CLAUSES CHAPTER II. COMMON TO MOST DEEDS: NARRATIVE DEEDS.-NOTARIAL SUBSCRIPTION. THE clauses common to the most of formal deeds are: I. NARRATIVE CLAUSE. II. WARRANDICE CLAUSE. clause. I. NARRATIVE CLAUSE. This clause generally contains I. Narrative (1) the name and designation of the granter of the Contents. deed; (2) the consideration of granting; (3) the name and designation of the grantee. In deeds of consent under the Entail Amendment Act, 1848 (11 and 12 Vict. c. 36), the designation and place of abode of the granter have to be stated; but, in other deeds, it is sufficient if the granter and grantee are identified in the deed, although neither their abodes nor their designations are given in it, the maxim dummodo constet de persona being applicable to such cases. See Milne, M. 11,657; Guthrie, 11 S. 465 ; Scottish Union Insurance Co., 14 S. 667. When a deed is granted by persons holding the office of trustees, factors, &c., the narrative clause sets forth their character, and the deed constituting their appointment to the office. In some deeds—e.g., deeds of accession by creditors,—it is often convenient not to name and design the granters in the narrative clause, but to do so in the testing clause. Stamp Act re quires consi The Stamp Act (33 and 34 Vict. c. 97, § 10) requires deration to be that all facts and circumstances affecting the liability of set forth fully. any instrument to ad valorem duty, or the amount of it, shall be fully and truly set forth. Obligations immoral or unlawful will not be enforced. Contracts against Statute. (1.) Contracts for evading payment of income-tax. (2.) Agreement relating to the buying or selling of judicial and public offices. (3.) Notes, &c., It must be noted that contracts or obligations, the consideration or the subject-matter of which is unlawful or immoral, will not be enforced by our Courts. The maxim, melior est conditio possidentis vel defendentis, operates in favour of the party refusing to implement such contracts or obligations. Contracts or obligations against the express prohibition of a statute, or contra bonos mores, or inconsistent with public policy, will not sustain an action. Among contracts or obligations, illegal by statute, are the following: (1.) Contracts for payment of any interest, rent, or other annual payment, in full, without allowing deduction for income-tax, are illegal, 5 and 6 Vict. c. 35, § 103; 16 and 17 Vict. c. 34, § 5, Blair, 21 D. 15. But it is quite legal for a testator to bequeath an annuity free of income-tax, the bequest not being a contract or agreement to evade income-tax, which will be payable, not by the annuitant, but out of the testator's estate, Mackie's Trustees, 2 R. 312; Rodger's Trustees, 2 R. 294; Kinloch's Trustees, 7 R. 596. (2.) All agreements in relation to the buying and selling of offices connected with the administration or execution of justice, and various other public departments, are declared void by 49 Geo. III. c. 126. (3.) By the Act of 9 Anne c. 14, "all notes, bills, bonds, judgments, mortgages, or other securities or conveyances whatsoever," the consideration of which is, in whole or in part, money lent at play, or lent at the time to play with, are void. But payment of a bill, note, or mortgage so of the subject of of a depending (4.) Members of the College of Justice, or of any (4.) Purchase inferior Court, are forbidden, under pain forfeiture of office, to buy the subject of a depending process, 1594, c. 216. The purchase, however, in this case is not null. According to the spirit of the statute of 1594, and at common law, the pactum de quota litis-i.e., a bargain by an advocate or law agent to receive, in remuneration of his professional services, a share of the subject in dispute,is unlawful, Bell's Prin. § 36 (2); Logan's Trustees, 12 R. 1094. process. not according (5.) All contracts in the United Kingdom are deemed (5.) Contracts to be made and had according to one of the to imperial imperial weights or measures, or to some multiple or aliquot part thereof; and, if they are not, they are void, 41 and 42 Vict. c. 49, § 19. weights. (6.) It is incompetent to sue for the price of spirituous (6.) Contracts against liquors unless the debt has been bond fide con- Liquor Acts. (7.) By the Act 1621, c. 18, all alienations, disposi- (7.) Deeds struck at by tions, assignations, and translations whatsoever, 1621, c. 18. of any of his lands, teinds, reversions, actions, (8.) Deeds struck at by 1696, c. 5. debts, or goods whatsoever, by an insolvent person to any conjunct or confident person, "without true, just, and necessary causes, and without a just price really paid," are null when challenged by creditors injured. The challenge must be made either by a creditor whose grounds of debts are prior to the alienation challenged, or by the trustee on the sequestrated estate of the bankrupt; and if a creditor or a trustee in bankruptcy proves insolvency at the date of challenge on the part of the person making the alienation, and also shews that the alienation was made without onerous consideration to a conjunct or confident person, insolvency at the date of the alienation is presumed, and it lies on the person supporting the deed to prove the contrary. Goudy on Bankruptcy, 44-57, and authorities there cited. (8.) The Act 1696, c. 5, declares all voluntary dispositions, assignations, or other deeds made, directly or indirectly, by a notour bankrupt, either at or after his becoming notour bankrupt, or within sixty days of his notour bankruptcy, in favour of any of his creditors either for their satisfaction or further security, in preference to his other creditors, to be null and void; and by section 6 of the Bankruptcy Act, 1856 (19 and 20 Vict. c. 79), the date of a deed either under that Act or under the Act, 1696, c. 5, is the date of recording the sasine, where sasine is necessary, and, in other cases, of registration of the deed, or of delivery, or of intimation, or of such other proceeding as is, in the particular case, requisite for rendering the deed completely effectual. The Act, 1696, c. 5, however, does not strike at-(a) payments in cash; (b) trans- contra bonos Among contracts or obligations which are illegal Contracts because they are contra bonos mores, may be mentioned mores void. the following: (1.) Agreements or obligations inducive to crime, or (1.) Agreement. for compounding a crime, are illegal. inducive to crime. prostitution. (2.) Whilst a bond for the wages of prostitution will not (2.) Bonds for found a claim, a bond granted as a compensation for injury suffered through such connection will be sustained, Johnston, 14 S. 106; 1 Bell's Com. 318; Bell's Prin. § 37. In the recent case of Webster, 14 R. 90, a Scotsman married in Norway the sister of his deceased wife, and, on their return to Scotland, they cohabited together there for about twelve years, and then separated from each other, the man agreeing to pay the woman an annuity. The Court held that the agreement was valid, and was not struck at as being ob turpem causam. giving judgment Lord Young said: "The rule of law is that if the consideration for granting a document of debt be one of turpitude, the document will not sustain action. If such a cause appears on the face of the bond-if, for instance, the narrative of the bond bears that the woman agrees to live with the man as his mistress-the law will not enforce that; and if In |