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Bill clarifies which real-estate instruments can be validated when a referenced power of attorney cannot be found
Summary
Section 18 of S.109 clarifies the miscellaneous judiciary procedures bill's language on validating long-standing real-estate instruments so that a document cannot be validated if it was obtained by fraud or forgery; the change addresses situations where a deed references a power of attorney that is missing from the chain of title.
The committee reviewed a technical clarification in Section 18 of S.109 that affects how certain long-standing real-estate instruments are validated in Vermont property records.
Eric Papadzek of the Office of Legislative Council told the committee the bill clarifies that instruments recorded long ago that appear to transfer title will continue to be validated only if the instrument itself was not obtained by fraud or forgery. The change responds to transactions where a deed or other instrument refers to a power of attorney that cannot be found in the chain of title; the draft makes clear that the missing power of attorney does not itself trigger validation if the recorded instrument was obtained by fraud or forgery.
Papadzek described the change as technical: it aligns a newly inserted sentence on page 15 with existing language on page 14 (lines 18'1) so the anti-fraud exception applies to the instrument being validated rather than to the absent power of attorney. The committee did not debate policy choices on this item and treated it as a drafting clarification to reduce unintended title consequences.
