A hypothetiical problem demonstrating the inepititude of bureaucratic offices in many parts of the world.
I prefaced this humor in case there were any that might have mistaken this humor for fact.
A New Orleans ( insert country and location here etc etc.) lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client who lost his house
in Hurricane Katrina and wanted to rebuild.. He was told the loan would
be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to the parcel of
property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated
back to 1803, which took the Lawyer three months to track down. After
sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply:
(Actual text of the letter):
“Upon review of your letter adjoining your client’s loan application,
we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we
compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the
application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the
proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be
accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.”
Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows (Actual text of the letter):
“Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156 has been received. I
note that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years
covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated
person in this country, particularly those working in the property
area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S., from
France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application. For
the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land
prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France , which had acquired it
by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into the possession of
Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain
named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of
seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Isabella. The
good queen, Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about
titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the
Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus’ expedition. Now the
Pope, as I’m sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God; and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore,
I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the
world called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and
His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we
know it AND the FHA. I hope you find God’s original claim to be
satisfactory. Now, may we have our damn loan?”
He got the loan.
Bob
-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner
