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390 stories matching deed
- The Eight-Month Deed Deception
A Seattle couple sues to correct a property deed they allege was swapped after they had already agreed to terms.
- The Forged Deed of Law’s Addition
A legal battle over Seattle land titles leads to a rare court order impounding a suspicious document suspected of being forged in California.
- A Nephew, a Vault Key, and the Missing Deeds
B. F. Day says his nephew by marriage talked him into recording a deed in the younger man's name—then used a key to the safe-deposit box to make the proof of ownership disappear.
- Predatory Lending Against Tribal Land
Legal battle initiates to annul a property deed used as predatory collateral for a small cash loan.
- The Forged Deed of Fairhaven
A landmark land title dispute is settled in court after the discovery of a printing date discrepancy.
- The Mules That Weren't
A local land deal sours when a man discovers his new livestock are not quite as advertised.
- A Missing Deed, Twenty Years of Possession, and a Lot in Denny’s Lands
A Seattle quiet-title case turned on record deeds, an unrecorded sale, and two brick buildings—and the plaintiff won.
- The Notary and the Disputed Deed
Ida Jones’s charge that notary Charles C. Kramer impersonated a police officer over a disputed deed was dismissed.
- Railroad Money Buys the Ground for Ione
Deeds filed at Colville show the Idaho & Washington Northern’s investment company assembling the old Stecker ranch and nearby tracts for a brand-new townsite on the Pend Oreille.
- The Deeds That Set Tacoma Speculating
When Tacoma Land Company deeds to railroad magnate Henry Villard hit the recorder’s office, rumors of a Northern Pacific power grab briefly set off a real-estate boom.
- The Ghost Deed: How a Secret Land Grab Stole Seattle’s Future
A legal battle erupts over Burke’s Second Addition after it is revealed that W.H. Bourn Sr. used a dying partner to hold title to prime land, leaving his estate vulnerable to fraud.
- A $25,000 View, a Deed, and a Debt: The Land Fight South of Olympia
Ben Turner says George A. Barnes took an 80-acre donation-claim tract as mortgage security—then refused to deed it back after Turner tendered the money.
- The Paperwork Error That Challenged Seattle’s Property Claims
A legal dispute over a real estate deed in 1885 reveals how bureaucratic technicalities—specifically a missing county seal—threatened the validity of early land titles in King County.
- He Burned the Deed to Prove His Love — Then Sold Her House for $1
A Tacoma wife says her husband coaxed her into signing away the family home, torched the paper to win her back, and secretly sold the property to his son.
- Legal Snag Blocks State Funding for Historical Building
State funds for a new historical building are at risk because the city's park board lacks the legal authority to deed park land to the state.
- A Blind Elder's Suit to Undo a Land Fraud
In 1889, Washington O-dit went to court to void a deed for 160 acres on the Ahtanum, saying it had been taken from him without his knowledge or consent.
- The Right-of-Way Racket: How One Man Tried to Sell Seattle's Waterfront Twice
A legal battle in King County reveals the chaotic land grabs of early Seattle, where a single deed could claim ownership of deep-water access rights across the entire waterfront.
- Predatory Saloon Keeper Targets Puyallup Landholder
An Indian man faces the potential loss of his property after signing a document he believed was a loan mortgage, but which turned out to be a deed.
- The Fire-Burned Tax Records
City Treasurer Krug struggles to process property deeds because the original delinquent tax rolls were lost in the Great Seattle Fire.
- An Illiterate Man's Ten Acres Stolen for Ten Dollars
A local Indigenous man has sued to reclaim land he says he was swindled out of while intoxicated.
- The Forged Signature and the Legal Loophole of Marriage
A husband accuses his wife of forgery for signing his name, only to have a judge dismiss the case based on the legal doctrine of coverture.
- The Relocation of the University of Washington
City Hall votes to deed away the original downtown campus to the state, paving the way for the University to move to its modern home.
- The Deed, the Railroad, and the Piles in North Seattle
A waterfront owner blocks railroad crews from driving piles in front of his North Seattle property while a right-of-way deed sits unsigned in New York.
- The Ghost of a Property Blunder
Years after a land sale to the federal government for a Seattle lighthouse, officials find a clerical error that threatens the entire title to the property.
- The Montana Mine Deception
A Seattle woman sues her husband to recover $42,000 in property after he allegedly tricked her into signing over her deeds for a fake mining venture.
Also about this, in other words
- The Deed Was Too Generous: Yesler's Estate Sues to Take Back a Slice of Seattle
A forgotten 1892 complaint by Seattle's founding figure is revived by his administrators, who say a mutual mistake gave away too much of the Yesler donation claim.
- The Drummer’s Deed: A Tale of Lost Blocks and Mutual Recrimination
A traveling salesman thought he’d scored a bargain on Seattle real estate, only to discover his deed was for the wrong lot—and his seller had no idea either.
- The Deed Itself Said No Saloon
A Spokane land company wrote liquor prohibition into every lot in the new town of Irby, Washington — then quietly bought the surrounding countryside so nobody could open a bar next door.
- Seattle Deeds Top $29,000 in a Single Day
Public records from July 1888 detail a frantic wave of property transfers, capturing the speculative fever that defined the city's early expansion.
- The Hidden Stakes in Seattle's Founding
A legal dispute over Dr. David Maynard’s 640-acre donation claim reveals the overlooked property rights of his late wife, Lydia A. Maynard.
- Her Wages Bought the House at Fourth and Plum. The Sheriff’s Deed Was Canceled.
Elizabeth Burkett turned a $700 gift into a hotel and a home. When a Pierce County judgment against her husband threatened it, a Thurston County judge traced the property back to her own labor.
- The Forger Who Could Not Outrun the Telegraph
A determined sheriff tracks a cunning forger from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest by leveraging a new network of law enforcement telegrams.
- The Preacher, the Deed, and the Burning House
A small-town minister's affair with a married parishioner ends in arson, a whitewash trial, and an effigy swinging from an electric light pole in the heart of Oakesdale.