Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You should get another POA from your mom. There is no reason duplicate or successive POA's cannot be issued. Only if for some reason you cannot get a POA from your mom now would the title company have any liability. The law is truely a "no harm, no foul" world, and one in which you must take all reasonable steps to avoid any losses yourself, before you sue someone over them. If you cannot get a POA from your mom now, there are other problems with suing the title company. Unless it was a durable POA, it would expire upon your mom's incapacity or death anyway. So if your mom can't sign a new one, there's a good chance the old one would be expired anyway. Again, no harm, no foul. Lastly, POA's are not recordable. So the title company would not have any liability for not recording it anyway, only for losing it.

If your mom is alive and competent, and I suppose I should add, willing, just have her issue you another POA. If for any reason she is not willing, just remember that a POA can always be revoked by the principal (your mom). Finally, a POA is not recorded, and your prior transaction is very unlikely to be challenged, certainly not on any ground connected to your present inability to produce the old POA now.