In Download 266 Summit, LLC v. Lawyers Title Insurance Corp. (D. Minn. Case No. 10.4051, Memorandum of Law and Order Filed July 22, 2011) PUBLIC ACCESS, also published as 2011 WL 3020301 *5-*8 (D. Minn. July 22, 2011)(authorized password required to access Westlaw), the Court applied established Insurance Coverage Rules which apply to a Duty to Defend in Liability Insurance Cases. This may be one of the first times that a Court has applied Duty to Defend Rules which are traditionally associated with Liability Insurance Policies, to Title Insurance Policies too.
Parenthetically, in the 266 Summit case, the Federal Court also held that there was no requirement in the Title Insurance Policy before it "that it [the Title Insurance Company] prosecute actions on behalf of the insured." 266 Summit, LLC v. Lawyers Title Insurance Corp., 2011 WL 3020301 at *8. [Emphasis entirely by the Federal Court.]
The ubiquity of Title Insurance is phenomenal. Consumers, i.e., individual Homeowners, "pay one-time premiums for title insurance" for as long as the person owns the house. A Lender's Title Policy, on the other hand, "must be repurchased each time a loan is refinanced". The Financial Fiasco has battered Title Insurance Companies nonetheless. They collect far few Premiums than they did before the Great Collapse. However, Foreclosures reportedly bring them a ray of hope. "When a bank forecloses, it orders a title review, and that has become" an ever-increasing revenue source. Maryann Haggerty, "Paying For Title Insurance" (New York Times Online, Thursday, July 28, 2011).
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