Definition of Cloud On Title

An outstanding claim or incumbrance which, if valid, would affect or impair the title of the owner of a particular estate, and which apparently and on its face has that effect, but which can be shown by extrinsic proof to be invalid or inapplicable to the estate in question. A conveyance, mortgage, judgment, tax-levy, etc., may all, in proper cases, constitute a cloud on title. Pixley v. Huggins, 15 Cal. 133; Schenck v. Wicks, 23 Utah, 576, 65 Pac. 732; Lick v. Ray, 48 Cal. 87; Stoddard v. Prescott, 58 Mich. 542, 25 N. W. 508; Phelps v. Harris, 101 US. 370, 25 In Ed. 855; Fonda v. Sage, 48 N. Y. 181; Rigdon v. Shirk, 127 III. 411, 19 N. E. 698; Bissell v. Kellogg, 60 Barb. (N. Y.) 617; Bank v. Lawler, 46 Conn. 245.