Court Report

When a mortgage lender decided to make its licensed escrow agent ineligible to do business with it, the escrow agent sued the bank for intentional interference with contractual relations and prospective economic advantage, unfair business practices, defamation and RESPA violations. The court determined that there could be a viable contractual interference claim but found no viable RESPA violation.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long-awaited decision in the case of Carter v. Welles-Bowen, in which plaintiff homeowners allege they received title insurance services from sham affiliated businesses who provided few substantive services during the transaction, in violation of RESPA. The homeowners’ argument hinged on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 10-factor sham affiliated business test, which was previously held unconstitutionally vague by the U.S. District Court...

A professional liability insurer denied coverage of a claim for defense to a title agent after it discovered the issue being litigated had been addressed previously in a complaint to the Texas Department of Insurance. Read on to find out what the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas had to say about the issue.

A real estate attorney licensed in Iowa and serving time in prison after being convicted of mortgage fraud, had his license revoked by the Iowa Supreme Court. Read on for more details.

Bulletins by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have made lenders responsible for the actions of their third-party providers. Lenders, in turn, will start to place more requirements on the shoulders of their title providers. Technology can assist title companies in assuring accuracy and transparency in their work product while also helping them grow.

The Washington Attorney General’s Office filed a Consumer Protection Act lawsuit against a Bellflower, Calif., company that misled property owners into purchasing copies of their deeds from them.

After being sued by their underwriter for engaging in an alleged fraudulent scheme, members of a title agency turned to their professional liability insurance provider to defend them. The professional liability provider denied coverage because the original suit was outside of the policy coverage. The case eventually went before the 8th U.S. District Court of Appeals.

After purchasing a condominium and the vacant parcel behind it, the owner discovered that the vacant parcel may have been vested in the City of Chicago and the Chicago Transit Authority. His title insurer paid his claim and sued the former owner of the property and filed additional claims against the city and the CTA.

Buyers bought property in Pulaski County, Ark., and received title insurance from a national title insurer. The transaction used a survey that had been prepared a year before hand. After the sale, another firm was hired to perform a survey in preparation for a proposed hotel development. This survey discovered that the property owners owned less land than described in the previous survey, due to a right of way given to the Arkansas State Highway Commission.

A developer and its lender sued a national title insurer and its Mexican subsidiary after it was discovered that the property it purchased was actually acquired by decree by the Mexican government 20 years earlier. Read on to find out what the Texas court of appeals ruled when the case went before it.