Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-06

papers now in many instances lost or de-
stroyed; while a swarm of claimants the
heirs of the departed Boots, are multiply
ing on the face of the earth and gathering
themselves together in battle array and
each passing year, under the retroverted
Jurisprudence of Texas, adds strength to
their case and helps to destroy the real
title.
As another example, minor point will be
selected merely for illustration. Often a
deed of Western lands conveys tracts sit
uated in different counties, and though lost
or destroyed, it is sometimes fortunate
enough to have been properly re-
corded in or for one Of the coun-
ties. The owners title to part of his
lands is of course in peril, for want Of
record in the other counties; yet ne can not
obviate or avoid this danger by obtaining an
officially certified copy of his deed and hav-
ing it recorded in such other counties, sim
ply because the statute has not made pro-
vision for such case by authorizing this to
be done with the legal effect of notice. Such
certified copies are, for the mere purpose of
record and notice, as good as the originals,
and the statutes of many states authorize
them to be recorded; but the welfare of our
imperial domain has not yet had this consid-
era ion. The owners only remedy by law is a
proceeding in court to prove up his deed for
record. Usually the grantor is dead and his
HttIS SCdLtoEGu, anu Lu6 eADGuS0 VI lu6 pTO-
ceeding, including counsel fees, is from 500
to 5000. In the state there are 245 counties,
and in this -Callahan-there are dozen
titles with this character of defect. Taking
this county as an average one, and 500 as
the average expense Of case, the total cost
of correcting these defects will foot up
seq, 600, or about the expense of four regu-
lar sessions of the legislature. True, that
sum will not be expended in the single and
specific matter of proving up for record
these now missing deeds, but in lien of the
part not so expended. the owners will be
subjected to the uncertainties and disad-
vantages of defective titles, and not unfre-
quently to more expensive litigation and the
loss of their lands.
A very large proportion of the defects in
our titles grows out of the acknowledgment
of conveyances for record; an almost
purely formal matter, that has been dis
pensed with by statute in several states,
and greatly Simplifed in many others. The
technicalitieS of acknowledgment exist
here in full force; and in connection with
other peculiar features of the Texas law.
they operate with unusually fatal effect.
The community property system of the
Mexican-Spanish civil law was adopted
into our Texas Jurisprudence, by virtue OF
which the title to an undivided one half of
the ganaucial property, acquired conformity
by husband and wife, is vested by law in
GllG ht4C1 anu az DGE OCGlll liz uCE uClES.
Besides this an unrestricted general right
of AGO QUESTION and ownership of property is
conferred on the wife, with also q special
title IN homestead property. But while the
right of acquisition by married women is
thus open and unrestricted, with a large
measure of investiture by operation of the
law alone, the right of alienation is fettered
and embarrassed with numerous tectni-
calities and power of divestiture by law
and through the courts is wanting for lack
of proper statutes. The result is a sort Of
legal cul de sac into which every title
sooner or later Is almost sure to fall. The
descensus averni ending in this cul de sac
is both easy and inviting, for therein is
refuge for rascals wishing to shield their
property under their wives petticoats,
where chivalrous courts will not pry with
unseemly curiosity. Let US see about the
methods and facilities of exit from this
situation into which the law, of its own op-
Grafton merely, so often costs the title A
conveyance by married woman requires
privy acknowledgment, consisting, as such,
of four separate matters of detail, in addi-
ton to the requirements and formal mat
ters pertaining TO other acknowledgements.
The omission by oversight of any one of
these four requisites is fatal TO the deed
itself. 1t may be freely and understand
ingly executed in fact, duly signed and de-
Evered and the full price Of the land re-
CClNCuf N66 VIII q SlI54G OuS VI luCSS
requisites omitted, it is absolutely void.
and the courts stoutly maintain that they
have no power in such case to do aught
than hold that the woman still
owns the land. The purchasers right TO
recover back his money. is soon barred by
limitation; but the woman's right and legal
title TO the land is as perfect, after the lapse
of nifty years, if she is still married, and
even though the purchaser has had actual
possession Of the land during all that time,
as it was before she signed and delivered
the deed. If actual possession has not been
taken. the title remains perfect in her even
as widow, and vests fully in her heirs at
her death, and If any of them are married
women before possession is taken, the ex-
emption is good for that generation. The
operation Of these laws was illustrated in
case tried at Dallas last year, wherein a
woman living in another state recovered
from an aged and prominent citizen Of that
county, and on the ground that the officer,
in taking her acknowledgement omitted an
explanation of the deed, now valuable
tract OF land she had herself sold him
twenty years ago, and upon which he had.
in large measure, expended the savings
and profits Of his life-work.