Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 10.djvu/63

37 PRACTICE OF LAW IN NEW YORK CITY. Z7 resulted in four thousand five hundred and fifty-four mistakes. Against this political and pot-house stewardship of our real estate records the title guaranty companies have risen up inch by inch; they have fought in the courts against the office-holders, actu- ally beginning with a fight for the mere right to inspect the public records. Finally, at least two such companies have centralized a plant where in a few hours' time, and upon the most elementary suggestion of what is wanted, either company will furnish as to any particular piece of real estate information that must be sought in seven scattered public offices. Competition has made the work of these companies cheap and speedy to a degree that till lately would have seemed incredible. These companies moreover insure titles (better than a lawyer's certificate) and command capital to lend on mortgage. Although one company is distinctively known as the lawyers', yet the impression prevails that all of them tend to become mere business enterprises, excluding lawyers as a whole except as customers. The insurance companies here having " law departments," and the large firms having an extensive clientage of trustees, have accumulated a more or less imperfect real estate title plant, and their business in this kind will persist. But it seems no longer possible, as it was once, for a beginner to build up a title business, — at its full and best the most paying branch of the law. The building in which the civil courts are held and their records kept is as unfit for their purpose as the Register's Office is for its use, and makes against the decent administration of justice. The recent death of a judge was attributed to the foul plight of the City Hall, and on account of that plight a fellow judge adjourned his court. The County Court House is chiefly famous as a monu- ment of knavery. Why, it is asked, must we come with clean hands into a building, where Equity instinctively holds her nose? As a depository of records it was long ago insufficient, and is rapidly growing worse. The writer now has a real estate transaction indefinitely delayed because an indispensable record (so recent as February, 1890) cannot be found in our County Clerk's Office. Present comment on local litigated business must be mostly historical, as the change which went into effect at the opening of this year removed an old state of things, and is now calling forth criticism, but has not yet told its own virtue. Three distinct courts, each with its own machinery complete, have been merged into one court, — the Supreme, with the supervision and patron- age of all the parts for initial trial vested in an intermediate appel'