War Story: Judgment Incorrectly Filled By Recorders Office Switched Plaintiff & Defendant
I was awarded a judgment against a homeowner in Kane County, Illinois
for a breach of contract.
This breach of contract was for the sale of the defendant's home.
The judgment amount was for 2500.00.
It wasrecorded in the correct Illinois County on Jan 15, 2003 with the
defendants name and property address on the judgment.
On Jan 14, 2004 a Warranty Deed was signed by the defendant along with an Alta and transfered to a new corporate owner. This corporate owner then sold the house to a new buyer who is fixing the property.
Both of these buyers received title insurance.
Both policies did not show this judgment.
I went down to the recorders office and found that they had switched
the Plaintiff and the Defendant's names in the computer system, incorrectly recording this judgment. They changed this immediately when I showed them a copy of the original rendered judgment.
This updated the computer to state that the judgment was only recorded on May 15, 2004, even though the judgment had the recorders stamp on it from Jan, 2003.
I sent a 10 day demand letter to the 1st buyer, and was sent back a
fax stating the he would not pay, and that, I should contact his Title
company, and attorney.
I contacted the Title Company, and they told me to contact the 1st buyer who purchased the title insurance.
After contacting the buyer's attorney, the 1st buyers attorney sent a copy
of the judgment to the Title insurance company.
This was after they gave me a whole bunch of garbage about the lien being recorded AFTER the Title transferred.
Now after a week the Title Company tells me that they are unclear of the Title Company's position on this judgment.
I cannot get a hold of the second buyer or his attorney.
Is the Recorders office on the hook for this?
I am not an attorney, but I have represented my self in over 50 small
claims cases so far, so I have some experience.
UPDATE:
Well as it turned out, no one so far really knows, I have talked to a few Judges and many lawyers. The advice came back with, this is just one of those things that costs too much to pursue.
I settled with the Title Company for 2500, the full amount of the judgment minus any of the 9% interest. I am sure I would have not gotten paid if they were not 100% sure that I would follow through with action that would cost them more than the cost of the judgment, + the reputation factor.
I was kind of looking forward to see the outcome on this one, but you know what they say, 2500 in the hand is better than 2500 in legal bills any way you look at it.
Just wanted to share the War stories.
Next time I will make sure the PIN is also on the judgment.
Ed
Melisa,
I think you did good. So you lost a few bucks in interest. You got paid, you kept your legal expenses to a minimum and you stuck to it after you ran into some difficulty. Getting the pin on the judgment, or at least recording a memorandum of the judgment on the title to the property is a good idea.
Maybe I did not indicate this but I did file a Memorandum. Good Idea either way!
Quote:
On 2004-05-19 18:38, melissa wrote:
Next time I will make sure the PIN is also on the judgment.
Ed,
Ed, are you sure you're Ed? Login says Melissa
Anyway, thanks for sharing your story. I like this forum because of the mistakes/experiences people talk about that we can all learn from. I guess when there is a judgement filed, you need to check it for accuracy immediately after it's filed.
BTW-I'm not familiar with the acronym PIN.
Thanks,
Robert
My memorandum did you mean record the judgement against the deed?
I was doing so research using a new software, and used my mom's house as the target (since I knew the specific).
Profile show a 109K mortgage issued against the property in 12/03.
The names, address and legal description was correct but the PIN/APN was my mom's house an that's how they indexed and recorded it.
I was able to get the bank to address it.