The holders of mortgages on property in Florida dispute the priority of their mortgage liens. While one was recorded prior to the other, a series of suspicious documents and occurrences called that priority into question. After the trial court granted the second lender’s motion for summary judgment in the first lender’s case against it, the first lender appealed. Read on for more details.

A homeowner in Maryland originally filed a complaint with the Maryland Insurance Administration, arguing that her title agency had violated state law by failing to reimburse her for the remaining balance on her mortgage after her home was foreclosed. The case eventually went before the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. Read on for more details.

The Illinois General Assembly is considering a bill that would amend the Title Insurance Act to provide that the definition of good funds includes a check drawn on the fiduciary trust account of an independent escrowee. Read on for more details.

The Utah Legislature is considering a bill that would increase certain statutorily defined recording fees and modify the recording fee structure to a per-recording rather than a per-page fee. Read on for more details.

A bill that would amend title agent license expiration and renewal procedures awaits the signature of Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. Read on for more details.

The New York Assembly is considering a bill that would provide for notice of illegal restrictive covenant language in documents to be recorded, as well as the recordation of restrictive covenant modification documents where conveyance instruments include language violative of civil rights law. The bill would require title insurance companies to include the notice in title abstract reports and to inform the purchaser of the ability from the county recorder of restrictive covenant modification documents. Read on for more details.

The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation (DFR) has accelerated a long-planned migration to a new website. The department’s legacy website was taken offline proactively as a precautionary measure on Jan. 29, 2019, as a result of an identified security vulnerability and has remained offline as the Agency of Digital Services (ADS) completes a full risk assessment. Read on for more details.

Wisconsin’s new insurance commissioner, Mark Afable, announced the remaining appointments to the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance’s (OCI) leadership team. Read on for more information about the appointments.

In federal court in Central Islip, New York, Edward E. Bohm, president of sales and an undisclosed owner of Long Island mortgage lender Vanguard Funding, LLC (Vanguard), pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud in connection with the illegal diversion of more than $8.9 million of warehouse loans that Vanguard had obtained to fund mortgages. Read on for more details.