Private title-insurance companies arose because public land records could not cope with volume

Evidence

Title companies sprang up to check titles for a fee and to insure landowners against mysterious “clouds” that might arise to befuddle their interests. The Real Estate Title Insurance Company of Philadelphia, chartered in 1876, seems to have been the pioneer. The predecessor of New York’s Title Guaranty & Trust Company was chartered in 1883.69 The great fire of 1871 destroyed public records in Chicago. Four private abstract companies saved their records: indexes, abstracts, maps, and plats. These companies later formed a title-​guarantee company; a merger in 1901 created the Chicago Title & Trust Company, which came to dominate the business in Chicago. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2495

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Public authorities keep their records legally closed as private corporate records — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 82