Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/44

24 24, HARVARD LAW REVIEW. THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE IN LAND TITLE. / I. J • IN respect of inquiry into title, there is ordinarily a wide differ- ence in practice, as between chattels personal, on the one hand, and land and chattels real, on the other. It is true that in certain classes of dealings with chattels personal, — as in the taking of rail- way mortgages, in the purchase of corporation stock, and in the lending of money upon mortgages, — there commonly is a formal examination of title, covering such written data as exist in an avail- able form, and including inquiry into some other matters, such as possession. It is also true that in some parts of the country, — chiefly, perhaps, in the long-settled rural communities of the East, — dealings in land are very commonly made with little or no exam- ination of title. Nevertheless it may be laid down as a general proposition that most dealings with chattels personal are made without formal examination 'of title, while in dealings with land, and with chattels real other than unimportant leases, there is ordinarily some formahty of examination, varying with the circum- stances of different transactions and with the customs of different communities. The difference in practice, in respect of these two classes of property, is to a considerable extent arbitrary. It is not based upon lack of data, or even lack of record data, in respect of title to chattels personal, as a class ; for, in a multitude of instances where no examination of title is made, there exist definite and available data of title, often in writing, if not in the form of pubHc record, — as, for example, in the case of chattels personal sold by business houses upon the instalment plan. Nor does the difference in prac- tice rest upon a difference in value or importance between the two classes of property. Dealings, without examination of title, with chattels personal, involve in the aggregate vast sums of money, and relate, in a multitude of instances, to articles of great value and of considerable permanency, such as heavy machinery; and, on the other hand, numberless instances of dealings in real estate, attended by strict formality of examination into title, involve only small values.