Murray

In 1962 the Murrays purchased property in Santa Barbara County substantially described as: Lot 12 of Block 15, according to survey and plan filed in the office of the county recorder on April 17, 1888, in Book 561 of Miscellaneous Records. According to the original survey, lot 12 was a corner lot bounded by Orange Avenue on the west and by Rutherford Street on the south. The Murrays secured a title report and a policy insuring their title to lot 12 from the defendant Title Insurance and Trust Company and proceeded to construct a building on the lot. Subsequently, they discovered that the original road south of their lot, Rutherford Street, had previously been abandoned and that neither adjacent roadway nor easement of access existed to the south. The Murrays sued the title company in contract for damages under their policy and in tort for negligent misrepresentation, claiming they had been led to believe in the existence of a road by the description of the property in their title report and in their policy of title insurance. The trial court sustained the title company’s demurrer to plaintiffs’ amended complaint without leave to amend, and the case is here on appeal.

Plaintiffs’…