Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You absolutely can sue an escrow company for negligence, whether gross or just standard professional negligence. I spent almost seven years defending negligent and wrongly accused title officers as a vice president and associate general counsel for the parent of Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title and a slew of smaller title companies. So I've pretty much seen it all, from a title officer we had arrested for siphoning off deposit money from escrows that were opened and then fell dormant without closing, to a poor title officer who was accused of not following escrow instructions, when the purported "instruction" was a comment the husband made to his wife that neither of them could swear the officer even heard. Without knowing all the facts, of course, I can't really say whether you have a good case or not, but some of the things you describe appear to amount to professional negligence on behalf of the escrow company. The big question, though, is what are your real damages. If they amount to "real money" then it would be worth pursuing.

The big issue is what was in your escrow instructions. The escrow officer can only act pursuant to escrow instructions, jointly signed by the parties. If you and your broker did not properly instruct the escrow officer, that is the fault of you and the broker, not the escrow company.

If, on the other hand, you provided specific instructions, and the escrow did not properly follow them, then you may have a case.

With all that said, if you have evidence that instructions were violated or not followed, yes, you can sue. The facts and terms of escrow will determine whether you can win or not. If serious about pursuing this, feel free to contact me.