January-February Vol. 5, No. 1


Procedural Updates

Title Underwriters to Collect "Property Type" Information — REsource and the Accounting Information Schedule have been updated to meet the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) requirement that title insurance underwriters collect property type information for each policy reported.

EFFECTIVE JANUARY 15, 2012: Cook County Document Fees Increasing — The Cook County Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance amendment, raising the per document Internet Document Copy and Document Storage Fees.

Legislative Updates

Illinois

Foreclosure; Short Sale: PA 97-0666 — In a residential real estate foreclosure, three conditions require the mortgagee to respond within 90 days.

Casenotes

Illinois

Tax Deeds: In re Application of the Cy Treasurer — In a tax deed purchase, Section 22-5 of the Property Tax Code requires strict compliance when sending notice, including the correct redemption date. Additionally, Section 22-10 requires a diligent search for interested parties to serve notice to.

Taxation: In re Skidmore — A judicially authorized transfer of property to a municipality in a bankruptcy proceeding is acquired under "judicial deed" under the meaning of Illinois Property Tax Code Section 21-95.

Vendors and Purchasers: Karimi v 401 North Wabash Venture, LLC — Court upheld payment of liquidated damages pursuant to a condominium purchase agreement where the buyer was in default and the seller properly terminated the agreement before selling the unit to a third party.

Indiana

Easements: William C Haak Trust v Wilusz — An easement by necessity arises when one parcel of land is split among different owners and part of the land loses access to a public road. The landlocked parcel gains an easement by necessity to the road at the time the split occurs and there is no statute of limitations on when an action to quiet title to obtain the easement can be brought.

Foreclosure: Citimortgage, Inc v Barabas — Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc (MERS) is not required to be given notice of foreclosure when it merely acts as an agent for a lender. Under Indiana law, a holder of a mortgage is precluded from foreclosing if there has already been a foreclosure and judicial sale of the property and the holder did not intervene within one year of the sale.

Mechanic's Liens: City Savings Bank v Eby Construction — Indiana statutes and case law require that a mortgage lien must be given priority over a subsequent mechanic's lien and a court can only disregard that authority for equitable reasons if substantial justice would not be done by following the law.

Mechanic's Liens: Farah, LLC v Architura Corp — A party with a mechanic's lien is entitled to obtain an award only for the contract price, not for the reasonable full value of the services rendered. In addition, a party with a mechanic's lien cannot recover attorney's fees if the party's breach of contract resulted in damages in excess of the remaining balance due under the contract.

Mortgages: US Bank Natl Assoc v Seeley — A revolving line of credit does not terminate automatically when the account is paid down to zero. Termination requires proof of the parties' intent to terminate.

Surveys: Ludban v Burtch — A survey will be found to have no legal effect if other surveys of the same property are shown to be more reliable. Finding monumentation such as fences to establish boundary lines makes a legal survey more reliable than one that ignores such monumentation.

Wisconsin

Mortgages: Community Bank & Trust v Pelzek — The doctrine of equitable subrogation can be invoked by courts when a borrower agrees to give a lender a first priority lien, even if the lender does not timely record its lien. A subsequent lender with knowledge of the first lien cannot be unjustly enriched and given a first priority lien simply because it recorded the lien first.

Mortgages: US Bank v Landa — A mortgage that was intended to be the first mortgage, but recorded after the second mortgage is considered to be the first mortgage if both mortgages explicitly state that the mortgage was intended to have first priority. If both the first and second mortgages were recorded before a condominium lien, then the intended first mortgage has priority over the condominium lien.

Surveys: Manlick v Loppnow — There is no mandatory rule in Wisconsin on how to measure a boundary line in a body of water. However, in general, if the shoreline is curved, the proper way to measure boundary lines is the coterminous method, which measures from the shore at a 45 degree angle.

Title Insurance: Geiger v Coleman Engineering Co — A title insurance company has no duty to defend a client in a boundary-line dispute, if the policy includes a specific exclusion that removes coverage for boundary line disputes.