Brotherly love

[Gob]

Woman awarded $3.8m after brother sold home and fled
Louise Hall
December 5, 2011

THE state government has been ordered to pay $3.8 million to a woman who was in cloisters in an Italian nunnery when her brother stole the title to her home and sold it from under her.

Teresa Nadia Pedulla lived with an order of nuns in Sicily and then Calabria for five years, before leaving to care for her dying father in June 2009.

While she was in Italy, her brother Fernando Rene Panetta used fraudulent means to obtain the certificate of title to her North Curl Curl home.


He took out several mortgages against the Soniver Road property, including one for $1.99 million, then sold it for $3.8 million in March this year.

Mr Panetta and his wife, Anna Lam, each received $684,890.92 from the sale and left Australia on separate flights on May 25. They have not been seen since.

The NSW Supreme Court ordered the NSW government to compensate Mrs Pedulla from the Torrens Assurance Fund.

Justice Michael Penbroke found Mrs Pedulla could claim under the Real Property Act in circumstances where the loss arises from ''having been deprived of the land, or of any estate or interest in the land, as a consequence of fraud''.

The Registrar General was also ordered to pay Mrs Pedulla's costs.

The court heard a solicitor, Lewis Fineman Yee, was ''central and causative'' to the ''brazen and fraudulent conduct'' of Mr Panetta.

In July and August 2006, Mr Yee obtained the certificate of title by falsely saying Mrs Pedulla was his client.

He swore a false statutory declaration, produced a forged power of attorney and witnessed Mr Panetta's signature when the transfer of registration was lodged in March 2007 for only $1 consideration.

Mrs Pedulla didn't discover she had lost ownership of the house until April this year when her brother was in Italy after the death of their father.

Justice Penbroke said Mr Yee acted out of obligation to Ms Lam, with whom he had a long-term business, domestic and intimate relationship before she married Mr Panetta. However, he found Mr Yee was not an ''innocent dupe'' but played a key part in the fraud.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/woman-awarded ... z1fc17nbPm

[liberty]

This is unbelievable. How could someone sell real estate they don’t own. Theoretically anyone’s home in Australia could be sold out from under them. Don’t you all have title searches and closing procedures.

In Louisiana, if my memory serves me, there can be no sale without a contract to sell and fraud invalidates a contract. A buyer could loose his money but not the owner. When buying real estate it is always advisable to engage a lawyer.

[Scooter]

Given the ethics of Louisiana lawyers, I suspect cases like this go on in your state every day of the week.

And don't be so sure the legitimate owner can never lose. There have been plenty of cases where titles have been fraudulently transferred, mortgages have been taken out on the property, the crook has taken off with the money, and the owner has been left holding the bag.

[Gob]

This is unbelievable. How could someone sell real estate they don’t own.

While she was in Italy, her brother Fernando Rene Panetta used fraudulent means to obtain the certificate of title to her North Curl Curl home.

[The Hen]

Lookee here. The US has fraudulent house sales as well. Whodda thunk it.

[liberty]

Lookee here. The US has fraudulent house sales as well. Whodda thunk it.

I agree Hen; as far crime I am sure we have a lot more, both street and white collar, than you all. But I have never heard of anyone having their home stolen other than a mobile home.

[Scooter]

House stealing

[loCAtek]

[youtube]ey say in my country 'a chick thing', and it was then I tried writing to Hen; maybe it was more appropriate to talk to female friends about this? What I w[/youtube]

[The Hen]

[youtube]ey say in my country 'a chick thing', and it was then I tried writing to Hen; maybe it was more appropriate to talk to female friends about this? What I w[/youtube]

Hello?

Maybe it is more appropriate to keep your personal mails to the person you intend them for instead of using them as a YouTube link?

Please never try writing to the Hen.

[Gob]

Well hello! Now I wonder if the person Lo was gossiping about Hen too will confess who they are.

Don't worry, we've all been there, we've all been victims of Lo's endless tales of woe, how everybody else is to blame for her being a major fuck up, we should form a support group.

[Sean]

Support group? Surely you mean a control freak group...

[Gob]

LOL!! I wonder if she still trots out that sad (and, as of yet, unsubstantiated,) cliché whenever she's been show up, yet again, as a lying turd?

[Scooter]

Bets on how long it takes her to figure out a way of making it our fault that she exposed her petulant whining for all to see.

[The Hen]

I'm opening a book on it being MY fault she is still obsessed with me and my husband 18 months after she started writing to me for advice on all her issues.

[loCAtek]

LOL, whatever, I'll let it stand. But gossip, really? You guys all know, I wrote to Hen.

I f you're saying I shouldn't have, gotta agree with you there.

Who didn't know this already? I'll gladly PM you the story

Hi, to all the folks not ignoring me ...gonna start reading the PM's now?

[Scooter]

Like I keep saying, I should play the ponies.

[loCAtek]

Facts aren't faults. Someone asked, I answered, c'est la vie.

[Scooter]

And someone who tries to send a PM by putting it in youtube tags is hardly in a position to be lecturing anyone on what is or is not a fact.

[The Hen]

Facts aren't faults. Someone asked, I answered, c'est la vie.

So you told them that after continually PMing Gob about all your "issues" for a considerable period of time because you couldn't afford to go to a professional mental health expert in your own country you then turned to me?

Didn't sound like it from your snippet there.

I hope whomever asked will take what you wrote with a grain of salt. I take most of what you write with a bushel of the stuff.

Perhaps it is now time for you to make peace with your Momster and move on. I seriously doubt she was as bad as you made out.

[Gob]

It's not she couldn't afford to, it's that she didn't want to change, and was desperate for attention. She just wants affirmation that she is a victim, and confirmation that all her fuck ups in life are not her fault. When she didn't get that from me, she moved on to you. Others get/have had it too.