Daily Development for Wednesday, June 9, 1999

By: Patrick A. Randolph, Jr.
Professor of Law
UMKC School of Law
Of Counsel: Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin
Kansas City, Missouri
prandolph@cctr.umkc.edu

Another Senn, Lewis contribution:

RECORDING ACTS; CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE; PUBLIC MAPS: Road maps filed with county clerk's office but not the county recorder's office do not impart constructive notice of their contents and therefore there is no coverage under that portion of the title insurance policy covering easements or encumbrances that are shown by such records.

First American Title Ins. Co. v. J.B. Ranch, Inc., 966 P.2d 834 (Utah 1998).

Plaintiff title company refused to provide a defense under the title insurance policy issued to defendant purchaser of real property after county sued purchaser. County's claim was based on a map filed with the county clerk's office but not the recorder's office. The title company denied coverage under the policy because the policy only required coverage for items on public records and the title company claimed that documents filed in the county clerk's office were not public records.

The Supreme Court of Utah held that the term "public records," defined in the policy as "those records which by law impart constructive notice," did not include records in the county clerk's office. By law, under the Utah Recording Statute, only documents filed in the recorder's office are deemed to impart notice of its contents to the public. Therefore, an easement shown on a map filed in the county clerk's office was not within the scope of coverage of the title insurance policy.

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