WEBSTER CITY - Diana Messerly claims she didn't sign most of the loan documents that First State Bank of Webster City holds against her home, implying in a countersuit to the bank's foreclosure measures that her estranged husband, Doug Messerly, forged her signature on at least five separate occasions.

She's also is claiming, in a suit filed in the Iowa District Court for Hamilton County, that Linda Cormaney, a First State Bank vice president and notary, notarized the loan documents against the Messerly home at 500 Lincoln Drive even though they had not been signed by Diana Messerly in Cormaney's presence.

That, Diana Messerly's attorneys state in the counterclaim, is a violation of state regulations.

"The Iowa Code requires a notary to only notarize and certify those documents which have been executed in their presence and to have taken reasonable steps to assure that the person executing the document is - in fact - the person who purports to execute said document," Messerly's Des Moines-based attorneys, James R. Monroe and Jerrold Wanek, state. "Linda K. Cormaney undertook no such steps to assure the authenticity of the signature of Diana Messerly, permitted same to be notarized even though Diana Messerly did not appear in front of her to execute same, and yet authenticated the genuineness of the signature therein."

This, the suit claims, has damaged Diana Messerly. It alleges negligence and fraud, and is seeking both actual and punitive damages in excess of $5,000 for Messerly.

But, perhaps more importantly, Messerly's countersuit also seeks an action of quiet title to end the dispute over who has a right to the property - First State Bank, which holds mortgage liens that amount to nearly $200,000 against the $170,790 home and property, or Diana Messerly, who lives there.

An action of quiet title in Diana Messerly's favor would "quiet" any challenges or claims to her right to the title of the home and property, effectively freeing her - forever - of any claims against it.

Specifically, Diana Messerly claims that the signature on the Open End Real Estate Mortgage executed by First State Bank and notarized by Cormaney on Oct. 11, 2003, is not hers.

According to documents in her countersuit, Messerly also claims that she did not sign the following transactions executed by First State Bank, signed by Doug Messerly and notarized by Cormaney:

• A $177,551.87 loan dated July 11, 2006, to purchase the "balance of the Nevada office;"

• A $27,000 loan dated June 5, 2007, to refinance a vehicle;

• A $15,000 loan dated June 18, 2008, to purchase scanner equipment;

• A $10,000 loan dated Sept. 29, 2008, to update software.

The case will go to trial here Feb. 9, 2010.

Settlement

In the meantime, a settlement is imminent in a lawsuit filed this spring in Webster County alleging Doug Messerly, a former Webster City accountant, forged longtime client Margaret Stark's signature to documents selling off $260,000 in her investments, which he then deposited into his personal bank account at First State Bank, according to an attorney for the bank.

"We are finalizing what we believe is a successful, but confidential, settlement," Pat Burk, of the West Des Moines law firm Brick Gentry, P.L.C., said Wednesday. "We're very close."

The 12-count suit had faulted First State Bank, of Webster City; ING Financial Partners, Inc.; American Funds Service Co. and American Funds, which are subsidiaries of The Capital Group; and Wells Fargo Bank for allowing Messerly to sell Stark's holdings and deposit the proceeds into his own account.

It had alleged that Messerly didn't have the authority to initiate the liquidation of Stark's investments and that none of the defendant organizations had questioned his actions.

Messerly, who was a licensed public accountant in Iowa for more than 40 years, relinquished that license in February. He had formally closed his Webster City accounting firm in December of 2008 following a serious one-car accident that left him physically impaired.

The accident occurred shortly after the irregularities in Stark's account were discovered last fall.

Most recently, Messerly, who now lives in Des Moines, is being sued for an $11,372.80 overdue American Express bill, according to documents filed in Hamilton County.

Contact Jane Curtis at (515) 573-2141 editor@messengernews.net