Chapter 8 - The County Had Recorded a Fraudulent Deed Because Recording Is Not a Trial
The morning after the confrontation, Ellen and I went to the county register of deeds.
We obtained a certified copy.
Everything looked:
ordinary.
That was unsettling.
The document had:
legal description,
parcel identification,
transfer-return reference,
prepared-by section,
notary acknowledgment.
My alleged signature looked like a clean copy of my real signature.
Susan’s looked similar to an old tax document.
Ellen said:
“Recording offices generally are not handwriting experts.”
“They accepted it.”
“They accepted a document that appeared facially recordable.”
“Different issue.”
Exactly what Deputy Mills told us.
The deed listed both Susan and me as grantors, even though after Susan’s death her ownership interest had already terminated under our survivorship arrangement and I had recorded documentation to that effect.
That alone made the deed nonsensical.
Then:
my signature was forged.
Susan’s was impossible.
The notary acknowledgment belonged to Janet Wilcox, a mobile notary forty miles away.
Deputy Mills contacted her.
She denied:
meeting me,
meeting Susan,
notarizing the deed.
Her commission number was real.
Her signature was not.
Her notary stamp information was publicly searchable enough that someone could reproduce:
the details.
That transformed a family property dispute into something more serious.
But Ellen warned me:
“Do not assume the recorded deed disappears tomorrow.”
We filed:
a notice disputing the conveyance
and began a civil action seeking to clear title.
That required:
documents,
service,
responses,
evidence.
The recorder could not simply decide:
Tom seems credible.
Good.
Law should be slower than anger.
May you like
Even when slowness is infuriating.
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