RECORDED Thursday, October 13, 2005

The same name game

One of the things one does when preparing an title opinion or abstract is a search of the entities party to the transaction, which serves to show any bankruptcy, state or federal tax liens, death certificates, Department of Homeland Security and other documents filed against the parties.

Sometimes you'll find that your party has a common name, and have to sort through a pile of liens and death certificates against that other "John Doe" - and today, while looking through several probate and other various documents, I watched as a woman in her mid-50's altered her will several times, and then overdosed on barbituates.

I have a very narrow view of the lives that go on around the forty years of documents I search for each property; sometimes it gets wider than I'd like.