a legal basis to remain in the property.
The home was subsequently cleared on January 30 and 31, 2025.
The residents also alleged that unlawful force had been used during the eviction and accused the bailiffs involved of fraud.
Those allegations were also rejected. The court found that the accusations had not been substantiated and concluded that there was no unlawful coercion because the eviction had been carried out in accordance with the law.
The residents’ claims were dismissed, and they were ordered to pay MCB’s legal costs.
The judgment confirms that Curaçao’s transition on October 10, 2010, from part of the Netherlands Antilles to an autonomous country within the Kingdom did not automatically extinguish existing private-law rights such as mortgages established before the constitutional changes.