In re Weisman
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
5 F.3d 417 (1993)
After Marc Peters (defendant) and his ex-wife divorced in 1985, she remarried, took the name Sheila Weisman, and moved out of the family home permanently, while Peters and his new partner Nianne Neergaard openly moved in and lived there together. The divorce settlement had left the house's record title jointly with Weisman and Peters as tenants in common, and although Weisman deeded her interest to Peters in 1986, that deed still wasn't recorded by 1988, when Weisman and her second husband filed for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy trustee Jerome Robertson (plaintiff) sued to avoid the unrecorded 1986 conveyance to Peters. The bankruptcy judge ruled for Peters, but the district court reversed for clear error, and Peters appealed.
Whether, in race-notice jurisdictions, a person is deemed to have constructive notice of an unrecorded real property transfer if a prudent purchaser would, under the circumstances, inquire into the relevant facts.