The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-14
AS TITLE sEARCHERs NOT MEET
 WTTH SIGNAL SUCCESS
Special to the Farmer,

Especial to the Farmer.)
 Newtown, July 1EThe habit of some out-of- town purchasers of real estate of employing lawyers unfamiliar with our town records to furnish abstracts of title to property to be bought, is causing no end of worry and confusion to our real estate agents. These law yers come into town and spend a day Or two in the town clerks office search ing titles and then return to their clients with something that reads so indefinitely that it is no protection at all in some cases Or they report they are unable to find a, clear title. This has happened many times regent ly. and the disgusted buyer drops out and the agent and the seller are in Jnred- Or again, a. limb of the law frequently comes here on this alleged mission for client and spends more time sampling the liquids and cigars in nearby cafes than in the work of search. but finally winds up by giving "a clear bill of search way back to the Colonial patents, if his price is paid, but they read in such a way as not to make the attorney liable either civil ly or. criminally. by this unvarying premise: s'In my. opinion.'' Now, the town clerk is the proper officer to make such searches and it is his duty to so do. And the law requires him to give an absolutely clear title when he makes the search. The law also fixes his fee which is rarely g. tenth of the exorbitant charges made by the lawyer fellows. The real estate agents are up in arms against the practice of employing these attorneys, and one prominent agent instances two occa- sions where his clients and his own i'm terests suffered. Tn the first case he sold 3. farm for a lady in Haw1eyvf1Ie, b[1w& &Fz search of title to be made by an at torney which was done, the lady con senting to have the cost of the search deducted from the purchase price A clean bill was given supposedly by the attorney and the sale closed with a. warrantee deed from the seller to the buyer. Judge of the surprise of the lady to find an abutting property hold. CT had a mill right on a1stream flowing through this land which permitted him to turn a gate on the stream, which wosIh dam back the waters and flood nearly one-half of a, twenty acre tract on the land sold. This right went back for a century, but had been omit ted from deeds transferring title dur-s ing that time. The lady never knew of this and the right had never been exercised for fifty years. But the holder of title to the mill right for eibiy brought 1t to the attention of the new purchaser, by turning the gate in the stream one day. It cost the lady nearly -S10o to clear the title by buy ing out the obsolete mill right, and the attorney is held blame1ess. Had this title search been made by the town clerk the incumbfance doubtless would have been discovered, and the title cleared before the hard bargain was forced on her in the end. The second case was where a. loan was asked for on certain property and a lawyer was engaged to search the title He reported it o. K, raotwithstardin that Town Clerk PitzschIer had decIir- ed to give a, clear title to a part of the property toHbes covered by blanket mortgage, only a, few days before to the same investor. The foregoing Is a matter. of great importance in towns like Newtown. Tn large cities all this trouble is obviated by incorporated title guarantee companies, but in small towns the only way to be safe in such matters is to require the town clerk to make all searches and give an ab- stract of title under the seal of his office Newtozvn real estate agents are strongly in favor of bringing this mat ter of the authenticity of title to prop erty in the form of a bill to the next General Assembly requiring the town clerks certificate of the correctness of each title search and abstract of tftle to be attached thereto.