Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/224/564
Timestamp: 2016-07-28 04:47:15
Document Index: 346115163

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 98', '§ 98', '§ 136', '§ 136', '§ 1046', '§ 1046', '§ 15', '§ 15']

FRANK H. WASKEY, Petitioner, v. J. J. CHAMBERS. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
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224 U.S. 564 (32 S.Ct. 597, 56 L.Ed. 885)
FRANK H. WASKEY, Petitioner, v. J. J. CHAMBERS.
Argued: April 23 and 24, 1912.
[HTML] Messrs. Albert Fink and W. H. Metson for petitioner.
The act of Congress reads: 'Every conveyance of real property within the district, hereafter made, which shall not be filed for record as provided in this chapter, shall be void against any subsequent innocent purchaser in good faith and for a valuable consideration of the same real property, or any portion thereof, whose conveyance shall be first duly recorded.' Act of June 6, 1900, chap. 786, title 3, § 98, 31 Stat. at L. 321, 505; Code, pt. 5, § 98. The circuit court of appeals went on the ground that a lease creates only a chattel interest, and is not a conveyance, and therefore is not within the protection of the statute. But it is obvious that in principle the right of a lessee is the same as that of a purchaser in fee, and it would be a great misfortune, especially to mining interests, if a man taking a lease from those whom the record showed and he believed to be the owners, were liable, after spending large sums of money on the faith of it, to be turned out by an undisclosed claimant, on the strength of an unrecorded deed. We find no words in the statute that require such a result. On the contrary, the word 'conveyance' is defined, although for other purposes, as embracing every written instrument except a will by which any interest in lands is created. Act of 1900, title 3, § 136, 31 Stat. at L. 510, chap. 786; Code, pt. 5, § 136. See title 2, § 1046, 31 Stat. at L. 493, chap. 786; Code pt. 4, § 1046. And the statute provides for the recording of leases, as well as of deeds and grants, act of 1900, title 1, § 15, 31 Stat. at L. 327, chap. 786; Code, pt. 3, § 15. Blackstone defines a lease as a conveyance, 2 Com. 317, and in Sheppard's Touchstone, 267, leases are ranked under the head of grants,'as in other grants.' The point does not need authority except to exclude the notion that the statute uses the word in a narrower sense.