Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/361

Rh REGISTRATION 343 for the county of Middlesex (7 Anne c. 20), for the West Riding of Yorkshire (2 & 3 Anne c. 4), and for the East Riding and Kingston-upon-Hull (6 Anne c. 35). Similar provisions were not applied to the North Riding until 8 Geo. II. c. 6. The Yorkshire Acts were consolidated and amended by the Yorkshire Registries Act, 1884. " Under these Acts, all deeds are to be adjudged fraudulent and void against any subsequent purchaser or mort- gagee for valuable consideration, unless a memorial of such deeds be duly registered before the registering of the memorial of the deed under which such subsequent purchaser or mortgagee shall claim" (Williams, Real Property, pt. i. ch. x. ). Priority thus depends upon the date of registration. The Acts do not extend to copyholds, to leaseholds for a term not exceeding twenty-one years, or to chambers in an Inn of Court. The full operation of the Registry Acts has been to a certain extent affected by the doctrines of equity that an equitable mortgage by deposit of deeds is valid without registration, and that notice of a prior unregistered deed is within limits equivalent to registration. " It shall only be in cases where the notice is so clearly proved as to make it fraudu- lent in the purchaser to take and register a conveyance in pre- judice to the known title of another that we will suffer the registered deed to be affected" (Sir William Grant in Wyatt v. Barwell, 19 Vesey's Reports, 438). On this subject the Yorkshire Registries Act, 1884, provides by 14 that " all priorities given by this Act shall have full effect in all cases except in cases of actual fraud, and all persons claiming thereunder any legal or equitable interests shall be entitled to corresponding priorities, and no such person shall lose any such priority merely in consequence of his having been affected with actual or constructive notice, except in cases of actual fraud. " The Act provides for an official search of the same nature as that introduced by the Conveyancing Act, 1882, and for the entry of a caveat against registration -by any person interested. Passing to general registration, a general registry of deeds was recommended by the real property commissioners in 1830. The royal commission of 1854 reported in 1857 in favour of general registration of title. In pursuance of this report the Land Registry Act, 1862 ("Lord Westbury's Act"), was passed. It provided for the optional registration of such titles to freeholds and leaseholds in freeholds as a court of equity should hold to be marketable. It was of little importance in practice on account of its making a marketable title (i.e., such a title as the court would compel an unwilling purchaser to accept) and a definition of boundaries necessary, and of its not giving an indefeasible title in effect, though it does so in name, until there had been dealing with the land for valuable consideration subsequent to registration. The Act is still law as to titles registered under it and not re- registered under the Act of 1875. On the same day as the Laud Registry Act was passed the Declaration of Title Act, 1862, under which power is given to any person entitled to apply for the registration of an indefeasible title under the Land Registry Act to apply to the Court of Chancery for a declaration of title, and the court, on proof of a marketable title, is to issue a certificate of title under the seal of the court. The Land Registry Act was con- demned by the report of a royal commission in 1870. In 1875 some of the recommendations of the commission were adopted in the Land Transfer Act, 1875 ("Lord Cairns's Act"), the latest general enactment on the subject. The Act of 1875 allows the optional registration of a title less than marketable, and the land certificate delivered to the proprietor is to state whether his title be absolute, qualified, or possessory. Two or more persons may be registered as joint proprietors. No notice of any trust is to appear on the register. To be registered land must be either freehold or leasehold for an unexpired term of at least twenty- one years. Land in Middlesex or Yorkshire registered under the Act ceases to be within the jurisdiction of the local registries. A caution against registration may be lodged by any person interested. The Act established an office of land registry under a registrar appointed by the lord chancellor. There was also a power of creating district registries, if necessary. The Act, like its predecessor, has been very little used. A compulsory system of registration of title in England has been so universally recognized as expedient that its adoption can only be a question of time. The chief difficulties in the way of a reform are the objection of the landowners to pub- licity of transactions in land, the expense, greater than in other countries or in the colonies, arising from the complexity of the English law of real property, and, not least, the conservative instincts of the legal profession. One effect of registration will be to much diminish the importance of the legal doctrines of POSSESSION and LIMITATION (q.v.). "It is a grave question whether the establishment of titles by long possession is consistent with a complete and efficient system of registration. In Scotland, where there is such a system, there is nothing answering to our Statute of Limitations as regards land" (Pollock, Land Laws, 169). 1 1 21 of the Act of 1ST 5 in fact provides that " a title to any land adverse to or in derogation of the title of the registered proprietor shall not be acquired by any length of possession," with an exception in favour of an adverse claim where the registered title is possessory only. Another effect will be the recurrence to the primitive legal con- ception of the transfer of land as a matter of public notoriety. In Ireland a registry of assurances was established by 6 Anne c. 2 (Ir. ). 28 & 29 Viet. c. 88 constitutes a limited registry of title in the record of title to land which has been the subject of conveyance or declaration by the Landed Estates Court. In Scotland the present system of registration of assurances has existed since the reign of James VI. The Act 1617 c. 16 created a public register for registering within three-score days instruments of sasine as well as reversions and other writs affecting heritable property. The Act established a general register of sasines at Edinburgh and local registers. The latter were abolished by 31 & 32 Viet. c. 64. Modern Acts commencing in 1845 and consolidated in 1868 by 31 & 32 Viet. c. 101 dispense with sasine and the instrument of sasine. The recording of a conveyance with a warrant of registration indorsed now constitutes infeftment. Either the whole or part of a deed may be registered. Probative leases of thirty-one or more years may be registered under 20 & 21 Viet. c. 26. As to entails see ENTAIL. Writs affecting land held in burgage before 1874 must be registered in the burgh register of sasines (37 & 38 Viet. c. 94, 25). The lord clerk register's duties under the Act of 1617 were transferred to the deputy clerk register by 42 & 43 Viet. c. 44 (see Watson, Law Diet., s.vv. "Deeds," " Registration"). In most of the British colonies land registration of some kind exists. The Indian Registration Act, 1866, steers a middle course between compulsory and optional registration. The registration of some assurances is compulsory, of others optional. In Australia a system of compulsory registration of title was introduced by Sir R. R. Torrens, and, after having been first adopted by the legislature of South Australia in 1858, has been generally applied by the other Australian colonies since that time. Under the South Australian Act a certificate of title is cancelled and regranted on transfer. Instruments are not effectual until registra- tion and indorsement according to statutory forms. Mortgages have priority according to the date of registration, irrespective of notice. The registrar may demand the deposit of a map. In the United States registration of assurances is universal, but registration of title is not so generally adopted. At the date of writing, a bill for the compulsory registration of title is before the New York legislature. For the purpose of dealing with public lands of the United States a register of the land office is appointed in each land district. Returns from each land office are made to the general land office. Ships. The registration of ships in the British empire (other than fishing boats, the registration of which is governed by special legislation) now depends upon the Merchant Shipping Acts. The register is open only to British ships, and not more than sixty-four persons can be registered as owners of any ship. One registered owner may, however, represent the beneficial title of any number of persons. No notice of a trust can be entered on the register. Mortgages must be registered in the statutory form in order to be good against registered transferees and mortgagees. The registrar is generally in the United Kingdom the principal officer of customs for any port, abroad such person as may be named by order in council. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, established a " general register and record of seamen " under a registrar-general of seamen. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1872, extended both the name and authority of this officer. Since that Act he has been called the registrar-general of shipping and seamen. Returns of shipping and seamen are transmitted to him by the local registrars. In the United States the registration of ships depends upon a series of Acts of Congress beginning in 1792. See Revised Statutes, 4131. A register of seamen is kept by the shipping commissioner (Act of 7th June 1872, c. 322). Bills of Sale. By the Bills of Sale Acts, 1878 and 1882, every bill of sale is to be registered within seven clear days after the execution thereof, or, if it is executed in any place out of England, then within seven clear days after the time at which it would in the ordinary course of post arrive in England if posted immediately after execution. A bill must be re-registered every five years, if still existing. An affidavit of the time of its execution, of its due execution and attestation, and containing a description of the residence and occupation of the person making the bill and of every attesting witness, must be filed with the registrar within seven days. A transfer or assignment of a registered bill of sale need not be registered. The duties of registrar are performed by a master of the Supreme Court attached to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. Provision is made for the transmis- sion of bills of sale made by persons or affecting goods outside the London bankruptcy district to the registrars of the proper county courts. The register may be searched by any person on payment of a fee of one shilling. Similar provisions are contained in the Irish Acts of 1879 and 1883. Bills of sale are unknown in Scotland. Births, Baptisms, Marriages, Deatlis, Burials. The registration of baptisms, marriages, and burials is said to have been first intro- duced by Thomas Cromwell when vicar-general in 1522, but it is