Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1896-08-13
See that Your Deeds are Recorded.

There are great many persons who
fail to realize the importance of placing
their deeds of record. The law is inn
perative on this subject and the owner
of land who fails to comply with its re-
quirements by recording his title, 1uns
the risk of litigation, and not lntre-
| quently such neglect results in the loss
of his land. A man i'll order to have a
| perfect title is not only required to see
| thai the deed made to him is recorded,
| but that he from whom he purchases has
record title. Men to frequently pur-
chase piece of land, trust a justice OF
| the peace or some other person to draw a
deed without an examination of the title,
pay their money for it and take their
| deed and other unrecorded deeds home
with them, lay them away in a bureau
| drawer, trunk or chimney corner, and go
on making Improvements, thinking
themselves secure in their titles. Some
day someone will turn up to claim or dis
pute their title when they wake up to
| find their deeds lost or destroyed, or,
that by reason of their neglect to record,
some other person has procured title to
be recorded prior to theirs, and that such
| title has the precedence under the act of
| Assembly by reason of priority. There
are many cases of this kind occurring
every year, and our law books are full
of cases where farmers who have neg
| lected to record their deeds have been
involved in expensive litigation, and in
many cases as a penalty for such neg
| 1ect have lost their land. Neither
| lawyers, courts nor juries are to blame
| for such expense and loss. The law
| directs that all deeds for lands executed
within this Commonwealth shall be re-
corded within ninety days, and those eX-
ecuted out of this Commonwealth with
| in six months from the date of their eX-
| ecution, and every deed and conveyance
| which shall not be acknowledged and re-
corded within the time limited
"shall be adjudged fraudulent and void
against any subsequent purchaser or
mortgage for valid consideration, or
any creditor of the grautor or bsrgainor,
in said deed of conveyances that may
| have been made and executed prior to
| the passage of this act 10th May, 1895,
having been proved and acknowledged
as now directed by law, which shall not
be recorded in the Office for the recording
| of deeds in the county where said lands
| and tenements and hereditaments are
| lying and being, within ninety days. after
| the passage of this act, shall be fraudu-
| lent and void as to any subsequent pur-
( chaser for valid consideration, or mort
| gagee, or creditor of the grantor, or
| bargainor therein Thus it Will be seen
| that it is important to have old deeds re-
| corded as well as new ones. While a
! deed may be recorded after the time
limited it is liable to be adjudged fraudu-
| lent and void as against any other deed,
| MORTGAGE or judgment which may have
been placed on the record prior to it. AS
| the law now stands no map is secure in
| his estate without a recorded title. A
| lawyer of experience says that there are
| many defective record titles i'll this coun-
| ty, and that this defect is due in great
measure to the failure of the owners of
land to record all deeds in the line of
title. Every land owner who desires to
| be secure in his possessions, and to avoid
| disputes and expensive litigation and the
possible loss Of his land, should see that
all deeds in the line Of title are recorded.
| A little attention to this matter may save
him hundred or perhaps a thousand
| times the cost of having his title record
ed. He will be amply repaid by the
security it will afford him should his title
| be attacked. 1t will afford him satisfac-
| ton to know that he has a good record
title, and lessen expense and annoyance
should he desire to sell. Let those who
| think themselves secure take heed and
| place their deeds of record, lest in some
| ungarded moment their titles be found
defective, when no lawyer, court or jury
can do, what the party himself should
have done and the law directed him to
do, to make his title good.-G.