Pat Hune, Broker, 1st Southwest Realty, July 2018
Recently I was representing the sellers in a transaction. Their names were very common like John and Jennifer Smith. When I read Schedule B of the title report I noticed it called out a judgment that needed to be satisfied.
Furnish for recordation a satisfaction of the judgment entered in United States District Court
- Debtor: Jennifer Smith
- Creditor: Department of Justice Court
- Date entered: March 8, 2018
- District: U.S District, State of Arizona
- Recording Date: March 14, 2018
I looked up the Judgment and it was a lien due to the Defendant violating the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The fine was for $20,000,000. Yes twenty million dollars. Luckily the last 4 digits of the defendant’s social security number was noted on the judgment.
Now I knew it probably was not my clients whom I have known for years but thought I would check. I had a great time calling Jennifer’s husband and telling him she had been a very bad girl. After the shock wore off he confirmed it was not Jennifer’s lien as the social did not match. The title officer had also cleared the judgment once she confirmed the defendant was not the same Jennifer.
But what if was the seller’s judgment? Or what if the title company could not prove the judgment did not belong to the seller The property could not sell if the judgment was not released or proof provided the judgment did not belong to the seller. Escrow would have to be cancelled.
Moral of the story no matter how busy you are when selling a property always review the preliminary title report.