Officials seek consultant to rectify deeds' office errors

By Lynn Hotaling

Jackson County Commissioners' Chairman Stacy Buchanan confirmed Monday that growing concern over the county's liability due to discrepancies at the deeds' office led to commissioners' decision to seek help in correcting official documents related to the transfer of real estate titles.

"We must protect the citizens of the county from liability issues," Buchanan said. "We've taken steps and talked with (Register of Deeds Joe) Hamilton. We plan to try to find a consultant to come in and look at all the instruments (deeds) and correct them as needed and provide any additional training as required."

Commissioners' discussion of problems at Hamilton's deeds office occurred during a closed session last Tuesday (Feb. 11).

While North Carolina's Open Meetings Law permits closed sessions to allow public officials to consult with their attorney, at least two local attorneys expressed the opinion that the matter should have been aired publicly.

"It's not good business to do something like that in closed session," said one, who asked to remain anonymous.

Any mistakes in the county deed books are a serious concern, said the local attorney.

Most of the mistakes involve errors in the way things are filed in the deeds office's sellers (grantors) and buyers (grantees) indexes, which are the starting points for title searches, the lawyer said.

Other mistakes include incorrectly listing the deed book or page where a certain deed or deed of trust can be found. In some cases, deeds of trust have not been indexed at all, according to the local attorney.

Local attorneys and paralegals counted 15 mistakes made during the first week of February, the lawyer said.

The Jackson County Bar Association became concerned after attorneys and paralegals detected numerous mistakes in the county's deed books and sent two delegates to talk with Hamilton about the problem, said attorney Tom Jones, president of the local bar association.

Jones and fellow bar association representative Max Holland met with Hamilton Dec. 20.

"Max and I were designated to meet with Joe on behalf of the bar to discuss the problems in his office and the concerns of members of the Jackson County Bar who are involved in real estate practice," Jones said.

According to Hamilton, his meeting with the representatives from the bar association was a productive one.

"I assured them their concerns were my concerns and agreed with them that the problems would be solved. And they have been solved," Hamilton said Tuesday. "I can understand (the lawyers') concern - they're in the business of recording deeds and deeds of trust. Of course with an office this big, there's going to be some problems."

It was the commissioners' idea to have someone come in and observe operations in the deeds' office and offer suggestions, Hamilton said.

"I'm all for it. I'm all for any kind of improvement that better serves the public - that's the name of the game," Hamilton said. "I've got a super dedicated staff. They're hard-working, they don't ever complain. We process close to 100 instruments each day, but we're keeping them up to date."

Jackson County's deeds office is in "better shape than other counties around here," Hamilton said. Other counties in the area often take a week or more to get deeds recorded, he said.

Two deeds office staff members have graduated from the Institute of Government's register of deeds school, and the third will attend this fall's session, Hamilton said. While he hasn't attended the Institute of Government's course, Hamilton attends two professional seminars each year, he said.

Though Hamilton acknowledged problems and said he would bring them to the attention of his staff for correction, the errors were not corrected so far as he could tell, Jones said last week.

With numerous mistakes remaining uncorrected, a local attorney and paralegal brought the situation to the attention of county attorney Paul Holt, the lawyer said.

Holt, who asked for last week's closed session that made commissioners aware of the situation, declined comment Tuesday.

North Carolina's General Statutes set forth the duties of county registers of deeds in Section 161-14, which specifies that the register shall keep files alphabetically. Statutes also provide for criminal penalties and removal from office for registers of deeds who refuse to perform their duties as the statutes set forth.

Failure to register a deed or deed of trust could also cause action against the county's bond, said the lawyer who asked not to be identified. Title insurance companies would seek compensation from the county in the event inaccurate title searches were caused by deeds' office mistakes.

Reports of increasing discrepancies in the deed books first surfaced in November, after Hamilton fired longtime deeds office employee LaRae Hooper one day after he was re-elected without opposition and less than two years before Hooper could have retired with 30 years service.

Though Hooper initially declined to comment publicly about Hamilton or the circumstances surrounding her dismissal, she said last week that she noticed mistakes in record-keeping before she was fired. Such mistakes were at times a source of conflict between her and Hamilton, Hooper said.

A petition indicating Hamilton had not acquired sufficient training to adequately perform his duties as register was circulated during the latter part of November but was not presented to the commissioners.

Hamilton, who ran for register of deeds after retiring as a N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles driver's license examiner, began his second term as register of deeds in December. He was first elected to the post in November 1998.

Assistant Editor Carey Phillips contributed to this report.

Back to Archive: 02/20/03.