Posting for

Friday, November 13, 1998

Robbie Dimon

rdimon@firstam.com

GOVERNMENT FORFEITURES/TITLE UNDERWRITING/ESCROW AND CLOSING

Last week (11/5) I was a speaker at an educational seminar sponsored by the Tennessee Land Title Assn. One of the speakers who preceded me was J. Donald Cole--with Commonwealth--who discussed government forfeitures. I was reminded that Robbie Dimon, who recently joined First American as in-house counsel in Atlanta, was a co-author with Cole of a very fine article on forfeitures appearing in the May/June 1998 issue of the ABA's Probate & Property magazine. To view the article ("Risky Business--Dealing with Forfeiture Titles") just click on the URL below. (Please excuse the appearance of the title of the article--it was printed against artwork and had to be trimmed for scanning.)

First American has had good claims experience insuring after government forfeitures, primarily because we generally require (and get) a warranty deed from the government agency involved. One exception to this statement, however, is the Garcia claim--from Modesto, CA. Garcia probably merits its own posting--will try to get to it next week.