CHELSEA TITLE AND GUARANTY COMPANY, APPELLANT,
v.
LOUIS BRIGGS CONSTRUCTION, INC., ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1975-06-30
No. X-144
JOHNSON and MILLS, JJ., concur.
315 So. 2d 229 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1975) Negative Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

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Synopsis

Chelsea Title and Guaranty Company appealed a summary judgment affirming a third-party complaint by attorney Stanley against Chelsea for negligence and breach of contract in preparing an abstract that omitted a mortgage. The court affirmed the judgment based on finding sufficient privity of contract between Chelsea and Stanley, while declining to resolve whether Moyer v. Graham had overruled the privity requirement established in Sickler.


Holding

The court affirmed the summary judgment based on finding sufficient privity of contract between Chelsea and Stanley, but declined to determine whether Moyer v. Graham had overruled the privity requirement. The privity requirement in Sickler for abstractor's liability cases was not overruled by the facts of this case.


Headnotes

[1] Privity of contract is established between an abstractor and an attorney who pays for an abstract, even if the attorney was reimbursed by the seller.

[2] An abstractor's liability to a party relying on an abstract can be affirmed based on privity of contract without determining whether a prior case has overruled the privit…

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Key Quotes

“As reflected above, this record reveals without dispute that Stanley, an attorney, purchased an abstract from Chelsea. The fact that he did not order the abstract and was reimbursed for same is not material. The essential fact is that Chelsea would not part with its product until attorney Stanley paid for same.”

Establishes the basis for finding privity of contract despite Stanley not being the original orderer

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Facts & Procedural History

On August 28, 1972, Louis Briggs Construction executed a mortgage to R.B. Bailey, Trustee. Briggs subsequently contracted to sell the land to attorney…

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Opinion of the Court
RAWLS, Chief Judge.

RAWLS, Chief Judge.

Appellant, Chelsea Title and Guaranty Company, states its sole point on appeal as: Did the lower court err in granting final summary judgment by finding that Moyer v. Graham, 285 So. 2d 397 (Fla.1973) overruled Sickler v. Indian River Abstract and Guaranty Company, 142 Fla. 528, 195 So. 195 (Fla.1940), as to the privity of contract requirement in cases dealing with abstractor’s liability? We immediately wish to note that the facts of this case do not require that a determination be made as to whether Moyer v. Graham, supra, has overruled the privity requirement outlined in-Sickler v. Indian River Abstract and Guaranty Company, supra. For this reason, while we affirm the judgment of the lower court, we decline to hold that Moyer v. Graham, supra, has overruled Sickler v. Indian River Abstract and Guaranty Company, supra, as to the privity of contract requirement in cases dealing with abstractor’s liability.

The facts are not in dispute. On August 28, 1972, Louis Briggs Construction, Inc., (Briggs) executed and delivered a mortgage on the land involved in this cause to one R. B. Bailey, Trustee. Briggs subsequently entered into a contract for the sale of the land to G. Steve Stanley, an attorney, and his wife. Briggs ordered an abstract from Chelsea Title and Guaranty Company (Chelsea). In the preparation of the abstract, Chelsea omitted the Bailey mortgage. Attorney Stanley picked up the abstract and paid Chelsea its fee of $110 (which fee was later reimbursed to Stanley by Briggs). Chelsea did not know that persons other than Briggs would use the abstract. Relying upon Chelsea’s abstract Stanley concluded the purchase of the land from Briggs, and in doing so issued a Lawyers Title Guaranty Policy in favor of his mortgagees, Deland State Bank. Subsequently, Bailey instituted a foreclosure suit, and this was the first time that Chelsea or Stanley became aware of the omitted mortgage that had been given by Briggs. Lawyers Title Guaranty Fund purchased the mortgage, resulting in Bailey dismissing his suit. Prior to the dismissal, Stanley filed a third party complaint against Chelsea on the theory of contract and negligence.

As reflected above, this record reveals without dispute that Stanley, an attorney, purchased an abstract from Chelsea. The fact that he did not order the abstract and was reimbursed for same is not material. The essential fact is that Chelsea would not part with its product until attorney Stanley paid for same. Judges have no problem in taking judicial notice that ab-stractors exist by preparing their product for examination by attorneys who rely upon same in making their examination. It is our conclusion that ample privity is proven in this record between Chelsea and Stanley to affirm the summary judgment. For this reason, it is unnecessary for us to determine whether Moyer v. Graham, supra, has overruled the privity requirement dealing with abstractor’s liability that is found in Sickler v. Indian River Abstract and Guaranty Company, supra.

We note that in Moyer, supra, the Supreme Court was not faced with a stranger suing an abstractor on the theory that such abstractor is warranting his product to each generation that might survive and be a potential customer for a parcel of land many years hence.1 Neither did the Supreme Court have before it consideration of the role of title insurance companies who are strangers to the contract for an abstract and the court did not have to inquire as to what risk thé title insurance companies would be insuring if such companies who have no privity with the ab-stractor are permitted to recover for their losses from the abstractor. As these questions were not faced by the Supreme Court in Moyer, and it is not necessary under the facts of this case that they now be faced, we affirm the final summary judgment for the reasons stated above, and we decline to hold that Moyer v. Graham, supra, has overruled the privity of contract requirement in cases dealing with abstractor’s liability that is found in Sickler v. Indian River Abstract and Guaranty Company, supra.

The judgment appealed is affirmed.

JOHNSON and MILLS, JJ., concur. . Of course, such a hypothetical future transaction is predicated upon a questionable assumption that private ownership of land will be permitted by future generations.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Kovaleski v. Tallahassee Title Co. & Fred F. Womble, 363 So. 2d 1156 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978)
    …depart from its earlier ruling in Sickler, or any implied permission for any District Court of Appeal or Circuit Court to use Moyer as a convenient vehicle for overruling Sickler. This court in Chelsea Title & Guar. Co. v. Louis Briggs Const., Inc., 315 So. 2d 229 (1975), [*1162] specifically noted the contention that Moyer had overruled the doctrine set forth in Sick-ler and then specifically noted the differences in the fact-situations in the two cases. The United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, in…
    1 / 2
  • …2d 397 (Fla.1973); Sickler v. Indian River Abstract & Guaranty Co., 142 Fla. 528, 195 So. 195 (1940); Kovaleski v. Tallahassee Title Company, 363 So. 2d 1156 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978); Chelsea Title & Guarantee Company v. Louis Briggs Construction, Inc., 315 So. 2d 229 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975); Williams v. Polgar, 391 Mich. 6, 215 N.W. 2d 149 (1974). We affirm and agree with the reasoning of the appellee that Sickler v. Indian River Abstract & Guaranty Co., supra, correctly states the rule of liability as to abstract…
  • Nortek, Inc. v. Alexander Grant & Co., 532 F.2d 1013 (5th Cir. 1976)
    …Hudak case a complete bar to any securities cause of action and the Buchman decision a complete bar to any negligence or contract cause of action, the trial court’s decision is AFFIRMED. . Chelsea Title & Guaranty Co. v. Louis Briggs Constr. Co., 315 So. 2d 229 (Fla.App. 1975).…

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