Title Examination of Fee Lands

This paper is the third on this subject. The first was authored by Thomas J. Nance entitled “Title Examination of Fee Lands Including Severed Mineral Interests” and was delivered at the first Mineral Title Examination Institute in Denver in November 1977. The second was prepared by Phillip Wm. Lear and Robert P. Hill entitled “Examination of Title to “Fee” Lands” and was delivered at the Institute on Mineral Title Examination II at Tucson, Arizona, in April of 1982. Both papers discussed the process or the procedural aspects of examining title to fee lands. The prior articles intentionally did not include a substantive discussion of the recording acts and recording laws. This author's challenge was to discuss the subject of “constructive notice” substantively and to provide practical information concerning the examination of fee land records in the Western United States.

The first part of the article (Parts I to V) contains the substantive discussion, which is intended to be a summary or review of the recording acts and how they function, and the second part (Part VI) contains the specific practical information. The practical information contained in the second half of the article is contributed by attorneys and landmen that I have met over the past seven years traveling to speak for AAPL's Certification Review courses. They are all identified supra and I encourage all