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pose with the clerk of the court of common pleas of the county in which such lands, tenements or hereditaments are situated, at or before the time of entering such judgment, or of recording or lodging with the clerk as aforesaid, the said mortgage or conveyance to such subsequent purchaser or mortgagee; provided, nevertheless, that such mortgage, as between the parties and their heirs, be valid and operative.

(Id., §22.)

184. Owners of lands in certain counties and cities may agree not to apply for tax reduction by reason of mortgage.

That hereafter it shall be lawful for the owners of lands situated in the counties of Hudson, Essex, Union, Bergen and Passaic, and in the cities of Trenton, New Brunswick and Camden, to agree for themselves and their heirs and assigns with the holder of any mortgage now in existence or hereafter to be made, which binds or may bind lands in said counties or cities, not to apply for any deduction, by reason of any mortgage, from the taxable value of such lands embraced in such mortgage.

($1 of Supplement of April 17, 1876; G. S., p. 2113.)

185. Effect of violation of such agreement.

That in case any mortgagor or owner of lands, or the heirs or assigns of any mortgagor or owner of land situate in said counties and cities mentioned in section one, who shall have agreed not to claim any deduction from the taxable value of lands described in any mortgage, shall claim a deduction therefrom in violation of such agreement, that then and in that case said mortgage in said agreement described shall be

come immediately due and payable, and the amount of tax paid by the mortgagee shall be added to the principal of the debt secured thereby and recover able therewith with interest thereon from the time of payment.

($2, Id.)

186. Chattel mortgages; void unless affidavit of mortgagee attached and recorded.1

Every mortgage or conveyance intended to operate as a mortgage of goods and chattels hereafter made, which shall not be accompanied by an immediate delivery, and followed by an actual and continued change of possession of the things mortgaged, shall be absolutely void as against the creditors of the mortgagor, and as against the subsequent purchasers and mortgagees in good faith, unless the mortgage, having annexed thereto an affidavit or affirmation made and subscribed by the holder of said mortgage, his agent or attorney, stating the consideration of said mortgage and as nearly as possible the amount due and to grow due thereon, be recorded as directed in the succeeding section of this act; provided, nothing contained in this act shall be taken, construed or held to apply to any mortgage of personal property included in a mortgage of franchise and real estate heretofore or hereafter made by any railroad company, and which hath been or shall be recorded or registered as a mortgage of real estate in every county in which such railroad or any part of it is or shall be located, and it shall not be necessary to record as a chattel mortgage any such mortgage as is in this proviso described.

("An act concerning mortgages on chattels" [Revision of 1902]; P. L. 1902, p. 487, §4.)

'Precedents, p. 691,

To discourage fraud and to afford creditors a fair opportunity for investigation, the affidavit of the agent or attorney must state not simply the amount for which the mortgage is given, but "how the debt on which it is founded arose, what was the cause of the debt, or how the relation of creditor and debtor was created between the parties." Ehler v. Turner, 35 N. J. Eq., 68.

The affidavit may, by reference, bring in matters included in the mortgage and the consideration being thus shown there is sufficient compliance with the statute. Fletcher v. Bonnet, 51 N. J. Eq., 615. Affidavit, otherwise defective, may be aided by being read in connection with the mortgage. Tompkins v. Crosby, 19 Atl. Rep., 720.

Affidavit need not include the special incidents and names of the actors in the transaction. Douglas v. Williams, 48 Atl. Rep., 222.

Affidavit may be made by (1) a trustee, Fletcher v. Bonnet, 51 N. J. Eq., 615; (2) an officer of a corporation acting as trustee, Camden Safe Deposit Co. v. Burlington Carpet Co., 33 Atl. Rep., 479.

For examples of affidavits held to be void for non-compliance with the statute, see Ehler v. Turner (1882), 35 N. J. Eq., 68; Dunham v. Cramer, 51 Atl. Rep., 1011; Boice v. Conover, 54 N. J. Eq., 531; Graham Button Co. v. Spielman, 50 N. J. Eq., 120; aff'd in 50 N. J. Eq., 796.

Capital stock is not a proper subject of chattel mortgage. Williamson v. N. J. Southern R. R. Co., 26 N. J. Eq., 398.

187. Chattel mortgages; how recorded.

The instruments mentioned in the preceding section, and not excepted in the proviso, shall be recorded in suitable books provided for that purpose in the clerk's office of the county where the property so mortgaged shall be at the time of the execution of such instrument; provided, in any county where the office of the register of deeds and mortgages exists, or hereafter may be created, such instrument shall be recorded in the office of such register; and the said clerks and registers shall enter at the foot of the record of each mortgage an instrument so recorded, the time when the same was received by him at his office to be recorded, and endorsed on each mortgage and instrument when recorded the time when the same was

received at his office to be recorded and the book and page in which the same has been recorded, and shall thereupon deliver the same to the party entitled to it, or his order.

(Id., $5.)

188. Chattel mortgages; how acknowledged.

No chattel mortgage or conveyance intended to operate as a mortgage of goods and chattels shall be recorded unless the execution thereof shall be first acknowledged or proved, and such acknowledgment or proof certified thereon in the manner prescribed by the act entitled "An act respecting conveyances."

(Id., §6.)

189. Chattel mortgages; effect of recording.

Every chattel mortgage heretofore recorded according to law or hereafter recorded pursuant to the provisions of this act shall be valid against the creditors of the mortgagor, and against subsequent purchasers and mortgagees, from the time of the recording thereof until the same be cancelled of record in the manner now provided by law for the cancelling of mortgages of real estate.

(Id., §9.)

"The doctrine is entirely settled that it is only creditors whose debts are fastened on their debtors' property that have the right to call in question the validity of a mortgage which this statute makes void as against the creditors of the mortgagor. The statute makes a wide distinction between creditors and subsequent purchasers and mortgagees. A subsequent purchaser or mortgagee, to be in a position where he may take advantage of the failure on the part of the prior mortgagee to comply with the terms of the statute, must have made his purchase or taken his mortgage in good faith; that is, without notice of such prior mortgage, but not so with a creditor. He may know when his debt accrues that his debtor's property is already subject to a mortgage, yet if such mortgage

has not been executed and recorded in accordance with the requirements of the statute, he may, as soon as his debt becomes fastened on his debtor's property, successfully insist that the mortgage, as to his debt, is, by force of the statute, absolutely void." Van Fleet, V. C., in Graham Button Co. v. Spielman, 50 N. J. Eq., 120; aff'd 50 N. J. Eq., 796.

In the above case it was held that the debts of creditors became fastened on the property of the debtor on the appointment of a receiver under the Corporation Act. Such receiver as representing the creditors may sue to have a mortgage set aside when not executed and recorded in accordance with the act.

Mortgage must be recorded to create lien against subsequent creditors. Roe v. Meding, 53 N. J. Eq., 350.

Mortgage on stock of merchandise, the mortgagee being in possession and selling in the regular course of business, is not per se fraudulent if recorded. Lister v. Simpson, 38 N. J. Eq., 438; aff'd 39 N. J. Eq., 595.

Correction of errors in conveyances.

An act for the above purpose was passed March 29, 1904, being a supplement to an act entitled, "An act respecting conveyances" (Revision of 1898), approved June 14, 1898, and reads as follows:

1. Any corporation or association heretofore created, or which may be hereafter created, under and by virtue of any law of this state, which may have, during the period of its corporate existence, made any conveyance of lands in this state, and thereafter shall cease to exist, by reason of dissolution, death of all its members, or otherwise, and it shall thereafter be discovered that error exists in the deed or conveyance of any such lands so conveyed by any corporation or association as aforesaid, then, in such case, any surviving president, vice president, director or trustee of such defunct corporation or association may, by deed of confirmation containing a proper recital, correct such error in such deed or conveyance; and in case there shall be no surviving president, vice president,

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