Index of

SEC. 97. The commissioner shall also keep a proper index, direct and inverted, to the books for the recording of deeds, and also one to ords. the books for the recording of mortgages, in which he shall enter alphabetically the name of every party to each and every instrument recorded by him, with a reference to the book and page where the same is recorded.

rec

Unrecorded

SEC. 98. Every conveyance of real property within the district hereafter made which shall not be filed for record as provided in this chap- conveyance, when ter shall be void against any subsequent innocent purchaser in good void as to third faith and for a valuable consideration of the same real property, or persons. any portion thereof, whose conveyance shall be first duly recorded. SEC. 99. The record of a conveyance duly recorded, or a transcript Record or tranthereof duly certified by the commissioner in whose office the same script evidence. may have been recorded, may be read in evidence in any court in the district with the like force and effect as the original instrument; but the effect of such evidence may be rebutted by other competent evidence.

Record of deeds

SEC. 100. When a deed purports to be an absolute conveyance in terms, but is made or intended to be made defeasible by force of a of defeasance. deed of defeasance or other instrument for that purpose, the original conveyance shall not be thereby defeated or affected as against any person other than the maker of the defeasance, or his heirs or devisees, or persons having actual notice thereof, unless the instrument of defeasance shall have been recorded in the office of the commissioner for the precinct where the lands lie.

Record of assign

SEC. 101. The recording of the assignment of a mortgage shall not in itself be deemed notice of such assignment to the mortgagor, his ment of mortgage. heirs or personal representatives, so as to invalidate any payment made by them or either of them to the mortagee.

SEC. 102. Any mortgage that has been or may hereafter be recorded Discharge of may be discharged by an entry in the margin of the record thereof, mortgage by marsigned by the mortagee or his personal representative or assignee, ginal entry. acknowledging the satisfaction of the mortgage, in the presence of the commissioner or a deputy, who shall subscribe the same as a witness, and such entry shall have the same effect as a deed of release duly acknowledged and recorded.

Discharge upon

SEC. 103. Any mortgage may also be discharged upon the record thereof by the commissioner in whose custody it shall be whenever certificate of mortthere shall be presented to him a certificate executed by the mortgagee. gagee, his personal representatives or assigns, acknowledged or proved and certified as hereinbefore prescribed to entitle conveyances to be recorded, specifying that such mortgage has been paid or otherwise satisfied or discharged.

SEC. 104. Every such certificate and the proof or acknowledgment Certificate of thereof shall be, recorded at full length, and a reference shall be made mortagee to be reto the book and page containing such record in the minute of the dis- corded. charge of such mortgage made by the commissioner upon the record thereof.

Penalty for re

SEC. 105. If any mortgagee, or his personal representative or assignee, as the case may be, after full performance of the condition fusing to discharge

of the mortgage, whether before or after a breach thereof, shall, for mortgage.
the space of ten days after being thereto requested in writing, and
after tender of his reasonable charges, refuse or neglect to discharge
the same as provided in this chapter, or to execute and acknowledge a
certificate of discharge or release thereof, he shall be liable to the
mortgagor, his heirs or assigns, in the sum of one hundred dollars
damages, and also for all actual damages occasioned by such neglect or
refusal, to be recovered in an action.

Power of attorney and contract may be recorded.

-revocation of.

Deeds heretofore made, etc.

Patents, decrees,

corded.

SEC. 106. Every letter of attorney or other instrument containing a power to convey lands as agent or attorney for the owner of such lands, and every executory contract for the sale or purchase of lands when acknowledged or proved in the manner prescribed in this title for the acknowledgment or proof of conveyances, may be recorded in the commissioner's office of any precinct in which the lands to which such power or contract relates may be situated; and when so acknowledged or proved and the record thereof when recorded, or the transcript of such record duly certified, may be read in evidence in any court in the district without further proof of the same.

SEC. 107. No letter of attorney, or other instrument so recorded, shall be deemed to be revoked by any act of the party by whom it was executed unless the instrument containing such revocation be also recorded in the same office in which the instrument containing the power was recorded.

SEC. 108. All conveyances of real property heretofore made and acknowledged or proved in accordance with the laws of the district in force at the time of such making and acknowledgment of proof shall have the same force as evidence and be recorded in the same manner and with like effect as conveyances executed and acknowledged in pursuance of the provisions of this chapter.

SEC. 109. Patents from the United States for lands within the disetc., affecting trict, notices of pending actions affecting title to real estate, judgments lands may be re- of courts in the district requiring the execution of a conveyance of real estate within the district, and approved lists of lands granted to the districts or to corporations in the district, and conveyances executed by any officer of the district by authority of law of lands within said. district, shall be entitled to be recorded in the office of the commissioner of the precinct in which the lands lie in like manner and with like effect as conveyances of land duly acknowledged, proved, or certified.

-record of.

SEC. 110. The record of any such patent, notice of pending action, judgment, approved lists, or deeds duly recorded, or a transcript thereof duly certified by the commissioner in whose office the same may have been recorded, may be read in evidence in any court in the district with like force and effect as the original thereof. Defective ac- SEC. 111. All defective and informal acknowledgments of deeds, knowledgments powers of attorney, mortgages, or other instruments for the conveyance of land, or any interest therein, heretofore made by any person or persons in good faith, whether the acknowledgments were taken by or before any clerk, deputy clerk, or judge of any court of record within the district, or any commissioner or notary public of the district, shall be, and the same are hereby, legalized.

cured.

Exceptions.

Other defective deeds cured.

Judicial sales.

SEC. 112. This chapter is not intended to interfere with vested rights in lands or premises, arising by adverse title, acquired in good faith since the date of such defective acknowledgments.

SEC. 113. All deeds to real property heretofore executed in the district which shall have been signed by the grantors in due form shall be sufficient in law to convey the legal title to the premises therein described from the grantors to the grantees without any other execution or acknowledgment whatever; and such deeds so executed shall be received in evidence in all courts in the district and be evidence of the title to the lands therein described against the grantors, their heirs and assigns.

SEC. 114. All judicial sales of real property heretofore made in the district on proceedings to satisfy valid judgments or decrees of any court, and the moneys bidden thereon paid to the officer making such sale, and such sale shall have been confirmed by an order of the proper

court, such sale shall be valid and sufficient in law to sustain a deed based on such sale, and when no such deed has been executed shall entitle such purchaser to such deed; and such deed, when executed, shall be sufficient to convey all the title of the judgment debtor in the premises so sold to the purchaser at the sale; and all defects and irregularities in the issuance of execution or the manner of making or conducting such sale shall be disregarded.

ministrators.

SEC. 115. All sales heretofore made by executors and administrators Defectively exeof their decedents' real property in the district to purchasers for a cuted sales by exvaluable consideration, which has been paid by such purchasers to ecutors and adsuch executors or administrators or their successors in good faith, and such sales shall not have been set aside by the court, but shall have been confirmed or acquiesced in by such court, shall be sufficient to sustain an executor's or administrator's deed to such purchaser for such real property, and in case such deed shall not have been given shall entitle such purchaser to such deed; and such deed shall be sufficient to convey to such purchaser all the title that such decedent had in the real property; and all irregularities in obtaining the order of the court for such sale and all irregularities in making or conducting the same by such executor or administrator shall be disregarded.

Records of such

SEC. 116. When such deeds so executed shall have been recorded in the records of deeds in the proper precinct, such record, duly certified deeds, receivable by the commissioner, shall be evidence in all courts, and have the same in evidence. effect as the original.

SEC. 117. When any real estate has been heretofore or shall be Defective execuhereafter sold by any executor or administrator under or by virtue of tion of conveyany license or order of any commissioner in the district, and the sale ances by executors; decree in shall have been approved by the commissioner, and the purchaser such cases. shall have paid the purchase money for the same, and the sale shall have been made in good faith, in order to provide for payment of the claims against the estate, and the executor or administrator shall have failed or neglected to make or execute any deed conveying such real estate to such purchaser, or if from mistake or omission in the deed or defect in its execution the same shall be inoperative, and the period of five years shall have elapsed after the making of such sale, then in such case all such sales shall be, and are hereby, confirmed and approved, notwithstanding any irregularities or informalities in the proceedings prior to the sale; and when such facts shall be made to appear in any action of an equitable nature brought to quiet title to such real property against the heirs or their assigns of the deceased person whose property shall have been thus sold, in the proper court for such suits, then such court shall make its decree quieting such title and compelling and ordering conveyances of the same to be made to such purchaser, his heirs or assigns, as if a valid contract to convey the real property had been made by such deceased person in his lifetime; and no action shall be maintained by such heirs, or their heirs or assigns, to dispossess any such purchaser, his heirs or assigns, after the expiration of five years from any such sale.

SEC. 118. When a new precinct shall be organized in whole or in Transcribing recpart from an organized precinct, or from territory attached to such ords for new preorganized precinct for judicial purposes, all the records of deeds or cinet to have the other instruments relating to real property in such new precinct may effect of the origbe transcribed into the proper books by the commissioner of such new precinct, which records, so transcribed, shall have the same effect in all respects as original records; and the commissioner shall be paid for transcribing the same such sum as the district court may deem just and reasonable.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

OF FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCES OF REAL PROPERTY.

Fraudulent con

SEC. 119. Every conveyance of interest in lands, or the rents or veyances of real profits thereof, and every charge upon lands or upon the rents and property. profits thereof, made or created with the intent to defraud prior or void as to pur- subsequent purchasers for a valuable consideration of the same lands, rents, or profits, as against such purchasers shall be void.

chasers.

-subsequent

purchasers.

tion.

SEC. 120. No such conveyance or charge shall be deemed fraudulent in favor of a subsequent purchaser who shall have actual or legal notice thereof at the time of his purchase, unless it shall appear that the grantee in such conveyance, or person to be benefited by such charge was privy to the fraud intended.

Conveyance with SEC. 121. Every conveyance or charge of or upon any estate or power of revoca- interest in lands containing any provision for the revocation, determination or alteration of such estate or interest, or any part thereof, at the will of the grantor, shall be void as against subsequent purchasers from such grantor for a valuable consideration of any estate or interest so liable to be revoked or determined, although the same be not expressly revoked, determined, or altered by such grantor by virtue of the power reserved or expressed in such prior conveyance or charge.

Conveyances by

grants.

SEC. 122. Where a power to revoke the conveyance of any lands, one authorized to or the rents and profits thereof, and to reconvey the same, shall be revoke former given to any person other than the grantor in such conveyance, and such person shall thereafter convey the same lands, rents, or profits to a purchaser for a valuable consideration, such subsequent conveyance shall be valid in the same manner and to the same extent as if the power of revocation were recited therein and the intent to revoke the former conveyance expressly declared.

-when convey

ance before power of revocation vested.

Fraudulent con

SEC. 123. If a conveyance to a purchaser under either of the last two preceding sections shall be made before the person making the same shall be entitled to execute his power of revocation, it shall nevertheless be valid from the time the power of revocation shall actually vest in such person, in the same manner and to the same extent as if then made.

SEC. 124. All deeds of gift, all conveyances, and transfers of assignveyance of person- ments, verbal or written, of goods and chattels or things in action, al property. made in trust for the person making the same, shall be void as against the creditors, existing or subseqnent, of such person.

-void.

Filing of chattel mortgages.

SEC. 125. It shall be the duty of the commissioner, upon the presentation for that purpose of any mortgage or conveyance intended to operate as a mortgage of goods and chattels, or a copy of any such instrument, and the payment of his fees, to indorse thereon the time

of receiving the same, and to deposit such instrument or copy in hist office, to be kept for the inspection of all persons interested."

SEC. 126. Such commissioner shall enter in a book, to be provided Index of chattel by him for that purpose, the names of all the parties to such instru- mortgage. ment, arranging the names of the mortgagors alphabetically, and shall note thereon the time of filing each instrument or copy.

or

come invalid at the end of one

year, unless.

SEC. 127. Every such mortgage shall cease to be valid as against the Mortgage to becreditors of the person making the same, or subsequent purchasers mortgagors in good faith, after the expiration of one year from the filing of the same or a copy thereof, unless within thirty days next preceding the expiration of the year the mortgagee, his agent or attorney, shall make and annex to the instrument or copy on file, as aforesaid, an affidavit setting forth the interest which the mortgagee has, by virtue of such mortgage, in the property therein mentioned, upon which affidavit the commissioner shall indorse the time when the same was filed.

SEC. 128. The effect of any such affidavit shall not continue beyond Affidavit may be one year from the time when such mortgage would otherwise cease to renewed. be valid as against the creditors of the person making such mortgage, or subsequent purchasers or mortgagees in good faith; but within thirty days next preceding the time when any such mortgage would otherwise cease to be valid, as aforesid, a similar affidavit may be filed and annexed as provided in the preceding section, and with like effect. SEC. 129. A copy of any such instrument, or a copy of any copy thereof so filed as aforesaid, including any affidavits annexed thereto dence. in pursuance of this chapter, certified by the commissioner in whose office the same shall be filed, shall be received in evidence, but only of the fact that such instrument, copy, or affidavit was received and filed according to the indorsement of the commissioner thereon, and of no other fact.

Copy in eri.

CONTRACTS.

Sec.

130. Conveyance with intent to defraud
creditors.

131. Grant of trust to be in writing.
132. What conveyances void against heirs.

Sec.

133. Fraudulent intent a question of fact.
134. Purchaser, when not affected.
135. Definition of lands, etc.

136. Definition of conveyances.

SEC. 130. Every conveyance or assignment, in writing or otherwise,

Conveyance

of any estate or interest in lands, or in goods, or things in action, or of with intent to de any rents or profits issuing therefrom, and every charge upon lands, fraud creditors. goods, or things in action, or upon the rents or profits thereof, made with the intent to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors or other persons of their lawful suits, damages, forfeitures, debts, or demands, and every bond or other evidence of debt given, action commenced, decree or judgment suffered, with the like intent, as against the persons so hindered, delayed, or defrauded shall be void.

Grant of trust to

SEC. 131. Every grant or assignment of any existing trust in lands, goods, or things in action, unless the same shall be in writing, subscribed be in writing. by the party making the same, or by his agent lawfully authorized, shall be void.

SEC. 132. Every conveyance, charge, instrument, or proceeding Conveyances declared by law to be void as against the creditors, purchasers, or mort- void against heirs. gagees shall be equally void as against the heirs, successors, personal representatives, or assigns of such creditors, purchasers, or mortgagees.

SEC. 133. The question of fraudulent intent in all cases arising under Fraudulent inthe provisions of this code shall be deemed a question of fact, and not tent a question of

of law.

fact.