Lincoln Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Title Insurance & Trust Co.

Plaintiff, Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, appeals from a judgment dismissing in May 1973 its action upon four title insurance policies issued to it by defendant, Title Insurance and Trust Company. Summary judgment was granted as to the two policies issued in September 1962; a judgment on the pleadings was granted as to the two policies issued in February 1966.

All four policies were issued on two adjoining lots known as 1517 and 1519 Amalfi Drive in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. The 1962 policies were issued in the total amount of $56,000 when plaintiff made loans in this aggregate amount upon the security of these lots for their acquisition by one Mattison Coleman. The 1966 policies were issued in the total amount of $62,898.50 after plaintiff acquired title to the lots by trustee deed following foreclosure.

Adjoining strips of land, each approximately 10 feet in width, and each abutting Amalfi Drive, afforded access to the remainder of these lots from Amalfi Drive, the only physically open street in the immediate vicinity of the lots. These strips, though, lay in the Riviera Subdivision and in May 1970 another division of this court held that…