Apparently, the owner was *paid something* which she agreed to (bank payoff + ??), so at that point in time, the *insurance company* would OWN the car. If it had been a 'wrecked/damaged/recovered' car, the insurance company would then have ran it thru an insurance sale (auction) and sold it to whomever paid the most...
but.. since the car not recovered quickly, apparently the insurance company either 1) didn't request the title from the bank, or 2) requested it, got it, and lost it in the intervening 42 yrs!. Can you imagine trying to locate the title? or getting a 'replacement title' from the state 42 yrs later? I would imagine this to be about the same as requesting sales paperwork from the dealership that sold your Camaro 42 yrs ago!
I worked for 2 or 3 large companies in my career. It's infathomable to me, to imagine them maintain/keeping any piece of paper for 42 years and being able to find it even if they did keep it!... I always had problems just finding a 'Final Report' submitted on contract DAxxxxxxxx, after a couple of years, and that even where the Final Report was the 'deliverable' or sold item, for a multi million $$ contract!
PS. What's wrong with Phoooey!
