Real Property Law

TITLE INSURANCE — Where a title insurance policy lists a property owner as two individuals trading in the name of a general partnership, the title policy protects the partnership and not the individual partners and a voluntary transfer of the property from the partnership to a limited partnership, even with no change in beneficial ownership, does not transfer the title insurance policy.

FORECLOSURE — Where a series of transactions involving a mortgage may have involved predatory lending practices, a court could find the necessary exceptional circumstances that would allow it to set aside a judgment of foreclosure.

ZONING; NOTICES — Where an applicant’s hearing notice covers a request for any and all variances that would be necessary for the applicant’s project, a land use may grant a variance even if it wasn’t requested by the applicant, and the applicant cannot argue that neighboring property owners were not given notice that the particular, unrequested variance was to be heard by the land use board.

DEEDS; ATTORNEYS FEES — Where it can be shown that one person, such as a child, exerted undue influence over another, such a parent, to transfer property as a gift, the transfer of title can be nullified, but absent a breach of fiduciary duty or a claim against a trustee or executor who is found to have exerted the undue influence, an award of attorneys fees is improper.

ZONING; HARDSHIP — The narrowness of a lot can constitute a hardship that justifies the granting of a variance for setbacks and it doesn’t matter if the land use board could have approved a better or different building plan so long as the plan it approves is not detrimental to the neighborhood.

CONTRACTS — Where a real estate contract of sale does not specifically exclude oral modifications, an oral modification will be enforced, but only if the modification had been accepted by both parties.

RIGHTS OF WAY — Where a grassy area adjacent to a public road has never been dedicated as a public thoroughfare and is owned by property owners, no other property owners have a right of access across that grassy area to a public road.

EASEMENTS; ABANDONMENT — If the beneficiaries of an easement granted by deed never showed an intention to abandon use of the easement, it doesn’t matter that those beneficiaries subsequently gain access to the same local road by means other than the easement; therefore, such an easement should not be modified or eliminated.

ZONING; PERMITTED USES — A land use board cannot substitute its judgment for that of the governing body’s by denying a permitted use under the guise of enforcing an ordinance that could be otherwise addressed by the municipality’s police powers.

ZONING; VARIANCES — It would defeat the purpose of a zoning ordinance if a use variance were granted to one property owner for reasons that any other property owner could use to apply for the same use variance.