When the attorney closing a residential real estate transaction steals the closing proceeds, does the buyer or the seller bear the loss?
The holding of the 2-1 majority today in the North Carolina Court of Appeals decision in Johnson v. Schultz is that in the typical transaction the loss will fall on the party whose lawyer absconded with the funds, at least in the absence of fault.
In North Carolina, that’s in most cases going to be the buyer, who typically selects the closing attorney. The holding of Judge Robert