American Title Insurance Company v. Lacelaw Corporation

861 F.2d 224 AMERICAN TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY, a Florida Corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LACELAW CORPORATION, doing business as Charter Title, a Nevada Corp.; Crowell, Crowell, Crowell & Susich, Ltd., a Nevada Corp.; William Crowell, Jr., Defendants-Appellees. No. 87-2456. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted May 12, 1988. Decided Nov. 9, 1988. Douglas K. Fermoile, Reno, Nev., for plaintiff-appellant. James M. Walsh, Henderson & Nelson, Reno, Nev., for defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. Before PREGERSON, BOOCHEVER and BEEZER, Circuit Judges. BOOCHEVER, Circuit Judge: OVERVIEW 1 Plaintiff, American Title Insurance Company (American) appeals the district court's judgment in favor of defendant Lacelaw, dba Charter Title, (Charter). At the conclusion of a bench trial the district court found that American failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Charter breached its agency agreement by relying on a Trustee's Sale Guarantee (TSG) as a basis for title. In its trial brief, Charter's attorneys stated that "Charter had used an earlier Trustee's Sale Guarantee as a…