Foehrenbach v. German-American Title & Trust Co.

Citations

• 217 Pa. 331
• 66 A. 561
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 711

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Title insurance — Definition.</p> <p>Title insurance is an agreement whereby the insurer, for a valuable consideration, agrees to indemnify the insured in a specified amount against loss through defects of title to real estate wherein the latter has an interest, either as purchaser or otherwise.</p> <p>Where a person in possession of land, and claiming an absolute fee simple in it, applies to a title insurance company in good faith for insurance of the title, and the company issues to him a policy insuring him against defects, unmarketability, liens and incumbrances as of the date of the policy, and thereafter it is decided in partition proceedings in the orphans’ court that the insured has only a half interest in the land, and as a result of such proceedings the insured voluntarily surrenders the premises to the purchaser at a judicial sale therein, the insured may recover the value of the half interest from the company, and the latter will not be heard to allege that as the insured never had title to the half interest, he consequently suffered no loss.</p> <p>Fell and Brown, JJ., dissent.</p>