CHAPTER III MODES OF ABSOLUTE OWNERSHIP § 1. ACQUISITION OF LAND BY PURCHASE. DEEDS 1. Agreement to purchase must be in writing. 2. What this must contain. 3. When an oral bargain can be enforced. 4. Money paid can be recovered. 5. Law of place of location governs the parties. 6. Kinds of deeds: a.-Quit-claim, b. Indenture, d.-Lease. 7. On what a deed must be written. 8. Filling blanks. 9. Alterations: a.-Unimportant alterations, b. Are they presumed to be made before or after the delivery of the writing? c. The safe practice. 10. Lost deed. II. Deed by minor: a. Is his deed void or voidable? b. What is a confirmation? c.-Illustrations. 12. Deed by insane person. 13. Deed by executor or administrator. 14. Deed by married woman. 15. Execution of deed through fraud. 16. Names of grantor and grantee should appear in deed. 17. Grantee must exist: a.-Deed to fictitious person, b. To an estate of a person, c. To future estates immediately given, e. To trustee of future estate, f. To an unorganised corporation. 18. Need of seal: a. No one need be present when affixed, d. What is a seal? 19. Witnesses. 20. Execution by agent or attorney. 21. Mode of signing. 22. Reading of deed by grantor. 23. Dating. 24. Delivery: a.-Test of, is control, b.-Deed must be complete, c. May be actual or verbal, d.—Delivery by, or to, a corporation, e.-Delivery to unknown grantee, †.-Delivery of deed containing a condition, g.-To what time title relates, h.-Deed of confirmation, i.-Effect of delivery between parties. 25. Acceptance. 26. Delivery of deed as an escrow. 27. Recording. 28. Rights of parties between delivery and recording. 29. Acknowledgment. 30. It is a ministerial act. 31. Nature and effect of certificate. 32. Evidence to explain deed. 33. Correction of deed. 34. Description: a.-Monuments control courses and distances, b.-Kinds of monuments, c.—Which kind is of highest value, d. Monuments that mark public lands, e.-Monuments that mark a city lot. 35. Boundary by non-navigable stream. 36. Boundary by tidal navigable stream. 37. Boundary by non-tidal navigable stream. 38. Boundary by a lake. 39. Boundary by a highway. 40. Boundary by a private way. 41. Boundary by a park. 42. Quantity. 43. Reference to other deeds. 44. What passes. 45. Covenants: a.-Number, b.-Covenant of right to convey, d. Covenant against encumbrances, e.-Covenants for quiet enjoyment and warranty, f. Special covenants, g.-Implied covenants, h.-Covenant does not protect purchaser from surety, i.-Distinction between real and personal cove nants, j.-What covenants are personal, and what real, 1. One of the most common ways of acquiring land is by purchase. After making an oral bargain, the preparation and delivery of the deed is often delayed for several days, or a longer period. If there is no written memorandum of the bargain it is possible for either party to decline to fulfil his part of the agreement, and the other is powerless to enforce it. Morally, of course, this is wrong; but the law can do nothing unless the oral bargain was reduced to some kind of writing. 2. What must this writing contain? By a statute, essentially a copy of an English one, the writing must describe the land sufficiently to identify it; and must be signed by the person whom the other seeks to hold.1 A 1 For a more complete description of the statute see Vol. III., Chap. II., Section 2, subdivision 5. better form of writing is signed by both parties, and then each can hold the other. They can sign with a lead pencil; even a stamped signature will suffice. An agent can sign for his principal. The writing need not express the amount or consideration that is to be paid for the land. A letter or series of letters from which the terms of a contract can be collected will satisfy the law. 3. Notwithstanding this statute, there are cases in which an oral bargain can be enforced. This may seem to be an overthrow of the statute itself. When parties have actually made an agreement to convey, and the vendor or seller has actually transferred the possession to the vendee, this is such evidence of a purchase or transfer that the courts will recognise the transaction and compel its full performance. If the agreement were not carried out by the vendor, there would be manifest fraud, and the vendee would be a trespasser. In such cases the courts compel the vendor to execute his promise and to give a deed to the other party to whom he has sold his land. Possession by the purchaser is always an indispensable element in such a legal proceeding. To this rule there is one exception. Between a landlord and a tenant possession would be no evidence of a contract of sale, because the tenant is occupying under a lease. 4. The payment of purchase money is not sufficient proof of an agreement to sustain an action for compelling the execution of the contract. Once the law was otherwise; courts acted on such evidence and compelled the other party to perform his agreement. Experience |