I ran across the most odd and intriguing title I have ran I believe ever, and I thought I would share it here. This was a typical 32 Year search for a HELOC. In the chain of title the current owner recieved tilte from a Mississippi, LLC., The chain came down good and all looked good. I get back to the office and go to the Mississippi Sec. of State website to run the LLC. I always do this to ensure that Voluntary Alienation of title took place and the conveyance was good, and therefore any voluntary encumbrances the Grantee may have given will also be good. I run the LLC that acted as the Grantor, and I found no results. I verified again it was a Mississippi, LLC. and ran it again, same thing no results found. I then ran the Officer' name under the search by Officer query, and again no results found. I then search all 50 States, and again "No results Found"! Now my interest is not only peaked but I am just foaming with Curiosity here. I contact the closing attorney on the original purchase and they provided me with the HUD-1. The first thing that jumps off of the page at me was the Mortgage Broker fee's were paid to a gentleman with the same name as that of the "alleged" Officer of this now to be found fictitious LLC. In Mississippi it only cost a mere $50.00 to open an LLC, LP, or LLP, why would anyone just make it up and not spend $50.00 to make it legit. I'll get back in a moment also to the Mortgage Broker and Officer signing at closing having the same last name, as it gets more interesting here.

      I drafted a Caveat and attached it to the title and submitted it to the requesting Client. In the Caveat I detailed how no title had passed at the original closing as there was not a Natural and Bona-Fide Authority making conveyance. In Mississippi as it is generally the rule everywhere, you must have a Grantor and a Grantee under the Treatise of Real Property Law here. The absence of a Grantor has now put the homeowner in a position of holding the property under 2 of the five elements of real property ownership, Hostile and Adverse; not Fee Simple. I then showed that the Voluntary Encumbrance as given by the Grantee at the closing table was also Jepordized as the Grantee never actually recieved any title and therefore did not hold the authority to make this conveyance.

      Now the interesting part, and hold your hat's for this one. As usual a claim was filed in this case and Civil Actions have blanketed the dockets in Chancery Court over every conveyance made by this Entity. Who got the claim you wonder, "THE ABSTRACTOR" that performed the search. The closing attorney was not the target of a claim, the Underwriting Dept of the Funding Comapny, just the poor starving to death Abstractor who simply ran the title for the original purchase. I find it also most interesting that the closing attorney was not pounded with a claim over this. It is not the duty of the Abstractor to assure that all parties to the contract are acting with good and proper authority. I see that as the job of the Underwriter that say's all id good and the Closing Agent that makes sure all is good. Only in America folks, Your thoughts on this matter are welcomed.

      I almost forgot the Mortgage Broker and Officer for the fictitious LLC having the same name, it's because they were one and the same person. Why didn't underwriting question this and why for sure didn't the closing attorney balk at this. The same guy walks away from the closing with 2 checks, one to him and one his sham corporation. I also wonder what is going to come from the Civil side of this with regards to the bank that allowed him to open an account and then draw from it under a fictitious LLC. Again, only in America!!!  Forgive any Type-O's I'm on the run.

David Chisolm