Title Examination Standards
Chapter 1, App.
Chapter 30. Marketable Record Title Act
§30.5. Interests or Defects in the Thirty-Year Chain.

If the recorded title transaction which constitutes the root of title, or any subsequent instrument in the chain of record title required for a marketable record title under the terms of the act, creates interests in third parties or creates defects in the record chain of title, then the marketable record title is subject to such interests and defects.

Authority: 16 O.S. § 72(a) & (d); L. Simes & C. Taylor, Model Title Standards, Standard 4.6, at 28-29 (1960). Similar Standard: Mich., 1.8. Comment: This standard is explainable by the following illustrations: 1. In 1975, a deed was recorded conveying land from A, the owner in fee simple absolute, to "B and B's heirs so long as the land is used for residence purposes," thus creating a determinable fee in B and reserving a possibility of reverter in A. In 1985, a deed was recorded from B to C and C's heirs "so long as the land is used for residence purposes, this conveyance being subject to a possibility of reverter in A." In 2005, C has a marketable record title to a determinable fee which is subject to A's possibility of reverter. 2. Suppose, however, that, in 1975, a deed was recorded conveying a certain tract of land from A, the owner in fee simple absolute, to "B and B's heirs so long as the land is used for residence purposes"; and suppose, also, that in 1978 a deed was recorded by B to C and C's heirs, conveying the same tract in fee simple absolute, in which no mention was made of any special limitation or of A's possibility of reverter. There being no other instruments of record in 2008, C has a marketable record title in fee simple absolute. C's root of title is the deed from B to C and not the deed from A to B; and there are no interests in third parties or defects created by the "muniments of which such chain of record title is formed." A general reference to interests prior to the root of title is not sufficient unless specific identification is made to a recorded title transaction, 16 O.S. § 72(a).

History: Adopted December 1964. Printed as a part of Proposal No. 12 of 1964 Real Property Committee, 35 O.B.A.J. 2045, 2046 (1964); and see Exhibit H, id . at 2054-55. Approved, upon recommendation of Real Property Section, by House of Delegates, 36 O.B.A.J. 179, 182 (1965). All references to prior 40-year period deleted, 30 years substituted, and dates in "Comment" corrected to agree with 30year period as per direction of House of Delegates, see Minutes of House for 1977, at 93-96.

The Title Examination Standards Sub-Committee recommended the Comments of Title Standards 30.3, 30.4, 30.5, 30.6, 30.7, 30.8, 30.9, and 30.10 be amended to make the current effect of the Marketable Record Title Act more apparent to examiners. The Real Property Law Section approved, November 18, 2010, and the House of Delegates adopted the proposal on November 19, 2010. (superseded document available)