San Bernardino County and Riverside County, California Biographies

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties 
By: John Brown, Jr., Editor for San Bernardino County 
And James Boyd, Editor for Riverside County 
With selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period 
of growth and achievement.
Volume III, the Western Historical Association, 1922, 
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL

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HISTORY OF THE TORRENS SYSTEM IN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY. 
  
 
         The first property registered under the Torrens System in this county
was the home of Walter B. Coombs of San Bernardino. The petition was 
filed on the 23rd day of February, 1916, by Attorneys Chase, Peters, and 
Craney, and decree of the Superior Court providing for the issuance of the
certificate of title in its nature, a perpetual guaranty of title by the state, was 
signed by Judge J. W. Curtis on June 7, 1916. L. R. Patty, the first county
registrar, was an experienced abstractor, having for years been in the title
business, and he understood all the flaws and defects of the old system
and was not only an enthusiastic advocate of the system but he also placed
his own property under its protection. With much care and skill he installed
the first Torrens Title records in the county, a system with a property index, 
verified signatures of all grantees, with such certain evidence of title that it
bid fair ultimately to replace the old system of certifying to copies of
records. Such men as Sid Harton, chairman of the County Board of Super-
visors, and Mr. Wiggins, with a tract of land near San Bernardino of over
500 acres, had their land registered during this summer, but for some time
many people were quite timid about using the new system, but on April
2nd of the year 1917. R. F. Garner and his wife, Anna B. Garner, placed
all of their San Bernardino County real estate, aggregating nearly half a 
million dollars in value, under the protection of this law, and from that time
on it spread fast in popularity and in December, 1921, the number of
certificates issued in the county was 749. In the year 1920 an attempt to 
use the system by fraudulently registering property of another was made 
by parties from other counties, but was promptly checked by the court, 
holding there could be no innocent purchaser where an adverse claimant
was in open possession and that the law was not made to defraud but to
guaranty good titles. However, much opposition to the system developed,
so much so that in the spring of 1921, the Torrens Title holders decided
that their titles were unjustly slandered and organized themselves in a 
body known as the San Bernardino County Torrens Title League.They held
their first meeting in Ontario on March 19, 1921. Mrs. R. F. Garner was 
elected President and O. T. Nichols, of Ontario, was elected secretary.
Resolutions were passed in substance declaring that the parties fighting
the Torrens Decrees, requiring enforcement of holders' rights of 
possession with the power of the sheriff backed up, if need be, with the
militia of the state or U. S. Army; and declaring they would aid and build
up the law. N. L. Levering, while president of the Bank at Highland, and 
also of the San Bernardino Valley Bank, had not only recommended the
Torrens System and made loans on it, but had also registered some 
property of his. After he had sold out his control of these banks and in the
summer of 1921, he undertook the organization of a new bank in San
Bernardino to be known as the Santa Fe Bank. He met so much 
opposition that, it is said, the political power controlling the issuing of
bank charters, had the charter withheld from him during the whole year
of 1921. Some lenders still demanded a private certificate in addition to
the Torrens Certificate when making loans on Torrens Title. Torrens title
holders considered this an unjustifiable extortion, similar to a requirement
that one should use a fifth wheel in running his automobile. But the Home
Investment Association, a building and loan association of Redlands, 
came forward and announced its willingness to make loans on the Torrens
Title in San Bernardino as well as at Redlands. The Ontario National Bank
also negotiated large loans on Torrens Certificates without requiring private
companies to back up the guaranty of the state, and in June, 1921, the 
Supreme Court of the state, again upheld the law, declaring its purpose
was to make reliance on decree wholly safe and that it was a judgement in
re-binding on all the world conclusive of every interest or claim in the
property, other than as specified, and its conclusive charter did not wait an
expiration of one year, but attached with decree, becoming final on regis-
tration. This left the opposition with no argument whatsoever against the
system. Yet a lull in the proceedings continued through the fall of year 1921,
but with the year 1922 applications again came in for filing, and a course 
for future growth had become inevitable.
 
 
Pages 1093 to 1094.
 
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, February 2010.