Season 3, Episode 1

Co-hosts Mike O’Donnell and Bethany Abele kicked off the third season of Title Nerds by welcoming special guest Bushnell Nielsen, author of the well-regarded treatise Title and Escrow Claims Guide, which Mike and Bethany noted they and every title insurance attorney in the country regularly refer to. Bush provided tips on finding and working with expert consultants for title insurance cases, from hiring to trial. He gives his insight on when you should find the expert, asking specific questions to discern if the expert knows what you need the expert to know, how to work with an expert on his report and testimony and addressing the other side’s expert, and other procedural tips. Mike then interviewed Kevin Hakansson, an associate in our Title Insurance practice, about Pillai v. Scalia, 103 Mass. App. Ct. 1122 (2024), a case at the intersection of family law, real estate and joint tenancy. Title to the property at the center of the case originated in joint tenancy between three parties, but questions arose after a divorce, a death, a resale and a refinancing, at which point a possible title defect was uncovered. Kevin explains the facts of the case that resulted in the Appeals Court determining that the surrounding circumstances demonstrated that joint tenancy was what parties’ intent dictated.