Morning journal and courier., 1884-08-20
ASSURING TITLES.
New System of Indexing Transfers
 Features of the Business.

Features of the Business.
 From the New York Trbune,l
 No one who has ever had occasion to be concerned in the transfer of real estate will deny that the present methods of examining titles cumbrous, expensive and unsatis- factory. With the growth of the city, the development of the speculation in real estate, and the progress made toward expanding the business by the establishment of req estate exchange, the need of an improvement is felt more and more every day The books in the registers office containing records of convey ances and mortgages now number 5000 and in the county clerks office the books needed in a search for titles number nearly as many The number has doubled in ten years, and at the same rate of increase in 1904 it will reach about 15, ,000 in the registers office alone Besides the trouble now involved in perfect ing title, another defect in the present sys- tenn, which is admitted by lawyers and deal CTS, is the fact that there is no guarantee that the opinion of the lawyer who passes upon the title of piece of property is a careful or correct one, or that the records in any partic- ular case are free from clerical errors affect ing clear title.
 c. H. Kelsey, secretary of the Title Guar antee and Trust company, talked recently with Q Tribune reporter this subject. This company is the pioneer in New York of new system for the indexing of transfers and mortgages, and for the insurance of a good title to purchasers. This system was first put in operation in New Zealand about twenty-five years ago, the government under it undertaking the insurance of titles. There it was a comparatively easy matter to intro duce, on account of small number of rec ords But even in such old cities as Phila- Jo1nhia and WaShinptOn the new avstau1 has been established for several years, and has proved 8 success. It has also been introduced by private companies in Boston and Balti- more In Philadelphia, where the first com pany began business, 5000 policies of title insurance have been used, and after little natural hesitation, on account of the novelty of the step, the most conservative trust com panies accepted the policies.
 MT. Kelsey said: 'The great difference De- tween the old and the new system of examln- ing titles is that we propose to keep indexes, not of the names of grantors and grantees, mortpagors and mortgagees but of the pieces of property, Once let the transfers of lot or a house be gathered under one head, and it ia easv to add all the subsequent transfers, and it will not be necessary to go back to the last recorded conveyance, when the title of niece of realty is to be examined. This method of indexing will remove the trouble of weeks search under the present system, and will save the large expense in fees to the county clerks and registers office now neces- sary to establish correct chain of title. It will take time, of course, to reduce all the records to the shape in which we propose to put them. Meantime, our company under takes to guarantee perfect title on the basis of certain premiums adjusted to the damages to be paid in case the title should subsequent ly be found to be defective. Under these guarantee policies 8 security is afforded far better than that resting upon the ability of property owner to recover damages from the lawyer who searches the title or from the register or county clerk who may be respon-