I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

You Have to Love This Lawyer ........

My 85 year friend who comes up with some good ones sent this to me and I hadn't seen it before, but even if you have, it's still funny and this is definitely the kind of lawyer I would want!

Part of rebuilding New Orleans (after Katrina) often caused residents  to be challenged with the task of tracing titles to their homes... 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: 

A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client.. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove “satisfactory title” to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. It took the lawyer three months to track down the full title to the property which dated back to 1803. 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:
"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.

15 comments:

jabblog said...

Ooh, yes - I'd like a lawyer like that, should I ever have need :-)

Cildemer said...

He he he!That was a good one!
I'm still laughing;o)
Thanks for sharing, Sylvia;o)

George said...

I love it! Where can I find that lawyer?

Jay said...

Hahahaha! Very good - I LOVE letters like that! LOL!

Arija said...

Sylvia I love you and the lady who set this to you!!!!!

Tracy said...

I'm sure that is one letter that was talked about throughout the office!
Sometimes, doesn't it seem like policy prevails over common sense?

abb said...

Snort! Haven't heard that either - very funny!

magiceye said...

LOL!!! that was superb!

SandyCarlson said...

Thanks for the story! You are the best, my friend.

india flint said...

this is brilliant. so was the other post about 'disorder in court' which i was happily enjoying and to which i planned to offer a comment
however
sadly
it seems to have been deleted. sigh.

~Cheryl said...

Classic! Thank you for sharing a good laugh!

Kay said...

Where was that lawyer when I needed him for our property? Sheesh!

Unknown said...

Wonderful story! I like that lawyer!
I was on my way to U.
Best wishes,
Anna

Anna's abcWdRd7-U

PAINTORDIG.blogspot.com said...

What a wonderful startn to my day-I will be laughing every time I think of this.You know they say laughter is the best medicine!

wanderlust said...

I absolutely love this! I laughed out loud!

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

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