Perfect Title client
buys house out of
foreclosure

Edith Mar lost her home
after stopping payments because
of a title report

By Rob Perez
Star-Bulletin

The Kapahulu woman who lost her home after refusing to pay her mortgage based on the controversial findings of Perfect Title Co. has bought it back for an undisclosed amount.

Though Edith Mar never vacated the six-bedroom house, it was sold in a foreclosure sale last year after she stopped making the mortgage payments, citing the company's conclusion that she didn't have valid title to the property.

Mar, who subsequently claimed she was duped by Perfect Title, was the first to lose her home -- at least on paper -- based on the company's widely disputed findings.

Perfect Title uses 19th century Hawaiian Kingdom law to trace property ownership to the 1840s. The company invariably finds that existing titles are defective, usually claiming that any conveyance of property since the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy is invalid.

Several judges have found the company's logic to be flawed, and the company's co-founders have been charged with attempted theft in connection with one case.

Once Mar realized she was losing the home her family has lived in since 1920, family members began negotiating to repurchase the house from the foreclosure buyer, Winifred Lee.

Even though Lee obtained title to the home, Mar remained in it throughout the negotiations.

The buyback deal closed yesterday.

Neither side would disclose a purchase price. But Derek Tomita, Lee's attorney, said his client was paid enough to cover the $230,000 she paid for the foreclosed property plus fees and damages.

"She's satisfied with (the settlement)," Tomita said.

Mar, contacted by telephone, declined to comment.

Perfect Title owner Donald Lewis also declined comment.

In May, Mar and six other Hawaii residents, who each paid about $1,500 for their title searches, sued Perfect Title, accusing the company of unfair or deceptive practices.

The company denied the charges. It also said it didn't tell homeowners to stop paying their mortgages.

John Jubinsky, a title industry attorney who long has accused Perfect Title of running a scam, said the whole ordeal needlessly cost Mar and her family money.

"It's unfortunate these folks have been put through all this," said Jubinsky, who wasn't involved in the Mar case. "I think it's sad, sad, sad."