Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-11-07
THE TORRENS SYSTEM.
Chicago Lays Out the Real Estate
Abstract Sharks.

Illinois real estate men are jubilant
over the supreme courts affirmation
of the constitutionality of the Tor
rens land-title act. They expect to see
the abstract men, who have SO long
been masters of the situation in Cook
county especially tumble from their
proud position and shut up shop"
In it's opinion, the supreme court
finds the act very voluminous and
unskillfully drawn, but not antagonis-
tic to the constitution. Since the law
was carried triumphantly at the No
vember election Of 1895, after an act
i've campaign, in which the abstract
men fought to the last ditch, there
has been opposition and criticism, but
it's advocates worked to save it, and
by amendment and modification have
succeeded in getting it under the
aegis of the constitution.
The effect of the law will be to
greatly facilitate the transfer of prop
erty, to simplify and make cheaper
the processes of buying and selling
land and to give absolute title to
property. By it's provisions the re-
corder will become a registrar Of titles
and will create a board Of examiners
which shall pass upon the validity OF
claims and the correctness OF alb
stracts. After the first registration
land will be transferred without
abstracts or any further process than
the filling out of certificate Of title
in the name Of the new owner. In
stead of taking weeks and months for
the examination of titles by lawyers
and the paying of big sums of money
for their opinions as to titles, two
men may go into the registrars Of
flee, and when the purchaser has paid
over the sum agreed upon the seller
will yield his certificate to the regis
trar and that official will prepare a
new one in the name of the new
owner. The entire transaction may
be begun and finished in ten or fifteen
minutes.
The case in which the opinion of
the supreme court has been given was
a test case made by mutual agree
ment, and was fought by States At
torney Deneen for the people and At
torney Theodore Sheldon, Harvey B.
Hurd, G. w. Smith and R. S. lies for
recorder Robert M. Simon.
The digest of the Torrens law as
made by Harvey B. Hurd at the re-
quest of the real estate board is as
follows:
THE merit of this system is that
by it every question that may effect
the title is settled at once for all at
the time of each conveyance; so that a
person buying land registered under
this system is sure to get just what
he buys, and nobody can get it away
from him. When a title is once
registered there is no further occasion
for a long, expensive abstract, which
vexes every title under the present
system, nor for its examination by
lawyers There will be no necessity
of running around to clear up dover
rights, correct blunders in old deeds
or to find whether the persons from
whom the title comes were the only
heirs of somebody who may have lived
some fifty years ago, for all questions
are cleared up when each transfer
under the Torrens system is made.
Under this system the purchaser
gets what is called a certificate of
title from the registrar, which certi-
fies that he is the owner of the land
described, and nobody can gainsay
mA