JUNE 2024 | 39 THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL their employers. Kentucky State Bar Association v. Tussey, 476 S.W.2d 177 (Ky.App 1972). There is no prohibition, however, against licensed staff attorneys furnishing title opinions for the company as long as these opinions are not sold or given to third parties. The Florida Bar v. McPhee, 195 So.2d 552 (Fla. 1967); Steer v. Land Title Guarantee & Trust Co., 113 N.E.2d 763 (Ohio Com.Pl. 1953).5 When different title examiners examine the same instruments in the same “chain of title,” they sometimes have a difference of opinion as to the adequacy or meaning of the instruments in the “chain.” Such examination seeks to establish who holds “marketable record title.” Ideally, this would be a series of recorded deeds and judgments connecting each grantee to the next grantee or from decedents to devisees/heirs to create an unbroken “chain of title.” In order to establish a common set of standards for a title examiner to apply to this process – to minimize title transaction delays and disputes arising from differing approaches and attitudes between different examiners – sets of statewide standards have been adopted across the country. This started with the adoption of the first set of statewide standards in 1938 by the Connecticut Bar Association. The first set of “Model Title Standards” was published in 1960 under the auspices of the University of Michigan Law School and the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association, authored by Lewis M. Simes and Clarence B. Taylor. There is a freestanding Oklahoma Title Examination Standards Handbook, which contains the full set of the most recently adopted set of standards for Oklahoma. According to the brief history provided at the beginning of this handbook: The impetus for the adoption of Title Examination Standards in Oklahoma was apparently supplied by the Title Lawyers Group of Oklahoma City under the leadership of Howard T. Tumilty. Seemingly at the instigation of this group and a similar group from Tulsa, the Central Committee of the Oklahoma Bar Association “gave its approval” to ten (10) Standards in the Oklahoma Bar Journal on September 28, 1946. Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. It is certainly beneficial to the public to have uniform procedures to confirm that identified parties have solid reliable chains of title (instead of each title examiner taking a separate arbitrary approach); such certainty, in turn, supports the ability of owners to be comfortable in using their land (surface and minerals) and for lenders to advance funds on it for mortgages.
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