Funny Title Insurance Story

[Chief Rum]

Heh heh this is getting circulated at my title insurance job. You don't have to be in the biz to appreciate it (I don't think). Pretty funny.



A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client who lost his house

in Hurricane Katrina and wanted to rebuild. He was told the loan would be
granted if he could prove satisfactory title to the parcel of property being

offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which

took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information

to the FHA, he received the following reply:

(Actual letter):
''Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we
note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we
compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented

the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the
proposed collateral property back to 1803.

Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the
title back to its origin.''






Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:

(Actual Letter):
Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156 has been received. I note
that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years covered by
the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this
country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know
that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S., from France in 1803, the year

of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA
Bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from

France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land

came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the Year

1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted

the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Isabella.

The good queen, Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about
titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope
before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus' expedition. Now the Pope,
as I'm sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world.

Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of
the world called Louisiana . God, therefore, would be the owner of origin
and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we
know it AND the FHA. I hope you find God's original claim to be
satisfactory.

Now, may we have our damn loan?''



He got the loan.

[DaddyTorgo]

I call bullshit. It wasn't spain's land to lose to france. the land belonged to the native inhabitants. Spain claimed the land by right of "Christian discovery" and papal fiat, which should in no way can reasonably be held to apply to non-christian inhabitants.

Justice Marshall based his Johnson vs. McIntosh decision (which predated Worcester vs. Georgia) on the notion of “Christian discovery.” This decision and Worcester vs. Georgia have become the cornerstones of the American government’s Indian policy. In essence, the notion of Christian discovery is all that accounts for the “domestic dependant nation” status of Native American tribes. This is absurd, as native tribes are essentially being subjugated because they were not Christian when Europeans arrived from the Old World.


D’Errico’s most damning statement is when he says that, “…the United States is intent on maintaining powers it has asserted for almost two centuries on the basis of fifteenth-century theological decrees: To argue that the Indian people may not challenge the theoretical framework set forth by Marshall in the Johnson ruling is to say that they must simply acquiesce in a one hundred-and-seventy-year-old precedent predicated on the belief that the first Christian discoverer has a divine right to subjugate the heathens who were discovered.”

[Izulde]

Got to love those diving rights.

[stevew]

http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/landgrab.asp

[DaddyTorgo]

lol. good thing that was just a reading-response and not a hardcore paper.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Yeah, I was going to say that I had seen some version of that myself at least 10 years ago.

[Chief Rum]

Yeah, I was going to say that I had seen some version of that myself at least 10 years ago.

You mean, they knew about Katrina ten years before it happened? Now I'm really pissed at the Feds!

[sooner333]

I saw that posted in the law office I worked in this summer. He does a lot of title searches and abstract reading, so he's dealing with title insurance stuff all the time.