Issue No. 156 | January 29, 2020


EVENTS
Look For NEW Events Posted Since The Last Issue!
INDUSTRY NEWS
The CCPA makes several key distinctions in how it defines service providers, covered businesses, and third parties. This podcast discusses some critical definitions in the CCPA as they apply to the land title industry, including how the CCPA applies to service providers or third parties and the definition of “sale” under the CCPA.

Quiet Title: Trial court abused discretion by entering final judgment quieting title when jury did not determine (1) whether plaintiffs were entitled to legal or equitable title or (2) which deed was the operative deed in light of the jury's factual determination that a recorded quitclaim deed was forged -Murphy v. Osorio, No. 3D19-339 (Fla. 3d DCA Jan. 2, 2020) (reversed and remanded)

State Attorney General Letitia James is leading a 24-state coalition that has filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing for preserving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s existence and, perhaps as importantly, argues the coalition, keeping in place state powers under the Dodd-Frank Act even if the protection bureau is found to be unconstitutional.

OR | On January 16, 2020, the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation issued Bulletin No. DFR 2020-2. This bulletin offers guidance on how to comply with title marketing rules for title companies offering continuing education classes to intermediaries.

LEGAL NEWS
To be enforceable, a deed of trust must sufficiently describe the real property security.

My husband and I have been reading your weekly column for years and have learned so much. Now we have a problem. We just retired from the Air Force and have bought a home in Texas where we’re originally from. Our Vacaville house is paid.

New York recently enacted the Zombie Property Remediation Act of 2019 (the Act), which allows municipalities to compel mortgagees to either commence or complete mortgage foreclosure proceedings or issue a certificate of discharge of the mortgage for any abandoned property (i.e., zombie property).

On January 21, 2020, the Supreme Court of Ohio accepted jurisdiction over West v. Bode, an appeal from the Seventh District Court of Appeals, to decide an important legal issue that should provide much-needed clarity to landowners, mineral owners, and shale producers, specifically, whether both the Marketable Title Act (“MTA”) and the Dormant Mineral Act (“DMA”) may be used to quiet title to severed mineral interests, or whether the two statutes conflict and the DMA provides the exclusive remedy.

The Michigan Court of Appeals recently said no. In Wenners v Chisholm, the plaintiffs owned property on Portage Lake in Washtenaw County. The defendant owned a back lot, but she and the previous owners of her property had accessed the lake using a strip of land located between the plaintiffs' properties for more than 30 years.

In “Natomas Development,” an article in the January N Magazine, Sacramento city councilman Steve Hansen noted “challenges” for the River Oak community working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on levee improvements scheduled to continue for a few more years.

In Leland House v. Webb, a husband sued his deceased wife’s executor to quiet title in real estate that she obtained from her aunt. No. 06-19-00054-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 10012 (Tex. App.—Texarkana November 19, 2019, no pet. history). The executor argued that the transfer was not a sale of property, but was a gift. The trial court ruled for the executor, and the husband appealed.

WORLD NEWS
What are the strategic, military and political differences between the war in Libya of 2011-2012 and the current conflict in post-Gaddafi Libya?

To be more precise: the Maritimes, nearly all of British Columbia and a large swath of eastern Ontario and Quebec, which includes Ottawa, sit on territories that were never signed away by the Indigenous people who inhabited them before Europeans settled in North America. In other words, this land was stolen.

A West Vancouver city councillor is looking to remove racist language from the land titles of the multi-million dollar homes that line the streets of the British Properties.

TITLE AGENCY & PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
A Group of Homeless Black Mothers Just Took On a Giant  Real  Estate Developer—And Won ( The incident described in this article is referenced as a concern in the Adverse Possession and Squatters Rights article in the Legal section)
In Oakland, Moms 4 Housing occupied for a vacant home for two months—and now the corporate owner has agreed to sell it to a community land trust. But the moms say they’ll continue fighting to make sure housing is a human right.

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
As small towns elsewhere saw prosperity pass them by in favor of the big cities, something unusual happened in Hamilton, a rural hamlet tucked in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley: It flourished.

STAR, Idaho—When JT and Mary Jo Turnipseed moved to this sleepy town of 6,000, they thought they had found the perfect place to retire from the stress of Southern California.

It has been fifteen years in the making and now we’re finally getting close to the finish line for what has become the most expensive condo development in the United States. With a portfolio of lenders providing $1.1 billion in financing, Central Park Tower is expected to bring 179 luxury units near New York’s Billionaire’s Row by the fourth quarter of this year. 

AUBURN — The Androscoggin Historical Society will present its annual genealogy program from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, in the Androscoggin Community Room of the Auburn Public Library.

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