The herald., 1898-08-04
THE REVENUE COMMISSIONERS
woBBLY DECISIONS
LOCAL REAL ESTATE MARKET
The Monthly Returns Show a Slight
Improvement-Building Trades
Reviving-Bank Mortgages
OFFICE OF THE HERALD,


matter Of considerable Importance to
those who have any dealings in real estate
is the Interpretation of the law requiring
the stamping of certain documents
Not only is the real estate dealer. the
searcher of titles and the investor for
profit in real estate concerned in having
thorough understanding of what the law
requires. but it also affects the man who
makes just the one investment in home,
perhaps the only purchase of the sort he
would make in a lifetime.
To an ordinarily constituted mind 1t
would seem that the provisions of a law
of this kind, which merely provides what
documents should be stamped and what
stamps they would bear would be SO SIM
pie that any reader should be able to I'M
derstand Its meaning.
Why Is 1t, therefore, rendered necessary
70 send so many Geographic dispatches to
the commissioner of internal revenue, the
attorney general and other high function
aries. to supplicate for interpretations of
law that ought to be plain to any average
Intelligence?
Every deed before 1t may be recorded
must bear a certificate of acknowledge
ment under the seal of a notary. or other
properly qualified officer. which is the
Droof required by law to show that the
signature to the instrument in question is
genuine.
Now the war revenue law of 1898 says
that a stamp tax of ten cents shall be paid
on a Certificate of any description re-
quired by law not OTHERWISE specified in
this act.''
notarial certificate being certificate
mot otherwise specified as aforesaid
would seem to require ten cent stamp.
AT least that is the Interpretation that
an ordinary wayfartng man would give
to so apparently simple proposition.
The commissioner of Internal revenue.
not being an ordinary man in any sense of
the word, decided on the second of July
that the stamp tax need not be paid on
notarial Acknowledgements. He sent
telegram to that effect TO the Title 1nsur-
ance and Trust Company of this city. On
the 18th of July the commissioner sent
message to the recorder of Wilmington
Del. In which he said Certificates of ac-
acknowledgement to deeds. mortgages or
other legal instruments are required to be
stamped with ten cent stamp as certi-
flcate in addition to the stamp required by
law for the instrument itself.
Having thus reversed himself, the COM
missioner sends yet another decision under
date of August I'd to the Title Guarantee
and Trust Company of this city in which
he says:
"Notarial Acknowledgements do not re-
quire a stamp when the instrument to
which they are appended is stamped.
IN. B. SCOTT Commissioner"
Having thus achieved the unusual feat,
for a government official, of turning
double somersault the public is left as
much in the dark as ever as to what is the
official interpre citation of the law. Fortu
nately Commissioner Scott is not a court
of last resort in such matter, and the de-
csion of prominent attorneys here does
not appear to be in line with the last wob-
BILE of the commissioner
The language Of the act appears to be
perfectly plain In requiring a notarial GER
tificate of acknowledgment to be stamped
Senator White Is quoted authority for
the statement that 1t was so intended
when the bill was discussed and passed.
And in spite of the commissioners latest
change of front, leading attorneys yet ad
wise the putting on of a stamp to the certi-
ficate of acknowledgment.
1t is, to SUM up, a matter In which 1t be-
hooves the buyer in every case to beware.
He must exercise every precaution to in
sure the procuring of a good title and save
himself the risk Of suits and other after an
noyances.