Court Report

The owner of a multiunit residential building in Chicago filed suit against her title insurer, alleging that the title insurer failed to timely remove defects on the property’s title, including an unpaid mortgage from the prior owner and building code violations, leading to the eventual demolition of the building. Read on for more details.

Two banks disputed the priority of their liens against property in Arizona. In addressing the dispute, the court addressed the doctrines of replacement and equitable subrogation as they apply to lien rights. Read on for more details.

The law firm Borders & Borders was granted summary judgment in a case brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleging it violated RESPA when it worked with its affiliated settlement providers. Read on for more details.

A California homebuyer who was refinancing her home later found out her previous loan was not fully paid off at the time of her refinancing. In turn, she sued the title company for “purposely or negligently” failing to verify the proper payoff amount. The California district judge took a detailed look at whether the plaintiff was a third-party beneficiary to lender’s closing instruction in which she was not a party. Read on for the details and see which cases the court found controlling.

A Utah man sued First American for, among other things, breach of contract, after his interest in parcels of land was found to be invalid in a quiet title action. The district court in Utah was tasked with determining the inception of loss, an area in which the state code language of the term had not been precisely defined through case law in the context of title insurance. Read on for details of how the district court determined inception of loss, and whether the man’s claim was time-barred.

After a foreclosure had been entirely completed and the property sold, a party sought to reopen the foreclosure in order to extinguish the interests of parties who had been omitted inadvertently from the original action. One of the previously omitted parties sought to dismiss the case against it. Read on for more details.

In a bankruptcy filing, a bank filed a motion for partial summary judgment to find that the debtor had actual or constructive knowledge about a mortgage on property his company bought. Read on for more details.

After a series of transactions in which two of three joint tenants refinanced property in Illinois, the lender filed a complaint to foreclose on its mortgage. The mortgagors moved to dismiss the complaint and filed a third-party suit against their title insurer. Read on for more details.

A national title insurer sued an insured couple, seeking a declaration that it had no duty to defend in a quiet title dispute with the couple’s neighbor because the couple had previously conveyed the property. The couple argued that they maintained an interest in the property and were still insured. Read on for more details.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as receiver for Amtrust Bank, sued a national underwriter for coverage under two closing protection letters. Read on for more details.