In May, Ron and Dianne Gruendl bought a weekend home in Addison in southern Somerset County.

"It's only an hour from our home in Baldwin [Borough]," Ron Gruendl said. "We feel like we're on vacation when we're out there."

A month or so later, the Gruendls decided to buy a small lot next to their property. Ron Gruendl called the local tax collector and got the name of the woman who owned the lot.

But when Ron Gruendl contacted her, she had some unsettling news for him.

"She said she also owned one of the lots that was included in the property we had purchased," he said.

Ron Gruendl called Janice Miller, the Addison tax collector. After checking her records, Miller confirmed the woman had been paying taxes on the lot.

An official at the Somerset County tax assessor's office confirmed the lot had been "double-deeded" -- two deeds had been issued for the lot several decades ago.

"I feel so bad for the Gruendls," Miller said. "There was a developer back in the early 1960s who apparently sold the same lot to two different people, and no one ever noticed."

The Gruendls thought The Closing Specialists, the Ligonier-based company that did their title search, should have noticed. They called Diane Cipa, the company's general manager.

"I told her that if her company had done any research at all, it would have discovered this," Ron Gruendl said. "It only took me one call to find out what had happened."

Gruendl told Cipa he wanted a refund for the $530 he and his wife paid for the lot and the $726.75 they paid for the title services.

"Those 'services' apparently consisted of nothing more than cutting and pasting the information from the previous deed on to our deed," Gruendl said. "They didn't do a proper title search."

Cipa, whose company writes title insurance through Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation of Pittsburgh, forwarded Gruendl's request to Lawyers Title. On Aug. 19, Lawyers Title authorized Cipa to pay the Gruendls the $530 for the lot but nothing more.

The Gruendls declined the offer.

In an Oct. 2 letter to the Gruendls, Alfred V. Watterson Jr., the vice president of Lawyers Title, increased the offer to $650.

The Gruendls declined, saying they "should not be penalized because other parties did not live up to their standards."

The Gruendls then contacted me.

Cipa declined comment and referred me to Watterson.

Watterson said Lawyers Title won't refund the money the Gruendls paid for title services.

"We have offered them the full amount of the loss provision of their title insurance policy," Watterson said. "They received the benefit of the title work that was done. There was only a problem with one of the lots and we have offered them a rather favorable settlement to resolve it."

Cipa and Watterson declined to identify the person who did the title search.

Watterson said title search work "depends on the type of property and also depends on whether we have done a prior search of the property. It also varies on location and situation.

"A 60-year search is standard in the industry," he said.

If the title searcher applied that standard in the Gruendls case, it appears he or she should have discovered the double-deed.

Rosanne Placey, a spokeswoman for the state Insurance Department, which regulates title insurance companies, said the Gruendls could contact the department if they are unable to resolve their differences with Lawyers Title.

I'll keep you posted.