In 1955, Hale and Wendy Storm purchased a property; it was the last time a transfer of title involving this property was part of an insured transaction. That was 64 years ago. Since then, a lot has happened. The chain of title made sense until 2005.

In 1992, Hale and Wendy hired an attorney to assist them with some estate planning. Their attorney prepared and recorded a deed from them as individuals to their family trust. They were named as co–trustees in the trust agreement.

In 1997, Hale passed away at age 84. An affidavit was recorded indicating Wendy was the surviving trustee. The affidavit included an exhibit, consisting of pages from the trust agreement that named Hale and Wendy as the original trustees, and also named the successor trustees.

The next document recorded in 2005. The Storm Family Trust granted the property to Wendy Storm and Dusty Rhodes as joint tenants.

Mike Quinones, Title Officer for Chicago Title Company in Concord, California, handled the 2019 refinance. While reviewing the deed he found a discrepancy in Wendy's signature. It did not match others found in documents recorded in the chain of title. In addition, the deed was typed EXCEPT for Rhodes' name — which was handwritten onto the grantee line.

Although Wendy was still alive at the time of her purported execution of the deed and had not resigned as trustee of the Storms Family Trust, Mike noted Rhodes was not named as one of the successor trustees in the original trust agreement pages he reviewed. Lastly, the deed indicated transfer tax was paid when it was recorded yet it did not appear to be part of an insured transaction, meaning the deed was not recorded by a title insurance company.

Wendy passed away in 2008. In 2012, an Affidavit — Death of Joint Tenancy recorded, terminating the joint tenancy resulting in Rhodes being the sole owner of the property. In 2015, Rhodes added his wife, Mrs. Rhodes, to title. The next day, the property was transferred into a revocable trust where neither one of the Rhodes was the trustee. In reviewing the documents, it was difficult to determine if Rhodes' signature matched others found in documents recorded in the chain of title. The signatures were similar but lacked consistency.

Rhodes died six months later. The death certificate confirmed he was married to the same person named in the deed recorded in 2015. In 2019, a Substitution of Trustee recorded, that added two individuals as co–trustees of the trust entity that took title in 2015.

Mike was so surprised by his findings, he escalated them to his manager and underwriting. He wrote, "Attached you will find a title report and a portion of the chain of title. Please take a few minutes to digest the chain of title and give us your thoughts."

Mike's manager and underwriter agreed that the chain raised too many concerns for the Company to consider insuring. This was a nasty chain of title with some red flags other examiners may have overlooked.

Rich Deluca, Title Plant Manager, and Daryl L. Paulson, Title Officer/Manager of the Concord Title Group at Chicago Title, along with Paul Dillard, Manager for the Title Loss Reduction & Education Dept. of Fidelity National Title Group, all nominated Mike for a reward.

Comments from the managers included, "Mike Quinones did a fantastic job sorting through all of this information and laying out the problems. It is no exaggeration to say that Mike's efforts likely saved the Company from a big fraud & forgery loss." 

Daryl L. Paulson added, "Mike is an excellent title examiner, maybe the best we have, and I would be willing to say that the effort he put forth on this exam is the same as he would do on any other title."

We agree! For his thorough examination of title, Mike is being rewarded $1,500!

Article provided by contributing author:
Diana Hoffman, Corporate Escrow Administrator
Fidelity National Title Group
National Escrow Administration