The Risks of Bad Advice
Winstead HOA Law Webinar: Deed Restriction Compliance – Legal Process
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 207: Listen and Learn -- Recording Statutes (Real Property)
Preserving Black History in Bucks County, PA, with Recorder of Deeds Robin Robinson: On Record PR
In Valence Operating Co. v. Davidson1, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana addressed whether the provision, “all Oil, Gas and other Minerals have been excepted and reserved by former...more
In Senterra Ltd. v. Winland, 2019-Ohio-4387, Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals held that an examiner, after identifying the root of title and finding that an exception to marketable record title applies, should review...more
What constitutes undue influence sufficient to invalidate a deed? In Erikson v. Erikson, 105 Mass. App. Ct. 1115 (February 24, 2025), the Appeals Court of Massachusetts affirmed the Land Court’s invalidation of a deed on the...more
On Monday, the Court of Appeals of Virginia issued a significant decision about private road easements often referred to as “Ryder” easements. In Becker Building Company, LLC, et al. v. Scott W. Keller, et al., the Court...more
Boren Descendants et al v. Fasken Oil and Ranch, LTD, offers something to talk about beyond interpretation of the fixed-or-floating NPRI question. At issue was this reservation, expressed as a double fraction, in a 1933...more
Let’s assume you inherited a 150 acre farm in Lycoming County that has been owned by your family since 1909. In 2020, you are approached by ABC Drilling about a new oil and gas lease for the farm. You retain counsel and...more
California law is clear that the owner of a private right-of-way easement has a duty to maintain the easement. What is less clear is how far that duty to maintain may stretch...more
Messner Reeves LLP is pleased to announce that Real Estate Partner Deanne Stodden recently assisted in securing an important Colorado real estate opinion from the Colorado Court of Appeals....more
Partition is “the act or proceeding by which co-owners of property cause it to be divided into as many shares as there are owners, according to their interests therein, or if that cannot be equitably done, to be sold for the...more
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals of Virginia issued a significant decision concerning easements in Barr, et al. v. Garten Development, LLC. The Court held that where a deed that released “easements” conveyed by a previous...more
California’s Subdivision Map Act (“SMA”) governs the legal subdivision of property in California. The SMA’s approval process is familiar to most developers. The statute’s purpose is to ensure orderly and coordinated...more
In a prior post from 2020, Money and Dirt covered an opinion from California’s Fourth Appellate District holding that an Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN), by itself, “does not necessarily demonstrate the actual, physical...more
On February 15, 2022, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued its decision in Peppertree Farms, L.L.C., et al. v. Thonen, et al., providing further clarity on the common law distinction between a “reservation” of a property interest...more
In a recent case, the Florida Supreme Court held that an arbitration covenant contained in a developer’s original deed also bound the second owner. The case serves as a good reminder that, although a subsequent owner of...more
On Friday, June 4, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia modified the “stranger to the deed” rule by holding in Klein v. McCulough, No. 19-0888, 2021 WL 2284071 (W. Va. Jun. 4, 2021) that the “stranger to the deed”...more
The Bullet Point: An Ohio Commercial Law Bulletin Is my interest in a deed subject to the Stranger Rule? October 15, 2020 Compulsory Counterclaims to foreclosure Helfinstine v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA, 9th Dist. Summit...more
In Leland House v. Webb, a husband sued his deceased wife’s executor to quiet title in real estate that she obtained from her aunt. No. 06-19-00054-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 10012 (Tex. App.—Texarkana November 19, 2019, no...more
The Court of Appeals of Wisconsin (“Court”) addressed in a November 26th opinion a dispute regarding the ownership of a pier and a wet boathouse. See DeSombre v. Bolderbuck, WL 6314826. The wet boathouse is described as...more
“The attorney client privilege, the oldest among common-law evidentiary privileges, fosters the open dialogue between lawyer and client that is deemed essential to effective representation” (Spectrum Sys. Intern. Corp. v...more
It is widely understood in California that inherited assets, unlike assets earned from labor, are the separate property of the receiving spouse. But what if the assets do not come directly from a parent and instead pass from...more
In a recent decision, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) has held that a contractor seeking to enforce a lien dissolution bond under G.L. c. 254 § 14 need not record an attested to copy of its complaint with...more
On March 5, 2019, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court issued an opinion in O'Layer McCready v. Dep't of Cmty. & Econ. Dev., No. 778 C.D. 2018, _ A.3d _ (Pa. Commw. Ct. Mar. 5, 2019), affirming a Board of Property ruling that...more
In Lance v. Robinson, No. 16-0323, 2018 Tex. LEXIS 246 (Mar. 23, 2018), the Texas Supreme Court confirmed that when deciding a summary judgment motion, a court may consider evidence not attached to the motion as long as the...more
In a recent unpublished opinion, 2018 WL 679484, the South Carolina Court of Appeals addressed the circumstances under which a deed prepared by an unlicensed attorney would be voided in a challenge that also involved claims...more
In Mighty River International Ltd v Hughes [2017] WASCA 152, the Western Australian Court of Appeal delivered a landmark decision approving the use of a "holding" deed of company arrangement ("DOCA")....more