The Portland daily press., 1894-02-15

and expense involved IN the search OF a
title is not work once done which inures
to the benefit of the property IN a sub
sequent dealing, but the same ana ad-
ditional work must be done at every
subsequent transaction which involves
a sale or encum brance of the property;
so that tract OF land which has been
divided into lots, may involve, before
the last lot is sold, repetition OF the
same labor as many times, ana by as
man different persons, as there are lots
in the original parcel. An article Whlch
appeared in the New YORK Herald at Gne
time of the sale of the Jumel property,
pointedly illustrates the waste OF labor
under tthe present system.
"Lately, the Jumel property was
cut up into 1888 pieces or
parcels of real estate, and SOLD
at partition sale. There appears to have
been about 300 purchasers at that sale,
and no doubt each buyer. before he palo
his money, carefully employed a goou
lawyer to examine the title to the IoG
or plot that he had bought SO tha1 ouo
lawyers, each of them, carefully exam
ined and went through the same WORK,
viz. THE old deeds and mortgages anu
records affecting the whole properly llEl
as it had never been cut up peiore, eaIn
no matter how small his parcel), ana
each of them searched the same volumes
of long lists of names, and picked out
from the $500 volumes of deeds and
mortgages in the New York Registrars
Office, the same big, dusty volumes OF
writing. and lifted them down and looked
them through, in all 800 times Of the
very same labor. Evidently 300 times
that labor was thrown away-done over
and over again uselessly-and the clients,
those buyers, together paid 300 fees to
those lawyers (who each earned his
money! but evidently 800 of those fees
were repetitions of the very same work.
By and by, twenty years from now, IN
stead of only 300 owners of these Jumel
plots, the whole 1888 lots will be sold
and built upon, and 1888 new purchasers
will again pay 1888 lawyers 1883 fees Tor
examining that same Jumel title. only
the fees will be larger, for there will by
that time lat the present rate OF growth
and unless remedy is appl1ed,) Iuliy
10, 600 big folio volumes in the new Hall
of Records which the legislature has
lust authorized to be. blu lit inythe city,
and the 1853 fees will pe for mere repeti-
tions o. labor so far as the whole Jumel
estate is concerned, and will be practl-
cally wasted. This sort of thing is daily
repeated, year in and year out, in this
city, over the whole of its surface. And
the same thing happens in regard to
loans on bond and mortgage. Every
the title examined, and very properly
SO, and the borrower has to pay for the
same old searches against the same old
names-and pay the same old fees. The
tax which the real estate in New York
city thus annually pays. amounts to
more than l per cent. OF the real value OF
the property sold and mortgaged."
Such waste of labor and attendant
expense as is thus shown ought not to be
tolerated unless no beJter system could
be devised.
One of the serious difficulties attendant
upon the system of registration OF deeds
is that it places on record n3t only what
tends to sustain the title, but also many
things which tend to defeat the title. IL
stereotypes complications and perTetu-
ates technical defects, which become
more difficult of removal with lapse OF
time. The records do not speak for
themselves: or, if they speak, it is IN
very uncertain tones. Many things are
taken for granted in the search of every
title but the element of FISK is not thus
eliminated. What does not appear upon
the record, may become even more i'm
portant than what is apparent. (Some
of the sources of insecurity not disclosed
by the records were here indicated by Mr..
Libby.
In view of these elements of uncertain
ty, it is not strange that little lnsur-
ancen companies should have sprung up
in the larger cities, which attempt to
protect purchasers against loss from
some of the sources above indicated.
The existence of these title insurance
companies is itself an admission of the
gravity of the situation, and the serious
ness of the evil to be remedied, but the
remedy they offer is by no means COM
plete one. They do not reduce the ex-
pense of transferring or dealing with the
title. and the guaranty is limited to the
amount of the policy, which often con-
tains important exceptions. They neither
reduce the number of volumes of the
public record, nor the evils inherent in
the system. Under the strict provisions
of their policies, no recovery can be had
except for defects which nave been de-
clared, by competent court, to invali-
date the title. While they offer protec-
ton against money loss, to the extent of
the policy, they cannot make the title
indefeasible, or protect the insured in the
possession of the land. matter of prime
Importance where expensive improve
ments have been made. This the Torrens
System accomplishes, besides much else.
And a brief consideration OF the methods
by which this system works out its re-
suits, will enable us to appreciated the
advantages it offers over our cumber-
some. insecure and unnecessarily expen-
sive system.
The essential feature OIL the Iorrens
system is that title to land passes only
by the entry of the transfer upon the
official register. and not by virtue of a
deed between the parties which operates
only as personal contract? The title
thus transferred and authenticated by
certificate under the hand of
the Register gives an indefeasible
| title, and does away with the necessity
| of examining into the history of the title
and the documents which sustain it.
| The transfer of land thus bcomes assimi-
| lated to the transfer of stock i'll a corpor-
alton, or of an interest in ship. The
owner depends not upon deed from an
individual grantor, but upon a certifi-
cate of title issued to him by the official
registrar of titles, which in form is
| copy of the entry upon the official books
| Land once brought under the $. stem
| cannot be withdrawn. The inventor OF
| the system was Sir Robert r. Torrens,
| an officer in Her Maiesty's customs at
Adelaide. South Australia, who was Leo
to attempt reform in the system OF
| transferring title to real estate by regis
tered deeds, by reason of his experience
| with the method of transferring interests
in shipping. The first tentative measure
was passed by the legislature of South
Australia, in 1858, and was succeeded
by further legislation in the years 1850,
I'll l,nr