Our office enjoys handling a wide variety of legal matters including:
- Commercial / Business litigation (including breach of contract).
- Mediation services.
- Complex multi-party litigation.
- Business and Real Estate Disputes.
- Construction litigation.
- Landlord / Tenant disputes.
- Business torts including fraud and misrepresentation.
- Personal Injury Litigation.
- Appellate brief writing and appellate argument.
- Alternative Dispute Resolution.
- Medical Malpractice (prosecution and defense).
- Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act claims.
- Negligence.
- Breach of fiduciary duty.
- Administrative Law (including representing health care professionals before boards and the State Office of Administrative Hearings “SOAH”).
- Criminal law defense (federal court).
- Ad valorem (property) tax disputes.
- Insurance / Disability disputes and litigation.
- Real estate title examination and related issues.
- Real estate contracts and leases.
- Foreclosures.
- Will preparation.
- Creditor's rights.
Purchaser of real estate without notice of another’s interest - can take valid legal title
In 2001 Cary Glenn owned a mobile home with surrounding land and he entered into a contract for deed which provided that Lazaro Farias would be responsible for paying taxes and insurance and in addition Farias would make monthly installment payments to Glenn for ten years and that at the end of such time Glenn would provide the title to the property to Farias. However neither party filed anything with in the county deed records. In 2003 Glenn found out that the taxes and insurance had not been paid and Farias had also stopped making monthly installment payments. Glenn proceeded to give Farias notice of the breach and demanded that Farias vacate the property. Glenn then began negotiating to sell the property to Antonio Vera and Glenn told Vera that Farias was a renter. Vera then paid Glenn for the home and obtained a deed and an owner’s title policy. Farias however refused to leave the property and Vera then filed suit to clear up the legal title issue. In holding that Vera was the proper record title owner to the property the June 17, 2010 opinion by the Corpus Christi – Edinburg Court of Appeals in Farias v. Vera, stated in relevant part that unless a real estate transaction is recorded in the county deed records to give notice to the public of the transaction, then such transaction is void, as against a subsequent buyer who did not know of the prior sale (or did not know of another's interest in the property). In the instant case, Vera did not have any knowledge of the prior sale from Glenn to Farias and because nothing had been recorded regarding that transaction, the court held Vera was the proper legal title owner.