The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-03-15
FOR LAND PURCHASERS.

Before Paying Any Money See That the
Property Is Unincumbered. $685.
This is very important subject, for
carelessness in the purchase of land is
a fruitful source of expensive litigation
and serious loss. A title to land NAV
be obtained by Government grant,
judicial decree, inheritance, will, deed,
or by long-cOntinued open, notorious,
peaceable and uninterrupted possesG
sion under a claim of ownership. AS
a title may pass by judicial decree or
may become involved or clouded with
out such decree, a purchaser who looks
no further than the registry of deeds
may learn an expensive lesson. To ali
appearances there, the title may be
perfect; yet the town records may
show an attachment; the court records
may show that a judgment against
the land has been rendered, while the
records of the court of equity may
show that a conveyance has been
ordered to enforce bond for a deed,
or to annul a deed obtained by fraud or
mistake, or the owner may have become
bail for a friend before any one of
fifty justices of the peace, and althous b
1t may be impossible TO obtain Eany
record of il, it will constitute, in some
States, a lien upon the property, and,
finally, back of all and superior to all,
there may be liens for betterments and
unpaid taxes. When one contemplates
buying land the ownership of which is
claimed by inheritance or under a will,
1t would be prudent for the would-be
purchaser to cause an examination of
the records of the probate, surrogate
or orphans court-the court, what
ever its local name, where estates are
settled II there is no viii, no dis
puted claims against the estate, and
no minor or other person under disa-
bility interested in it, the purchaser
should sec that all debts and liabilities
of the deceased have been provided
for, and that his grantor has taken
sufficient deeds from all persons in
terested. Still he viii have to run the
risk that q viii may yet be found. If
tho estate has been settled in regular
form, he will be aided in his in
vcstigations by the records, and
ordinarily claims of creditors not
presented within a reasonable time
will be barred, freeing the land
as TO them- w neither there Is
any viii or not, the intending pur-
chaser should investigate whether
there is any hostile interest in the
land on the part of any widow, wild
over, heir, legatee or any other per-
son, especially one under disability or
not represented. If there is n will, il
must be examined to see that it is
valid upon its face. Unless it has
been duly proved and the time for ap-
peal has expired, it may be well to.
ascertain whether any suspicious cir
cumstances, such as mental feeble
ness, insanity or undue influence at.
tended its execution. If the testator
leaves children, born or unborn, or de-
scendants of a deceased child, and
they are not mentioned or re-
ferred to in the will, they viii have an
interest in the land, which the pur-
chaser must take into account. A
child born after its fathers death has
the same rights as another, and, like
any minor, may have until he is forty
one years old-till he is of age and
twenty years moro - to assert his
rights. The above are the chief pre-
cautions which a person about to pur-
chase land ought to take to secure u
valid title to it.-Rural New Yorker.