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 story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Legal proceedings were commenced yesterday by Henry Bode and wife against John Conant and wife and Charles E. West to have a deed corrected which it is claimed was fraudulently given by the defendants in the place of one they should have made. The Bodes allege in their complaint that they entered into an agreement to purchase certain property from the defendants for $5,000. There was a mortgage of $2,000 on it and they were to pay $3,000 down and assume the mortgage. The plaintiffs claim that West drew up a deed in which the property was described as free from incumbrance except the mortgage of $2,000. This was submitted to a lawyer and declared to be all right. Then, as the Bodes charge, West substituted another deed, in which the property was transferred subject not only to the $2,000 mortgage, but to another one of $295.35. The deed was put on record and the plaintiffs did not learn the truth concerning it for eight months. They now ask the court to direct that the deed be corrected so that the property shall not be made subject to the second mortgage and to decree that the defendants pay off this mortgage.
“The deed was put on record and the plaintiffs did not learn the truth concerning it for eight months.”
Real estate fraud and hidden encumbrances remain a persistent anxiety in Seattle's high-stakes housing market. The reliance on legal counsel to verify deeds is a practice that has evolved, but the vulnerability of buyers to predatory tactics remains a constant theme in local civic life.
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