Pennsylvania’s public record has real estate information which is essential in establishing ownership, establishing priority of liens, and giving notice of encumbrances. The public records protect the interests of real estate owners, creditors, taxing bodies, and the American public. The real estate recordings have a system of written documents which affects mortgages and deeds; therefore, this article explains the recording statutes in Pennsylvania, examines court’s decision where title examinations were at issues, and measures to make the title examination process more efficient.

1. What are the Recording Statutes in PA?

Recording refers to the act of placing documents in public records. The Pennsylvania recording statutes are acts which protect specific individuals such as purchasers and mortgagees, against unrecorded mortgages. In the United States, and specifically Pennsylvania, particular rules for recording documents solely lies under the state law. The recording statutes provide that any written document is affecting any title, interest, estate, and land right should be recorded in the specific county where the land is located, to serve as public notice (Bellairs et al., 141).

The recording statute in Pennsylvania includes Title 21 P.S. Deeds and Mortgages has various subsections such as section 338.8 which highlights the inconsistencies in mortgage resolutions, failure to record conveyance, section 351, which highlights failures of acknowledging the recorded conveyance, deeds and contracts, and section 356, which spells out the agreements concerning real property (Pennsylvania State Reports, 474).

2. Find Two Cases Where Title Examinations Were at Issue. Brief Both Cases and Discuss Whether or Not You Agree with the Court’s Decision. Can You Think of a Way To Make the Title Examination Process More Comfortable or More Efficient?

Antonio versus Liberati 821 A.2d 666 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2003) and Pennsylvania versus Richie are examples of cases where tile examination in Pennsylvania, were at issue.

The case of Antonio versus Liberati involves a case where the plaintiff hired a lawyer to prepare a mortgage as a secured loan. Faranda-Diedrich, claims that the plaintiff lawyer took the mortgage documents to the recorder of deeds, and assured the plaintiff that it had been properly recorded. Nonetheless, the mortgage was not recorded properly due to clerical errors, which resulted in the sale of the land that was the subject to a mortgage. The land was sold, without the seller disclosing to the buyer that it was under the mortgage, and also without paying the plaintiff. When the plaintiff received the information, he sued his lawyer in a trial court and succeeded (Pennsylvania State Reports, 244). However, the lawyer appealed against the decision of the trial court because the court failed to ask for an expert testimony, which proved that he had a duty to ensure that the plaintiff’s mortgage, had been recorded correctly and that the fraudulent borrower actions resulted to the harm. The appeal court affirmed the decision by the trial court that the subject of negligence is conclusive, and does not require any expert evidence or opinion because the mortgagee must ensure that the mortgage is recorded correctly, therefore the duty lies on the representing lawyer (Faranda-Diedrich, 233-237).

Bellairs, Thomas J, James L. Helsel, James L. Goldsmith, Jim Skindzier, and Herbert J. Bellairs. Modern Real Estate Practice in Pennsylvania. Chicago, IL: Dearborn Real Estate Education, 2002. Print.

Faranda-Diedrich, Anthony. “Recent Case: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Holds That a Lawyer May Be Liable for Malpractice for Failure to Ensure That a Mortgage is Properly Filed and Indexed.” Vill. L. Rev. 49 (2004): 233.

Jessica Smith. PENNSYLVANIA v. RITCHIE: DEFENDANT’S RIGHT TO THIRD PARTY CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS., (September 2014). UNC School of Government

Pennsylvania State Reports. St. Paul: West Pub. Co, 1845. Print.

The debate about the level and determinants of competitiveness among men and women has been ongoing for an extended period. Studies conducted on the subject of gender competitiveness have different findings depending on the variables and methods of each study. This paper seeks to critically analyze the article, “Gender, age, and Competition: A Disappearing Gap?” by Flory, Gneezy, Leonard and List (2018), which examined the role of age in gender difference competitiveness. The article provides significant findings, which show that advancement in age could reduce competitiveness among women, but it has no substantial change in men. However, the study has limitations regarding the sample, resulting in generalizability and replicability.

Flory et al., examined the impact of age on the competitiveness of men and women. The study used two samples from different locations, Malawi, in Africa, and the US to incorporate cultural difference. The research design was such that the participants were given competitive tasks whose reward correlated to the number of tasks completed. The study included an average of 16 participants per session of the competition balanced equally for both genders. The total participants in the US were 84 and 700 in Malawi with even age and gender distribution (Flory et al., 257). The study recorded the success rates for both men and women in all the four rounds both in Malawi and the US. The study found that that gender difference did not affect the level of competitiveness both in the US and Malawi. However, age changed the level of competitiveness in women while it did affect the level of competitiveness in women. The study attributed the findings to evolutionary psychology.

The study discusses a critical subject, as competition occupies a significant position in various sectors of society today. People compete in areas such as the workplace, school, and sports. Understanding the role of age and gender difference is thus essential to enable policymakers to incorporate open platforms of competition. The hypothesis for the study is clearly stated in the introductory part of the study, which sets prepares the audience on the elements of the research is set to test. Besides, the article provides useful background information supported by relevant evidence from previous studies. For instance, the article highlights the impact of completion at individual and institutional levels and emphasizes the importance of understanding competition determinants. In this way, the researcher creates interest in determining the findings of the study and later appreciating their findings.

The approach adopted by the study, which involved rewarding the participants depending on their success level in completing the competitive tasks, is appropriate because it enables the researchers to obtain empirical data which can be easily analyzed. Besides, the approach identified the dependent and the independent as the researchers tested the level of tasks completed against the gender and the age of the participants. In this way, the study results could be determined as the effect of the independent variables which were age and gender could be noted on the dependent variable that was the level of competitiveness, which was marked by the number of the task completed. Additionally, the sample size is clearly stated and the selection criteria mentioned. Moreover, the ages of the participants are equitably distributed, and gender equality is taken into consideration, which is vital for the study because age and gender were the independent variables.

Furthermore, the study used a sample population from different locations of the world, which included Malawi and the US. In this way, the survey incorporated cultural difference thus diversifying the results of the study. The study has gone ahead to connect the findings to their hypothesis by stating that evidence exists to show a correlation between competition and age difference. It also confirms the hypothesis that evolution affects competition across the two genders (Flory et al., 265)

However, the sample size for the test conducted in the US was too small. Using 84 participants shared equally between the two genders could produce significant results that would represent the entire genders and society. Besides, the age distribution among participants in the US and Malawi was not evenly distributed. For instance, in the US individuals aged above 50 years were allocated 25% while the participants aged between 26 and 49 years allocated 42% of the slots (Flory et al., 258). This disparity could lead to biased results. Moreover, all the participants from Malawi were drawn from rural setup, which limits the generalizability of study results to urban and the broader population in Malawi. It is important to note that even though the study mentioned NV as the method used to analyze the results, it failed to provide a detailed description of the method, which makes it difficult to validate the results.

Generally, the article provides critical insight into the effect of age and gender difference on the competition. The researchers offered significant results of competitive tasks completed by men and women of different age groups. However, the research did not describe the results analysis design exhaustively jeopardizing the validity of their results and the ability of future researchers to replicate NV; as a result analysis tool. Moreover, the sample size in the US was small and that in Malawi limited to rural set up thus limiting the generalizability of the results. Future research should use a diverse sample and describe the results analysis method exhaustively to enhance understanding.

Works Cited

Flory, Jeffrey A., et al. “Gender, age, and competition: A disappearing gap?” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 150 (2018): 256-276.