[Pat sez: I assumed that this was a special service performed by the company - identitifying nearby property ownerst who had tobe notified befoe a certain land use application could be approved.]

The best advice I ever got as a title attorney was, “keep your mouth shut, if title insurance is in the paper, it’s never good, even when it’s good.” DIRT conversations aside, I have found those words to ring true time after time. Many years ago, when I was at CTIC, another underwriter issued some policies for a residential subdivision in which the local municipality allowed a letter of credit guaranteeing developer’s installation of public improvements to lapse. When the developer went under (for other nefarious reasons), leaving the roads and other amenities unfinished and 60%+ of the lots unsold, the municipality hit the few homeowners with massive assessments (30K+ each) to finish the public improvements. All this despite, as the local paper put it, “the title company issuing a deed telling the homeowners that the property was “free from encumbrances”.” My neighbor at the time, whose sister-in-law had purchased such a home, asked me how “my” company could have screwed over so many innocent people. I kept my mouth shut.

I’m sure this one will make for a nice appeal. I can’t wait to hear the underlying story (which most claims people will tell you is always entertaining).

Cheers,

–Mike

FBI spokesman Jim Margolin said agents went with a search warrant as part of an “ongoing investigation.” The search started at 8 a.m. and continued into the early afternoon, ending with agents leaving with boxes of records, he said.