Gotta love this lawyer
Part of rebuilding New Orleans causedresidents often to be challenged with the task of tracing home
titles back potentially hundreds of
years.With a
community rich with history stretching back over two centuries,
houses have been passed along through generations of family,
sometimes making it quite difficult to establish ownership.
Here's a great letter an attorney wrote to the FHA on behalf of
a client:
You have to love this
lawyer........
A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told theloan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a
parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the
property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months
to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he
received the following reply.
(Actual reply from FHA):
"Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application,we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title.
While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared
and presented the application, we must point out that you have
only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to
1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be
necessary to clear the title back to its origin."
Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:
(Actual response):"Your letter regarding title in Case
No.189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title
extended further than the 206 years covered by the present
application. I was unaware that any educated person in this
country, particularly those working in the property area, would
not know that Louisiana was purchased by the United States from
France in 1803,the
year of origin identified in our application. For the
edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land
prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had
acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain . The land came into
the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year
1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been
granted the privilege of seeking a new route
to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella. The
good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful
about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the
blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance
Columbus 's expedition.Now the Pope, as I'm sure you may know,
is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is
commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it
is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world
called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin
and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the
world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God's original
claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our damn
loan?"
The loan was immediately approved.
(These are the same geniuses charged with the Government mortgage
bailout.)
=======
