Reverse mortgage lenders chalked up a win in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal on the question of whether surviving spouses of borrowers who had taken out a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loan also qualified as “borrowers” and, therefore, cannot be evicted from the property after the death of the borrower. The appellate court’s ruling contradicted two previous court rulings in Smith v. Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc. and Edwards v. Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc. Both rulings held that surviving spouses of deceased HECM borrowers also qualified as “borrowers” under the terms of the mortgage and, therefore, entitled to protection from eviction. However, in One West Bank, FSB v. Palmero, the appellate court changed course and outlined the conditions under which a lender could prove that “borrower” meant only the person who actually had taken out the reverse ...