## Facts

- Ruthia Cullen Dumas held recorded title to residential property in Jefferson County, Alabama.
- A local fire district foreclosed in 1998 for delinquent fire-protection assessments and purchased the property at its own foreclosure sale.
- The fire district recorded a foreclosure deed listing the fire district as both grantor and grantee and omitting Dumas as the record owner whose property was sold.
- Dumas remained in possession and in 1999 executed a mortgage on the property; the mortgage was later assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank in 2004.
- In December 2004, the fire district conveyed the property to First Properties, L.L.C. by quitclaim deed, reciting Dumas as the owner of record before the foreclosure.
- JPMorgan sought a declaratory judgment that it was a bona fide mortgagee for value without notice and that its mortgage had priority over First Properties’ claim.
- The trial court entered judgment for JPMorgan; First Properties appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the fire district’s recorded foreclosure deed provided constructive notice to a subsequent mortgagee/assignee when the deed was recorded outside the property’s chain of title.
2. Whether JPMorgan, as assignee of the mortgage, qualified as a bona fide mortgagee for value without notice such that its mortgage interest had priority over First Properties’ later-acquired quitclaim interest.

## Decision

- The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for JPMorgan.
- The court held the fire district’s foreclosure deed was a “wild deed” because it did not connect to Dumas’s chain of title and therefore did not impart constructive notice to JPMorgan.
- Because JPMorgan lacked actual or constructive notice and took for value, it was protected as a bona fide mortgagee, and its mortgage interest was superior to First Properties’ claim.

## Legal Principles

- Constructive notice under Alabama recording law arises from instruments properly recorded within the chain of title such that a reasonable title search would reveal them.
- A “wild deed,” though recorded, does not give constructive notice when it is not linked to the record owner’s chain of title (including where the deed fails to identify the record owner whose interest was affected).
- A mortgagee (including an assignee) who acquires an interest for value without actual or constructive notice of a prior adverse claim is treated as a bona fide purchaser and takes priority over later claimants lacking superior recorded notice.

## Conclusion

Because the fire district’s foreclosure deed was recorded in a manner that did not connect to the record owner’s chain of title, it did not provide constructive notice to JPMorgan; JPMorgan therefore qualified as a bona fide mortgagee for value without notice, and its mortgage had priority over First Properties’ quitclaim-derived interest.


First Props., L.L.C. v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., 993 So. 2d 438 (Ala. 2008)