Define Lis Pendens

Lis Pendens

Lis pendens is legal Latin for "pending lawsuit." It is one of a handful of remaining Latin terms in the law. At its base, a lis pendens is the jurisdiction and power a court has over some kind of property while a lawsuit is ongoing. Practically, a lis pendens is encountered in disputes over real property. In this context, a lis pendens is a notice that is recorded in the chain of title to real property. This puts anyone who buys or acquires the subject property on notice that a lawsuit is pending that may implicate ownership. To give an example: O inherits land: Blackacre. But B, O's brother, thought that he should inherit Blackacre. B sues O seeking to own Blackacre. Without a lis pendens, O can sell Blackacre to third-party T. If all of these transfers are recorded, B may be out of luck on ever recovering Blackacre if he's right and that he should have had ownership in the first place. So before the sale and while the lawsuit is pending, B may record a lis pendens on the title for Blackacre. The effect is to alert T that T's sale may not be valid because O was not the rightful owner to begin with. Should T buy Blackacre anyway, B may still recover Blackacre from T because O's sale was invalid. O had no right to sell because O did not legally own Blackacre to begin with.

In this sense, a lis pendens is a powerful tool that can be used by a party where questions exist over the true ownership of an identifiable, recorded piece of property.