INDUSTRY EVENTS
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INDUSTRY NEWS
8th Circuit Ruling Adds Risk to Secondary Mortgage Loan Market (Contributed by Bill Collins, Frontier Abstract & Research Services)

For generations, budding lawyers have been taught that if the bank forecloses on your mortgage and can’t sell your house for the amount of the loan, the bank can come after you personally for the rest.

In its role as Entitle Direct Group's largest shareholder, Partner Reinsurance Co. has no standing to bring breach of contract claims against RPM Mortgage Inc. over the failed merger between RPM and Entitle, RPM told a New York federal judge Wednesday.

Here we go again. The 2020 session of the Legislature hasn’t even begun and lawmakers are almost tripping over each other as they try to create new and questionable loopholes in Florida’s public records laws.

On November 8, 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) reissued its Geographic Targeting Orders (“GTOs”) requiring U.S. title insurance companies to identify the natural persons behind legal entities used in purchases of residential real estate performed without a bank loan or similar form of external financing.

(And here we go again!) — A state lawmaker has an idea he says could save homeowners some of their hard-earned cash.

LEGAL NEWS
In re Estate of Ethridge, a testatrix signed a will that provided that “all my personal effects” would be devised to her nephew in law and that her half interest in a home went to another person. No. 11-17-00291-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 9564 (Tex. App.—Eastland October 31, 2019, no pet.). 

Scribner’s father conveyed all of the interest to his son by the “2002 Assignment” but Scribner was unaware of the instrument until 2016. (Thanks, Dad!) In 2010, the executor of the estate of the now-deceased father assigned the interest to Latigo.  

DEEP RIVER — Residents and elected officials from Chester, Essex, and Deep River asked questions and offered criticism of the Board of Education for Region 4 schools, and its attorneys, at a special Monday night workshop devoted to a controversial 2017 land purchase for $380,000 that board members later discovered had not been budgeted. 

A nine-year litigation battle over a title insurance claim that the lead lawyer described as “not very sexy“ has finally concluded in a way that made him happy nonetheless—with a $4.5 million payment.

I’ve never smoked a joint. I don’t use cannabidiol (or CBD). The only hemp-related product I’ve ever purchased was some string for a school project my child was doing, and that was only because it was all they had at the store.

TECHNOLOGY & SOCIAL MEDIA
During the past few years, all kinds of businesses have begun using what they call “artificial intelligence.” One international survey said 37 percent of organizations have, as a press release put it, “implemented AI in some form.”

WORLD NEWS
In our modern technological era of global industry giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Airbnb who store all kinds of data we can all access around the world, even from our smart-phones, it is not beyond the capability of LAND TITLE COMPANIES to also keep tons upon tons or terabytes upon terabytes of REAL ESTATE DATA in any economy that they operate.

According to Kiggundu’s nephew, John Sekitoleko, Nannozi took advantage of the absence of the will and, in 1994, acquired letters of administration from Mukono Court.

The Ayodhya Suit is a title dispute in India that has been going on since the 1950s with a final ruling coming last week. If you haven't read any of the previous articles I've posted, give it a Google. It's quite interesting.

TITLE AGENCY & PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
Sue Bosch retired recently after working 63 years for the same company. She started at Humboldt Land Title in 1956 and retired from there in September.

Title Agents Go Nationwide
For agents interested in growing their businesses by expanding into multiple states, we’re here to make the process simple and profitable. We offer you one point of contact to streamline your options and solutions...

OTHER TRENDING NEWS
It’s hard to believe Disney’s Frozen came out in 2013. The movie and its infectious ballad “Let It Go” have become so ingrained in today’s pop culture, it seems like Frozen has been with us all along (especially if you have kids).

Adam Friedberg hit the streets early, when the sidewalks were as empty as they’d ever be, when street lights still threw an amber glow, when the city's low-slung buildings were still tucked to sleep behind dingy metal grates.

When authoritarian leaders obsess over a particular food, it can change how a country eats and drinks for generations. This week, we’re looking at five cases of dictator food projects and what they reveal about the power of food.

Marianne Mathieu, NTP
Vice President/National Agency Accounts
Fidelity National Title Group
(347) 987-0677