Index of Crown debtors. (12.) Purchaser for value from Crown debtor. A purchaser for a valuable consideration without notice from the Crown debtor after the lien has attached, is bound by it, although he may have expended large sums for improvements (). Simple contract debts to the Crown are not binding upon any purchaser for a valuable consideration without notice, provided there was no fraud or covin (1). And since simple contract debts to the Crown, as such, constitute no lien on the lands of the debtor, it seems clear that, unless the transaction can be impeached on the ground of fraud or covin (m), a purchaser for a valuable consideration would not be bound by any such debts, although he may have actual notice of them at the date of his purchase (n). (13.) Registration of Crown debts. The 2 & 3 Vict. c. 11, s. 8, gives full protection to purchasers and mortgagees against Crown debts and obligations, by requiring a memorandum of them, similar to that required of judgments by 1 & 2 Vict. c. 110, to be left with the senior Master of the Common Pleas, to be by him entered in a book, to be called "The Index of Debtors and Accountants to the Crown," and (s. 9) by directing an alphabetical index to be kept of the quietus granted to Crown debtors and accountants, and by giving power to the Lords of the Treasury, upon such terms as they shall think fit, to certify that any hereditaments of a Crown debtor or accountant may be held by a purchaser or mortgagee thereof freed from all claims present and future on the part of the Crown. On a mortgage of real estate, therefore, the Common Pleas (now Central) Office should be searched for Crown debts and acceptances of office, as well as for other incumbrances: but for judgments, specialties, or accountantships in existence at the passing of the Act, the same search, which was not very easy, must be made as before the Act (0). Notwithstanding the words of the statute, a mortgagee, with notice of an unregistered judgment, would probably be bound (p). (k) Rex v. Bailey, 1816, Man. Ex. 37. (0) Prid. Judg. 167, ed. 4; Shelf. R. P. Stat. 605, ed. 8. (p) Thomas v. Pledwell, 2 Eq. Ca. Ab. 599, pl. 25; 7 Vin. Abr. 54; Prid. Judg. 169, ed. 4. tion. The provisions as to registry (2 & 3 Vict. c. 11, s. 8), and regis- Re-registratration every five years (18 & 19 Vict. c. 15), apply to Crown debts (9). the estates The Commissioners of the Treasury for the time being, or any Discharge of three of them, by writing under their hands, upon payment of such of Crown sums of money as they may think fit to require into the receipt of debtors. her Majesty's exchequer to be applied in liquidation of the debt or liability of any debtor, or accountant to the Crown, or upon such other terms as they may think proper, may certify that any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of any such Crown debtor or accountant, shall be held by the purchaser, or mortgagee, or intended purchaser, or mortgagee thereof, his or their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, wholly exonerated and discharged from all further claims of her Majesty, her heirs or successors, for or in respect of any debt, claim, or liability, present or future, of the debtor or accountant, to whom such lands, tenements, or hereditaments belonged; or, in cases of leases for fines, may certify that the lessees, their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, shall hold so exonerated and discharged, without prejudice to the rights and remedies of the Crown against the reversion of the lands, tenements or hereditaments, comprised in any such leases, and the rents and covenants reserved and contained by and in the same; and, thereupon, the same lands, tenements, or hereditaments, shall respectively be held accordingly wholly exonerated and discharged as aforesaid, but, in the case of leases, without prejudice as aforesaid (†). of estate dis claim on And it is enacted that any such certificate, or the discharge of Where part any such lands, tenements, or other hereditaments, shall in nowise charged not impeach, lessen, or affect, the right or power of her Majesty, her to affect heirs or successors, to levy the whole of any debt or demand which other part. may, at any time, be due from any such debtor or accountant to the Crown, out of or from any other lands, tenements, or hereditaments, which would have been liable thereto in case no such certificate had been granted and no such discharge had been obtained (s). The rights enjoyed by the Crown are now subject to the provisions of the Crown Suits Act, 1865 (t), under which future Crown debts do not affect land as against bonâ fide purchasers for valuable con- cution issued sideration, or mortgagees, with or without notice, until a writ of and regis Future Crown debts, &c., not to affect land till exe tered. (g) 22 & 23 Vict. c. 35, s. 22. (r) 2 & 3 Vict. c. 11, s. 10. (s) Ib. s. 11. (t) 28 & 29 Vict. c. 104, ss. 48, 49. Registration in counties. A diem clausit extremum. execution be issued and registered before the execution of the conveyance or mortgage to the purchaser or mortgagee: but this provision does not (u) take away or abridge any prerogative or right of the Crown, in respect of priority or otherwise, over or against the creditors of a debtor or accountant to the Crown; and, save as expressly provided in the part of the Act referred to, every prerogative or right of the Crown as against the land, or creditors, of any debtor or accountant to the Crown, remains as if that part of the Act had not been enacted. The Registry Acts for Middlesex, and for the West, East, and North Ridings of Yorkshire, expressly except from their operation all such judgments, statutes, and recognizances, as are entered in the name and upon the proper account of His Majesty, his heirs, and successors (x). (14.) Administration of assets. In the administration of assets, all debts due to the Crown upon record or specialty must be paid in preference to any judgment or other debt due from the deceased debtor to a subject (y); and a debt by simple contract due to the Crown is to be preferred to a debt by bond due to a subject (); but a subject's debt of record has priority to the king's debt, not of record (a). Wherever the right of the Crown and that of a subject, with respect to the payment of a debt of equal degree, come into competition, the Crown's right prevails (b). A diem clausit extremum is an extent against the property of a deceased debtor, founded on a debt upon record, or on a simple contract debt found by inquisition taken after his death; and it directs the inquiry, as to the goods of the deceased debtor, to be made with reference to those which he had at the time of his death, and, as to his lands, with reference to those of which he died seised, or of which he was seised at the time when the lien accrued, as the case may be (c). But this process cannot issue against the effects of a deceased debtor of the king's debtor, in respect of a debt due to him from the deceased debtor's estate, unless that debt (u) 28 & 29 Vict. c. 104, s. 51. (x) 5 & 6 Anne, c. 18; 6 Anne, c. 35; 7 Anne, c. 20; 8 Geo. II. c. 6. (y) 4 B. & Cr. 416. (z) Parker Rep. 101. (a) Wm. Exors. 996-7, ed. 8. (b) Henley & Co. 9 Ch. D. 481; 26 W. R. 885, C. A. (c) Man. Ex. 15. be found by inquisition taken in the lifetime of such deceased debtor (d). In a winding-up, the Crown has priority over the other creditors Winding up. for a debt due by the company for property-tax before the winding up (e). (15.) Powers. When the Crown debtor has a power of revocation for his own Power. benefit, the land may be extended by virtue of the royal prerogative, though the debtor die without executing the power (ƒ); and Crown debts cannot be defeated by the execution of a power (g). (16.) Ireland. There are similar Acts affecting the registration and re-registration of Crown debts in Ireland as in England (h). (d) Exp. Hippesley, 2 Pri. 379; Prid. Judg. p. 175, ed. 4. (e) Henley & Co., sup. (f) 1 Sug. on Pow. 186, ed. 8. (g) Ellis v. Reg. 19 L. J. Exc. 77; 6 Exc. 921. (h) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 90, ss. 11 & 12; 11 & 12 ib. c. 120, ss. 12 & 13; 34 & 35 ib. c. 72, ss. 2, 7, 10, 11, 12 & 22. C.-VOL. 1. 4. The statutes create no charge on the land, and the heir 200 204 205 206 7. Stat. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 46, specialty and simple contract pari passu. 8. Administration of estate of deceased insolvent 9. The result of the statutes . (1.) Common law liability of heir. UNDER the ancient feudal law, the real estates of debtors could not, by any process, be taken in execution for any of the debts of their creditors, on the ground that otherwise persons might, by such circuitous mode, have been introduced into the feud without the lord's consent (a). In process of time, the real estate of debtors was, by statute, made liable to be taken in execution in their lifetime at the suit of their creditors. But on the death of debtors, their real estate was not liable to their creditors. The debtor might have devised his real estate for the payment of his debts; but if he devised it without any provision, or any effectual provision, for debts, or died intestate, the devisee or heir (unless bound by specialty) took the real estate free from the debts of the testator, or ancestor (b). (a) Sup. p. 3. (b) Morley v. M. 5 De G. M. & G. 610, 622; Williams on Real Assets, 4. |