the real estate title insurance company of philadelphia was the world s first title insurance company . 1 2 3 contents 1 background 2 history 3 references 4 external links background edit prior to the invention of title insurance buyers in real estate transactions bore sole responsibility for ensuring the validity of the land title held by the seller . if the title were later deemed invalid or found to be fraudulent the buyer lost their investment . in 1868 the case of watson v. muirhead was heard by the pennsylvania supreme court . plaintiff muirhead had lost his investment in a real estate transaction as the result of a prior lien on the property . defendant watson the conveyancer had discovered the lien prior to the sale but told muirhead the title was clear after his lawyer had erroneously determined that the lien was not valid . the courts ruled that watson and others in similar situations was not liable for mistakes based on professional opinions . 4 as a result of the case the pennsylvania legislature included a section allowing for the incorporation of title insurance companies in the general corporation act passed an 1874 . 1 5 history edit joshua h. morris a conveyancer in philadelphia and several colleagues met on 28 march 1876 to incorporate the first title insurance company to address the issue . the new firm they stated would insure the purchasers of real estate and mortgages against losses from defective titles liens and encumbrances and that through these facilities transfer of real estate and real estate securities can be made more speedily and with greater security than heretofore . it took the name of the real estate title insurance company of philadelphia . martha morris joshua s aunt purchased the first policy valued at 1 500 on 24 june 1876 to cover a mortgage on a home on 718 north 43rd street in philadelphia . 6 in 1881 the company changed its name to the real estate title insurance and trust company of philadelphia and in 1927 merged with the land title and trust company founded in 1885 and the west end trust company to form the real estate land title and trust company which was shorted to land title bank and trust company in 1936 . 7 during a merger in 1953 with the tradesmen national bank and trust company to create the trademens land title bank and trust company the title insurance division was turned into a wholly owned subsidiary known as the land title insurance company . 8 it was in 1955 that the trademens bank decided to sell off the land title insurance company to the commonwealth title company . 9 the commonwealth title insurance and trust company of philadelphia was incorporated in 1886 . 10 in 1928 it merged with the provident trust company which turned its title insurance business over to a wholly owned subsidiary known as commonwealth title insurance company . 11 the newly formed subsidiary quickly consolidated the title insurance business in philadelphia by absorbing six local title insurance companies and assuming a new name as the commonwealth title company of philadelphia in 1929 . 12 in 1938 it acquired the pennsylvania title insurance company from the central penn national bank . 13 it was in 1955 that commonwealth assumed its present name as commonwealth land title insurance company through the merger with the land title insurance company successor to the old real estate title insurance company . 9 in 1964 commonwealth purchased louisville title insurance company of kentucky . 14 commonwealth merged with provident national bank in 1969 15 and was sold to the reliance group inc. six years later . 16 as part of the reliance group commonwealth merged in 1990 with transamerica corporation s subsidiary transamerica title insurance company which later became transnation title company . 5 17 it later became part of landamerica . when landamerica went bankrupt it sold commonwealth to fidelity national financial . references edit a b craig mark r. lawyer and banker and central law journal 1932 25 134 what is title insurance . accessed 5 november 2008 . bintinger paul . georgetown journal of legal ethics 1990 4 687 conflict of interest attorney as title insurance agent . accessed 5 november 2008 . new york times 6 october 1888 . history of title insurance in the united states . accessed 5 november 2008 . 57 pa . 161 1868 a b national title duluth inc. title insurance an american tradition . accessed 5 november 2008 ; act of 1874 april 29 p.l. 73 29 . harry k. loper the story of a bank landmark march 1951 6 . a history of the real estate title insurance and trust company of philadelphia philadelphia 1895 19 ; harry k. loper the story of a bank landmark march 1951 10 ; family tree provident trademen s banknotes 22 1963 6 7 . wall street journal 24 january 1955 . a b wall street journal 24 october 1955 p. 8 . commonwealth title insurance and trust co. moody s magazine 17 1914 90 . new york times 10 april 1928 p. 41 . new york times 19 april 1928 p. 41 and 23 march 1929 p. 29 ; the six companies were market street title and trust company colonial trust company integrity trust company continental equitable title and trust company industrial trust company of philadelphia and the north philadelphia trust company . new york times 12 april 1944 p. 30 . wall street journal 20 april 1964 p. 32 . wall street journal 5 march 1969 p. 24 and 24 april 1969 p. 9 . wall street journal 30 september 1974 p. 22 and 6 february 1975 p. 31 . wall street journal 3 january 1990 p. c19 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title commonwealth land title insurance company & oldid 743597309 categories fidelity national financialcompanies based in philadelphiainsurance companies of the united statescompanies established in 18761876 establishments in pennsylvania navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 09 57 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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