Moe

This is an appeal by defendants Transamerica Title Insurance Company (hereafter Transamerica) and City Title Insurance Company (hereafter City Title) from a judgment on verdict awarding plaintiffs Debra Moe and David Baer compensatory damages in the amount of $80,000 and punitive damages in the amount of $50,000. Defendant title companies also appeal from a supplemental judgment awarding plaintiffs 7 percent interest on the sum of $80,000 to the date of entry of judgment and attorney’s fees in the amount of $35,000.

The complexities of this fraud case regrettably require an extensive recital of the evidence supporting the judgments.

Plaintiffs’ complaint contained three counts. In the first count, plaintiffs sought payment of a $102,400 note against defendants Joseph Bailarín, Gordon Anderson, Andrew Vranich and their alter ego, insolvent Dockins, Schmidt-Von Wanger & Co., Inc. (hereafter Dockins Corporation) .

The second count of the complaint alleged that all of the individual defendants named in the first count, plus defendant City Title and its agent and employee, Ralph Olsen, had conspired to defraud plaintiffs; whereby their false representations persuaded…