"Makes me wonder if any BofA claims against First American might be the result of bad third party researchers and not direct  failures internal to BofA or the title company."

William, I think the answer to tha would be "no".  There was never any intent to conduct any title search, except to obtain a copy of the legal description.  This was well understood by both parties.

For a little background on the subject, see Page 4 of the April, 2006 NALTEA newsletter.

http://www.naltea.org/pdf/f41e8914-cdc3-4a70-aaf3-d4bf331b7bb5.pdf