(2), (3), (4), (5). (2.) But this section shall not affect any right against SS. 47, 48 (1), the payee of any person interested in any money so paid; and that person shall have the like remedy against the payee as he would have had against the payer if the payment had not been made by him. (3.) This section applies only to payments and acts made and done after the commencement of this Act. POWERS OF ATTORNEY. purchase under power of This section is supplementary to 22 & 23 Vict. c. 35, s. 26, which applied only to trustees, executors, and administrators. It is still As to comnecessary for a purchaser taking a conveyance under power of attorney pleting to ascertain that the principal is alive at the time of execution of the conveyance. The clauses intended to meet this difficulty were struck out in the House of Commons. But the section seems to enable the attorney to give a valid discharge for the purchase-money, so that where the contract is binding on the vendor, the purchaser would obtain a good equitable title. The legal estate would remain outstanding, but a conveyance could be obtained from the personal representatives under s. 4 or s. 30. Notwithstanding this section, it will be best still to continue the old practice of depositing or retaining the purchase-money until it is ascertained that the vendor survived the date of execution by his attorney. instruments 48.-(1.) An instrument creating a power of attorney, Deposit of its execution being verified by affidavit, statutory deoriginal claration, or other sufficient evidence, may, with the creating affidavit or declaration, if any, be deposited in the Central attorney. Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature. (2.) A separate file of instruments so deposited shall be kept, and any person may search that file, and inspect every instrument so deposited, and an office copy thereof shall be delivered out to him on request. (3.) A copy of an instrument so deposited may be presented at the office, and may be stamped or marked as an office copy, and when so stamped or marked shall become and be an office copy. (4.) An office copy of an instrument so deposited shall without further proof be sufficient evidence of the contents of the instrument and of the deposit thereof in the Central Office. (5.) General Rules may be made for purposes of this section, regulating the practice of the Central Office, and powers of prescribing, with the concurrence of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, the fees to be taken therein. The General Rules under this s. will, if issued, be given in the Appendix. (6.) This section applies to instruments creating powers of attorney executed either before or after the commencement of this Act. Where a person upon going abroad, or for any other reason, gives a general power of attorney, there is always a difficulty in securing its production for the benefit of those whose rights depend on an exercise of the power, the original document being necessarily retained for subsequent use. Under this section the original may be deposited, and may be inspected at any time by all persons interested, and an office copy may be obtained. XII.-CONSTRUCTION AND EFFECT OF DEEDS AND 49.-(1.) It is hereby declared that the use of the word grant is not necessary in order to convey tenements or hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal. (2.) This section applies to conveyances made before or after the commencement of this Act. Since the Act 8 & 9 Vict. c. 106, s. 2, enabled land in possession to be conveyed by grant, it has been the practice to use that word in conveyances of freehold land, though probably not necessary, if the intent to pass the estate is clear (see Chester v. Willan, 2 Wms. Saund. 96a, (1); Shove v. Pincke, 5 T. R. 124). This section is intended to remove any question as to the necessity of so doing. In future the word "convey" will probably be used where convenient as to both freeholds and leaseholds (see s. 2 (v.), s. 57, and Forms in 4th schedule of this Act). It is not necessary to use the word "grant" except where it implies covenants under Acts of Parliament, as under s. 32 of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 18). 50.-(1.) Freehold land, or a thing in action, may be conveyed by a person to himself jointly with another person, by the like means by which it might be conveyed by him to another person; and may, in like manner, be conveyed by a husband to his wife, and by a wife to her husband, alone or jointly with another s. 50 (1), (2) ; person. SS. 51, 52 (1). (2.) This section applies only to conveyances made CONSTRUCTION after the commencement of this Act. The first part of this section is supplementary to 22 & 23 Vict. c. 35, s. 21, which applies only to personal property, and is only intended to apply to a conveyance in joint tenancy, as in the ordinary case of the appointment of a new trustee. If land conveyed by A. is to be held in common by himself and B., the proper course is either for A. to convey an undivided share to B., or to convey the entirety to B. to the use of himself and B. as tenants in common. The latter form would be adopted only to make covenants run with the land. AND EFFECT OF DEEDS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS. How land to be conveyed to tenants in common. It will be borne in mind in reading this and many other sections of Singular inthe Act that under 13 & 14 Vict. c. 21, s. 4, the singular includes the plural in Acts of Parliament. 51.-(1.) In a deed it shall be sufficient, in the limitation of an estate in fee simple, to use the words in fee simple, without the word heirs; and in the limitation of an estate in tail, to use the words in tail without the words heirs of the body; and in the limitation of an estate in tail male or in tail female, to use the words in tail male, or in tail female, as the case requires, without the words heirs male of the body, or heirs female of the body. (2.) This section applies only to deeds executed after the commencement of this Act. See this section illustrated in Fourth Schedule, Form IV. cludes plural. Words of limitation in fee or in tail. The principal effect of this section is to shorten the expressions Short expresrequired in a deed to create estates tail and cross remainders. There sion for estate tail, &c. still remains the distinction between deeds and wills that in a will many expressions, such as " A. and his assigns for ever," " A. and his issue," &c., will create an estate of inheritance, but in a deed no words are sufficient except either the old technical words or the words authorized by this section. This section applies only to deeds, therefore a surrender of copy holds should be made in the same terms according to the custom as before the Act. Surrender of 52.-(1.) A person to whom any power, whether Powers simply coupled with an interest or not, is given may by deed collateral. release, or contract not to exercise, the power. S. 52 (2); SS. 53, 54 (1). (2.) This section applies to powers created by instruments coming into operation either before or after the CONSTRUCTION commencement of this Act. AND EFFECT OF DEEDS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS. Release by married woman must be This section removes the difficulty which arose from the indestructibility of powers simply collateral, that is powers given to a person, not taking any estate, to dispose of or charge the estate in favour of some other person (see Sug. Powers, 47, 49, 8th ed.). A married woman must acknowledge the deed of release in cases where before this Act acknowledgment was necessary to bind her acknowledged. interest in the subject matter to which the power relates: Sug. Powers, 92, 8th ed.; see also Chorley v. Lings, L. R. 4 C. P. 374; The Queen v. Harrald, L. R. 7 Q. B. 361. Construction of supplemental or annexed deed. Practical use of this s. 53. Any document may be supplemental. Receipt in deed sufficient. 53.-(1.) A deed expressed to be supplemental to a previous deed, or directed to be read as an annex thereto, shall, as far as may be, be read and have effect as if the deed so expressed or directed were made by way of indorsement on the previous deed, or contained a full recital thereof. (2.) This section applies to deeds executed either before or after the commencement of this Act. The enactment in this section, though not necessary, seems required to introduce the practice of using, instead of an indorsed deed, a separate deed in a similar form referring to but not reciting the previous deed. The reference to the previous deed need only be such as clearly to identify it. For this purpose the date and the parties will in most cases be sufficient (see Fourth Schedule, Form II.). If deeds be made up bookwise in a form now common, the supplemental deed can be attached after execution, and both together will be easily readable. A further charge cannot as a general rule be made by indorsement on the mortgage deed, which the mortgagee will not allow out of his possession, but a supplemental deed of further charge can be sent to the mortgagor for execution, and afterwards annexed by the mortgagee to his mortgage deed, without letting the latter go out of his possession. This s. only speaks of a deed supplemental to another deed, but any document may also be made supplemental to a deed or to any other document. 54. (1.) A receipt for consideration money or securities in the body of a deed shall be a sufficient discharge for the same to the person paying or delivering the same, without any further receipt for the same being indorsed on the deed. (2.) This section applies only to deeds executed after s. 54 (2); SS. the commencement of this Act. 55.—(1.) A receipt for consideration money or other consideration in the body of a deed or indorsed thereon shall, in favour of a subsequent purchaser, not having notice that the money or other consideration thereby acknowledged to be received was not in fact paid or given, wholly or in part, be sufficient evidence of the payment or giving of the whole amount thereof. (2.) This section applies only to deeds executed after the commencement of this Act. 55, 56. CONSTRUCTION AND EFFECT oF DEEDS AND OF OTHER INSTRUMENTS. Receipt in deed or indorsed, evidence for subsequent purchaser. in body of deed. This and the preceding section make the receipt in the body of the Effect of receipt deed sufficient evidence of payment. Formerly that receipt was in equity little more than a mere form: see Kennedy v. Green, 3 My. & K. 699, 716; Greenslade v. Dare, 20 Beav. 284, 292. or indorsed, solicitor. 56.-(1.) Where a solicitor produces a deed, having Receipt in deed in the body thereof or indorsed thereon a receipt for authority for consideration money or other consideration, the deed payment to being executed, or the indorsed receipt being signed, by the person entitled to give a receipt for that consideration, the deed shall be sufficient authority to the person liable to pay or give the same for his paying or giving the same to the solicitor, without the solicitor producing any separate or other direction or authority in that behalf from the person who executed or signed the deed or receipt. (2.) This section applies only in cases where consideration is to be paid or given after the commencement of this Act. This s. meets the dictum of L.J. Turner in Viney v. Chaplin, 2 De G. & J. 468, 482, making an additional document necessary where the purchase-money was to be paid to the vendor's solicitor, namely an express authority to pay to him: see also Ex parte Swinbanks, 11 Ch. D. 525. It makes no alteration in the mode of the procedure on the completion of a purchase, but only gives an additional security to a purchaser. The absence of a written authority to a solicitor to receive consideration money was never relied on in practice as preventing payment. Each person entitled to receive acted as if the execution by him of the deed and indorsed receipt enabled the producer of the deed Practice not altered. |