Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You have a rather interesting problem there. You need to prepare, execute and record a grant deed from the incorrect name to the correct name. Grant Deed forms should be pretty easy to find in a bookstore or online. Your bigger problem than finding the form is finding this Mr. Rickson to execute the deed to you. You are going to have to record the deed. To be recorded, the signature(s) on a deed must be notarized. A notary must require the signor to prove to them on the basis of reasonable evidence that they are the person in whose name the deed is signed. You are going to have a tough time establishing that you are Mr. Rickson. If the erroneous deed was prepared as part of an escrow, your best bet is to go back to the escrow company and demand that they fix the problem. Their notary who handled the incorrect deed probably can accept the word of the person who made the mistake that you and Mr. Rickson are one and the same. If you did not go through a title company, you can try the notary on the original deed and see if they will notarize the correcting deed. Other than those two options, without researching the issue I'm not sure what you could do, and formal legal research is beyond the scope of this free information service.

Rather than sneaking around with a non-existent person named Mr. Rickson, as suggested by Mr. McCormick, can't you just contact the grantor and have them execute a new grant deed? Was this done through an escrow and title company

The problem with Mr. McCormick's approach is that it isn't strictly legal. The problem with Mr. Roach's solution is that the original grantor is no longer the owner of record and the proposed new deed would further confuse the record.

The legal encyclopedia "California Jurisprudence" says, "Misnomer of the grantee in a deed does not necessarily render it ineffective to convey title. If the grantee accepts the deed as delivered, he or she will be deemed to have adopted the misnomer as his or her true name for the purpose of taking title to the property, and the grantor can neither correct the mistake by a subsequent deed nor convey title to a different grantee." It cites the case of Emery v. Kipp (1908) 154 Cal. 83.

Miller & Starr's treatise on California Real Property says: "Errors in names. An unintentional error in the name of the grantee does not prevent a transfer of the property to the intended party. Title passes to the intended grantee in the name designated on his or her acceptance, and, in a subsequent conveyance of the property, the grantee must be identified as grantor in the same name in which title was received. The original error cannot be rectified by a subsequent deed from the grantor to the grantee, and the original deed cannot be re-recorded with an amendment to describe the true name; in any event, neither of the second recordings would be in the chain of title. Comment: The grantee could record a deed to a third person with the erroneous name specified as the grantor and then the third person could reconvey the property back in the correct name. Although it is possible that the grantee can correct the error subsequently by a conveyance that mentions both the name by which title was received and the true name, this method is questionable and, therefore, the only certain manner of correcting the record is by appropriate judicial proceedings."

The final clause in Miller & Starr's pronouncement, i.e., "the only certain manner of correcting the record is by appropriate judicial proceedings" is the bottom line as far as I'm concerned. Sections 770.010 to 770.080 of the Code of Civil Procedure are entitled "Identity of Person in Chain of Title" and seem to provide a procedure to petition the court with territorial jrisdiction of the real property to hear a petition to correct a deed of record and to obtain an official and recordable judgment stating that the grantee name in Document XXXX is hereby corrected to read.....etc.

I suggest using the CCP 770.010 procedure and get the correction done offically, via a judge's order. You should ask the escrow or title company (if there is one) who misspelled your name to do it, or pay for it.

Finally, I'd like to point out, for what it's worth, that the Government Code has sections dealing with proper recording and recording mistakes that MIGHT (but probably don't) have some bearing here. You might look at GC 27203 regarding improper recording, 27334 re change of name of owner of realty, and 27361.6 which mentions modifying, releasing or cancelling previously recorded documents (without telling you how to do it).