In August 1990 John and Virginia Turcato created separate Living Trusts. John and Virginia each conveyed one-half of their home to each Trust so that title to the residence was owned 50% by John’s Trust and 50% by Virginia’s Trust.
John died in 2009. In 2020 Virginia was 94 years old and continued to live at the residence. Virginia wanted to transfer 100% of the home to Darrell Turcato and Robbin Wilkins, two of the grantors’ four children, in recognition of the physical and financial assistance they provided her.
A Deed was prepared conveying the home from both Trusts to Darrell and Robbin. Robbin, acting as a Co-Trustee, signed the Deed before a notary. Virginia’s signature was also required, but evidently Virginia signed the Deed out of the presence of a notary since Robbin did not want to take her mother out in public due to COVID and her mother’s frail health.
The notary who witnessed Robbin’s signature also acknowledged the deed for Virginia, as the notary had known the family for 20+ years and had previously notarized Virginia’s signature.
Virginia died in 2020. Jan Frady and Larry Turcato, the two remaining children of John and Virginia, sought a judicial declaration that the transfer of the home to their siblings was invalid based on the defective acknowledgment and for other reasons. The trial court granted their petition, ruling that the Deed failed and consequently Jan and Larry would become part owners of the property, as provided in the Trusts.
Darrel and Robbin appealed, claiming that the Deed was valid and consequently, Jan and Larry have no interest in the residence.
To start, the Appellate Court reviewed statutes which require that all deeds must be acknowledged before any notarial officer. Failure to have the instrument properly acknowledged prevents the document from being recorded. And, failure to record it means there is no public record of the transfer. The result is that third parties are unaware of the previous transfer.
However, this issue has been litigated previously in many States, as an imperfect acknowledgment or failure to obtain execution by proper witnesses is common. As are other administrative and mechanical errors.
Consequently, some States have concluded that the failure of parties to follow a statutory requirement like notarization does not always render ineffective a deed or other transfer document as between those who know of its existence, presumably the parties identified in the document.
And, depending on the circumstances, perhaps other parties too.
The trial court Judgment is reversed; Darrell and Robbin own this property by virtue of the deed signed by all those who are required to sign it, even without a valid notary acknowledgment. See Turcato v. Frady; Wyoming Supreme Court; Case 2024 WY 8; January 23, 2024: https://casetext.com/case/turcato-v-frady.
Questions / Issues:
1. This outcome may be a surprise to some of my loyal readers. And for fair reasons, as who can say for sure which parties to an unrecorded instrument know of its existence, except only for those who signed it. And to that point, absent notary acknowledgments and witnesses, all signatures are subject to challenge as forgeries.
2. This must be another place where State legislatures responded to a common problem – failure to dot each i and cross each t – but in making it easier to mortgage and transfer properties perhaps worse problems were created.
3. If you were a member of your State’s legislature, would you vote for a law that rendered void all important documents (deeds, mortgages, deeds of trust, ground leases, easements, deed restrictions, wills, trusts, oil and gas reservations, &tc) unless those instruments are either witnessed or signed before a notary? Or is this one of the situations where there is no middle ground and any resolution is imperfect because people will always make inadvertent, ministerial mistakes.
Stuart A. Lautin, Esq.** Board Certified, Commercial (1989) and Residential (1988) Real Estate Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Licensed in the States of Texas and New York
Reprinted with the permission of North Texas Commercial Association of REALTORS®, Inc.
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