Title Insurance and Your Transaction
Here is what we cover in this issue of The Title Reporter: A Legal Update for the Title Insurance Industry: •A trial court in New York has rejected a counterclaim filed against a title insurance company in a case it...more
Here is what we cover in this issue of The Title Reporter: A Legal Update for the Title Insurance Industry: •The Supreme Court of Texas has ruled that a special warranty deed conveying real property limited the grantor’s...more
Real Property Update - Forum Selection / Equitable Tolling of Statute of Limitations: Equitable tolling was inapplicable where FDIC failed to raise running of statute of limitations in defense of federal court's dismissal...more
Real Property Update - HOA / Contracts: Trial court erred by entering a post-judgment enforcement order requiring the association to assign its riparian rights to plaintiff pursuant to an enforceable settlement agreement,...more
Real Property Update - Lost Note / Standing: differences in initial plaintiff's name in initial complaint and chain of assignments attached to amended complaint cast doubt on plaintiff's standing to enforce lost note and...more
Real Property Update - Quiet Title / Extinguishment: mortgage merged and ceased to be an encumbrance when the mortgage on land and the equity of redemption in the same land become united in the same person - Young Land...more
Real Property Update - Ad Valorem Taxes: in a matter of first impression, county's immunity from taxation does not extend extraterritorially to property it owns in another Florida county - Joiner v. Pinellas Cnty., Fla.,...more
Real Property Update - • Special Tax District Bond Validation: hospital center special tax district could not validate bonds intended to finance the construction of a hospital outside the geographic boundaries established...more
Title Insurance Update - Bad Faith: granting title insurer summary judgment and holding that bad faith claim under Alabama law requires a contract claim so strong that a prejudgment verdict would be required on it - Fidelity...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Receiver/Barton Doctrine: individual could not bring negligence action against discharged receiver of commercial property until individual first obtained leave to do so from the court that appointed...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - - Constructive Notice: a memorandum of agreement that is recorded in the official records of the county in which the property is located and refers to an unrecorded agreement entered into by the...more
A District Court in Kentucky recently rejected the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) claim against a law firm brought under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”), granting the law firm summary...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Coequal Liens: trial court properly authorized tax collector to issue tax certificates subject to community development district’s assessment liens – Villages of Avignon Community Dev. Dist. v....more
Foreclosure: foreclosing bank’s allegation that borrowers were in a continuing state of default sufficient to satisfy five-year statute of limitations even though stated initial default date was more than five years prior to...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure: where foreclosing bank, who purchased debt from original mortgagee, failed to establish standing to enforce lost note “through evidence of a valid assignment, proof of purchase of the...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure – Involuntary Dismissal: although lender’s witnesses failed to explain lender’s loan payment history statement, the statement reflected the principal amount due and had been admitted...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Hearsay/Business Records: trial court abused its discretion by excluding the mortgage records, which included records from a prior servicer, where plaintiff’s witness demonstrated...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Vacation of Subdivision Plats: boards of county commissioners have limited authority under Fla. Stat. sec. 177.101(3) to grant or deny platted property owner’s request for vacation of plat; if...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Discovery: Good cause not found to enter protective order preventing owner of property, subject to foreclosure, from deposing bank’s only witness on basis that owner of property was not...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Unclean Hands: defense of unclean hands insufficient where borrower alleges bank’s loan officer inflated borrower’s income and assets to qualify for loan where borrower signed off on...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Leave to Amend: borrower should have been granted leave to amend to assert affirmative defenses pursuant to motion filed 13 days before trial because there was no prejudice, the...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Contracts/Personal Liability: official title of “President” underneath signor’s signature on contract did not shield individual from personal liability because contract language reflected...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - - Foreclosure: remittitur, rather than reversal of summary judgment, is proper where lender failed to provide sufficient evidence of late charges at summary judgment – Newman v. Ocwen Loan...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Documentary Stamp Tax: deferred interest on a “pick-a-payment” mortgage did not amount to future advance, which would have required payment of documentary stamp tax - Steinberg v. Wells...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - - Foreclosure/Standing: although bank established it had possession of note prior to commencement of action, bank did not demonstrate when blank endorsement was placed on note, nor did it prove it...more