Title Guaranty Co. of Wyoming, Inc. v. Belt
| Decision Date | 22 August 1975 |
| Docket Number | No. 4396,4396 |
| Citation | 539 P.2d 357 |
| Parties | The TITLE GUARANTY COMPANY OF WYOMING, INC., Appellant (Plaintiff below), v. Logan BELT and Virginia Belt, d/b/a Petroleum Title Service, Appellees(Defendants below). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Robert R. Rose, Jr., Casper, for appellant.
Michael J. Sullivan, and W. F. Drew, of Brown, Drew, Apostolos, Barton & Massey, Caspter, for appellees.
Before GUTHRIE, C. J., and McCLINTOCK and THOMAS, JJ.
Title Insurance Co. of Wyoming, Inc. 1 appeals from the order of the District Court of Natrona County dismissing its complaint against Logan Belt and Virginia Belt, d/b/a Petroleum Title Service. By this dismissal the district court determined that §§ 33-12 and 13, W.S.1957, 2 imposing restrictions upon the business of 'furnishing abstracts of title' and imposing a fine of $500 for each and every failure to comply with the act, were penal in nature, subject to strict construction, and that, so construed, did not cover the activities of the defendants. The only question presented on this appeal is whether that determination was correct. We find that it was, and affirm the order of dismissal.
Plaintiff itself is not an abstract company under any known definition of the term and therefore is not in direct competition with defendants, but it is interested as owner of or partner in a number of firms commonly described as abstract companies, which maintain in their own offices abstract records and have filed the bond mentioned in the statute, and which firms plaintiff considers are being unfairly dealt with by defendants' alleged failure to comply with the statutes. 3 The pertinent facts have been established by the pleadings and an affidavit of Mrs. Belt concerning the manner in which they operate, and there is no dispute as to these facts.
Defendants' procedure is to examine records in the offices of the county clerk (wherein all conveyances and other instruments affecting title to real estate located in that county are by law required to be recorded), the county treasurer (concerned with the payment of taxes upon real property), and the clerk of the district court (wherein are found actions relating to real property or which may in due course of time create liens upon real property), and make complete photographic reproduction of all the instruments found in the county clerk's office affecting the title to the particular tract as to which title search is being effected. These photographic reproductions of the entire instrument itself are then incorporated in chronological order into a document entitled either 'Abstract of Title' or 'Photo Transcript of the Records.' If the title being checked is in a county wherein defendants have an arrangement with a so-called bonded abstractor, that abstractor will execute a certificate to the effect that the pages as listed 'constitute a true and correct Abstract of Title to lands described in the Caption.' There will then follow a statement that:
'(T)here are no Judgments, Transcripts of Judgments, Liens unsatisfied, or Suits Pending on file or of record in any Court of Record in said County, against any of the persons mentioned in said Abstract, which affect the title to the lands described in the Caption of said Abstract.'
It is further certified that there are no unpaid taxes, or any unredeemed tax certificates of sale affecting the captioned lands. This certificate is signed by the bonded abstractor with this additional statement: 'Liability under this Abstract assumed by PETROLEUM TITLE SERVICE * * *.'
If the defendants do no have such an arrangement with a bonded abstractor, the instruments will be prepared in the same way, that is, the document will contain photographic reproductions of the entire pertinent instruments but the caption of the document is 'Photo Transcript of the Records' and the certificate substitutes the words 'Photo Transcript of the Records' for the words 'Abstract of Title' as contained in the former instrument. The certificate as to judgments, liens and suits, as well as taxes is in exactly the same language, and the certificate also states that 'Liability under this Transcript is assumed by Petroleum Title Service.' There is then no execution of the document by any bonded abstractor but the certificate is signed by one of the defendants.
Plaintiff, whose subsidiaries or associated companies are shown to have a similar arrangement with Deister, Ward and Witcher, another company which appears from the affidavit of Mrs. Belt to operate in the same way that the defendants do, does not attack or otherwise question the legality of the arrangement whereby the 'Abstract of Title' is prepared and certified as above stated, but does claim that in preparing the 'Photo Transcript of the Records' defendants are engaging in the business of abstracting and are therefore in violation of the requirements of the statute in not having the specified equipment and not having filed a bond. To reach this end it relies heavily on the essential similarity between the two types of documents. While we see little distinction between the two documents, the real question is what meaning the 1890-91 legislature attached to the term 'abstracts of title.' To arrive at that determination we must keep in mind the precept that 'when a word has a well-settled meaning in the law at the time of usage it will be so understood unless a different meaning is unmistakably intended,' School District v. Cook, Wyo., 424 P.2d 751, 757 (1967), citing Farmers Automobile Inter-Insurance Exchange v. MacDonald, 59 Wyo. 352, 140 P.2d 905, 913 (1943), In re Dragoni, 53 Wyo. 143, 79 P.2d 465, 466-467 (1938). As was said in the first cited case, in ture quoting from 25 R.C.L. § 215, p. 959, in criticism of a tendency to construe laws in the light in which they appear when the construction is given,
* * *" 140 P.2d at 913.
Dragoni states the rule thus, 79 P.2d at 466-467:
...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Johnson v. Safeway Stores, Inc.
...intended." School Districts Nos. 2, 3, 6, 9, and 10 v. Cook, Wyo., 424 P.2d 751, 757 (1967). See also, Title Guaranty Company of Wyoming, Inc. v. Belt, Wyo., 539 P.2d 357, 359 (1975). We said in Markle v. Williamson, Wyo., 518 P.2d 621, "In Kilpatrick v. Superior Court, 105 Ariz. 413, 466 P......
-
Cottonwood Steel Corp. v. Hansen
...Sorenson v. State, Wyo., 604 P.2d 1031 (1979); Johnson v. Safeway Stores, Inc., Wyo., 568 P.2d 908 (1977); Title Guaranty Company of Wyoming v. Belt, Wyo., 539 P.2d 357 (1975); and School Districts Nos. 2, 3, 6, 9, and 10, in County of Campbell v. Cook, Wyo., 424 P.2d 751 (1967). Statutes a......
-
Sorenson v. State
...its use by the legislature will be so understood unless a different meaning is unmistakably intended. Title Guaranty Company of Wyoming, Inc. v. Belt, Wyo., 539 P.2d 357 (1975); Johnson v. Safeway Stores, Inc., Wyo., 568 P.2d 908 Accordingly, the trial court did not have the power to impose......
-
Moncrief v. Harvey
...of punitive legislation and its provisions should not be extended by implication. As Justice McClintock in Title Guaranty Co. of Wyoming, Inc. v. Belt, 539 P.2d 357 (Wyo.1975) appropriately recognized, where a statute is a penal one it must be strictly construed "cannot be extended by impli......