Several years ago, I learned that a real estate lien had been placed against a piece of property for a loan, and that the loan documents had not only been forged, but the forged signature had been notarized.
I brought the matter to the attention of the District Attorney. After some calls and investigation, he concluded that filing a criminal suit would not produce a conviction; and further, that it should be filed as a tort suit. "This is a family matter, not a criminal matter," he said.
He went on, and I somewhat paraphrase, "People forge signatures all of the time. Courts just don't get too upset about it. I suppose they may relate it to a kid signing his mom's name on his report card." So what's that mean? That a mischievous kid and a thief are one and the same?
And as time passed, this occurrence needed to be the basis of a law suit whereby the forger had used part or all of the proceeds of the nearly quarter of a million dollar loan for their own benefit. The lawyer representing the plaintiff also opined that to file for recovery, based on the forgery, wouldn't produce a strong case.
The money was never accounted for or recovered, and there was never a tort suit filed. The notary was not disciplined for attesting to a signature for a person she not only didn't know, but obviously did not witness signing the document. The property owner paid off the loan.
Recently, one of my clients wondered what had happened to a significant amount of earnest money he had put up on behalf of him and his business partner to buy a Dallas property. The deal had not been consummated, and his earnest money was never returned to him.
On his behalf, I began pressing for him to get copies of the file from the title company. I volunteered to look them over to see if I could figure out that had happened.
Lo and behold, there was the Texas Board of Real Estate's promulgated form that gives the escrow company directions as to how the earnest money will be disbursed.
Of course not only had my client never personally been in the offices of the escrow company, but they apparently had made no effort to determine whether or not he had signed the document that was being presented to them. Instead they had disbursed the large sum of earnest money in accordance with the instructions on the form.
My client's signature was a forgery. It will be interesting to see how the escrow company chooses to handle this very obvious failure.
But my real question are these:
- Why don't people who forge others' signatures stand trial for a criminal offense?
- Why aren't notary publics properly disciplined when it is determined they violated their office?
Has this happened to you?
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