The firm identified a significant cloud on title to valuable real property owned by its client in the City of San Diego. The cloud on title was the result of an unrecorded 1996 quitclaim deed which conveyed full ownership of the property to the client. The original deed was lost and two of the three signers of the original were dead by the time the error was discovered. Thus, record title to the property continued to reflect a divided, 50/50 ownership between the firm’s client and another corporate entity that by the time of discovery was a reorganized debtor in bankruptcy proceedings. The reorganized debtor claimed it continued to own a valuable 50 percent interest in the property. The firm prepared a lawsuit and negotiated a settlement with the bankruptcy estate which resolved the title dispute for a fraction of the property’s value. The firm’s client is now the 100 percent fee simple owner of the property.
Counsel: P. Randolph Finch Jr and Jason R. Thornton