Court Report

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Huennekens approved a settlement between the successor trustee of the Land American Financial Group’s Liquidation Trust and the company’s former trustee, who had been caught stealing millions from LandAmerica’s winddown fund.

The holder of a lien on property in Marlboro, N.J. appealed an order divesting him of interest in the property and extinguishing his judgment lien as the result of a foreclosure action.

After becoming delinquent on a loan on their property, a couple discovered a previous reconveyance of the property, precluding foreclosure, based on a scrivener’s error attaching the deed to the reconveyance of another property. The couple filed suit against the servicer and others and the servicer sought a motion for summary judgment.

After an agreement for the sale of property in New Orleans, the parties to the sale disagreed on who canceled the sale. Each party sought the earnest money held by the escrow agent.

After a couple filed suit against a title insurer in New York state court, the title insurer moved the case to federal court. The couple later moved to remand the case to state court for alleged improper removal.

After a title insurer provided independent counsel under title insurance policies of both the plaintiffs and the defendants in an easement dispute, the defendants sued the title insurer. The defendants argued the title insurer breached its contract by, among other things, failing to provide a complete defense in the easement dispute.

The beneficiary of a deed of trust seeks to remand a dispute regarding the coverage of a homeowners’ association’s foreclosure of property in Nevada back to state court from the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.

A bank loaned money to one partner in an LLC to buy out the other partners, including purchasing property in Izard County, Ark. When the bank later foreclosed on the property, one of the other partners argued it had a priority stake in the property based on the membership interest purchase agreement. The bank filed a claim with its title insurer, which was denied. The bank then sued the underwriter for breach of the policies for failing to provide coverage.

An insured that purchased property in Vancouver, Wash., to turn into a used car lot sued its title insurer. It claimed the title insurer was liable for the insured’s losses after discovering that a third party might own a section of the property the insured claimed was critical to its use of the property.

A lender filed suit after its title insurer denied its claim, arguing that when a substitute trustee’s deed only described part of a tract, it created a title discrepancy it argued is covered by its title policy. The title insurer disagreed, arguing that the deed the substitute trustee’s deed is connected to was never valid, and thus there was no title defect.