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The foreclosure proceeding against the Menomonee Falls home of Scott and Shelley Mattfeld was jumbled from the beginning.

To start with, the case was filed against Scott and Shelley Mattfield, with an extra vowel added to the name. But the process server tasked with serving a summons to the couple just couldn’t find them, not even after plumbing internet directories and divorce and voting records.

In addition to the summons, the mortgage holder, PHH Mortgage Corp., a subsidiary of New Jersey-based PHH Corp., bought a legal ad in The Daily Reporter newspaper, which, the company stated in a court filing, is “a public newspaper of general circulation, printed and published daily … in the City of Milwaukee, in said county.”

That was enough for Waukesha County Circuit Court, which approved the foreclosure in early 2009.

The Mattfelds appealed, arguing that, as Waukesha County residents, the legal ad didn’t meet the state standard of appearing in “a newspaper likely to give notice in the area of to the person affected.”

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District 2, agreed, overturning the foreclosure. According to the opinion, The Daily Reporter has said it is published throughout the state, but the appeals court responded that proper evidence to that effect was never presented to the circuit court. (The Daily Reporter succeeded in quashing a subpoena from PHH Mortgage to testify as to its circulation.)

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