Regions Bank v. Stewart Title Guaranty Co. (Lawyers Weekly No. 002-022-15, 23 pp.) (R. Bryan Harwell, J.) 4:12-cv-00195; D.S.C. Holding: Even though a North Myrtle Beach property was not included in the title insurance policy issued by the defendant-carrier to ...

Tagged with: title insurance

A stymied mixed-use building in downtown Milwaukee could have new momentum, but two companies that insured the original, failed project remain stuck.

Tagged with: title insurance

First American Title Insurance Co. v. Columbia Harbison LLCIn Endorsement 3 to the parties’ title insurance policy, the plaintiff-insurer agreed, with regard to a parking easement, to insure “against loss or damage resulting from an Order of a Court of competent jurisdiction requiring the removal of all or a portion of the structures” designated in the defendant-insured’s “Plans.”

Tagged with: title insurance

Whitlock v. Stewart Title Guaranty Co. Pursuant to a question certified to this court by the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, we hold that where, as here, a title insurance contract does not clearly identify a date for measuring the diminution in value of the insured property or otherwise unambiguously provide for the method of valuation as a result of a title defect...

Tagged with: Certified Question Damages Real Property title insurance

Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. v. Bernstein According to the plaintiff-title insurer, the defendant-attorney negligently failed to have a prior $200,000 mortgage cancelled or released as part of a real estate closing; later, the bank foreclosed, and the title insurer had to pay $200,000 to satisfy the prior mortgage. Although the foreclosing bank still has the mortgaged properties and could sell them, the attorney has failed to show that the title insurer has not incurred enough damages to allow this court to exercise diversity jurisdiction.

Tagged with: Attorneys Civil Practice Damages Federal Jurisdiction Legal Malpractice Claim Real Property title insurance

The gas men were coming. That’s what Susan Condlin needed to tell Ted Feitshans when she called his office in January 2010. Condlin, the Lee County director for the N.C. Cooperative Extension, had seen advertisements in the newspaper from companies looking to sign up gas leases, and suspected residents needed help. Feitshans, an extension associate professor in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department, was the man for the job.

Tagged with: mortgage title insurance

BOSTON, MA — At oral arguments two weeks ago, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical of a homeowner’s claim that a kickback scheme violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act without showing any actual injury was suffered. In First American Financial Corp v. Edwards, plaintiff Denise Edwards purchased a home in Ohio. In the transaction, her settlement agent referred her title insurance to First American Title. Edwards claims that her settlement agent was part of a network of individual title companies that had entered into exclusive referral agreements with First American that involved kickbacks that violated RESPA.

Tagged with: kickback scheme title insurance

Whitlock v. Stewart Title Guaranty Co. A title insurance policy’s exclusion for loss resulting from government police power or regulation concerning land use and improvements on the land does not apply “to violations or enforcement of these matters which appear in the public records at Policy Date,” which was Oct. 30, 2006. The exclusion thus does not apply to an Army Corps of Engineer spoilage easement on record since the 1930’s, nor does it apply to a 2003 county resolution which prohibits building permits except to replace existing structures.

Tagged with: Exclusion Public Record Real Property title insurance

M&T Group, LLC v. Palmetto Point of Williamston, LLC. Even though the plaintiff-buyer's title insurance company refused to cover title from the defendant-seller, since the seller submitted evidence that such coverage was available, there is a . . .

Tagged with: Anderson County Civil Practice Conflicting Evidence Real Property Summary Judgment title insurance