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taining the registries of marriages performed by him for the year ending thirty-first December preceding, and record the same in the registry office of the city or county in which he officiates, and such registration, or a certificate thereof, is evidence of the marriages, respectively.

As to births and deaths, there is yet no such registration in this province, but it is probable that they also will be shortly under similar regulations: meanwhile, they are proved by evidence of relatives, by reputation among neighbors, by family archives, as family bibles, &c.

The traditionary declarations of deceased members of a family as to such facts are generally received as evidence after the death of those persons, in the absence of better proof; but, before accepting such evidence, proof should be had that diligent and fruitless search has been made in the registers, if any, where such facts are officially recorded.

Entries in the family bible are admissible as evidence.

247. Probate or letters of administration are proof of death to conveyancers; and, where such probate, &c., has been acted on, a purchaser will have no right to a certificate of death or burial.

248. Death without issue is proved negatively, either by a statutory declaration by relations or others well acquainted with the party or circumstances may prove it; e. g., as that he never was married, that issue is never mentioned in wills and other documents in which issue, if existing, would naturally be mentioned. The descent of property, or of titles of dignity, may also prove no other claimant to have been in existence.

249. Legitimacy is presumed if a child is born in wedlock; and, therefore, proof of marriage, and of the birth during the lifetime of the father, or within the period of gestation afterward, will be sufficient where no dispute has ever arisen on the subject.

250. Annuities and rent charges are proved to have been duly paid by the last receipt from the party entitled to receive them.

251. Title derived through an heir must be proved by ascertaining that he was seized of the property, either actually or constructively. Actual entry to vest the seizin may be made by the heir himself, or some one for him as his guardian; and entry even by a stranger for an infant has been held sufficient. Constructive acquisition may be inferred from acts of ownership over the property, as by receiving the rents and profits; and even from continued possession by the tenant of the ancestor, under a lease, by statute or by eligit, without any actual receipt of the rent or entry by him on the premises.

252. Seizin of incorporeal hereditaments is proved by acts of ownership.

253. Original wills cannot be demanded, nor can a purchaser insist on verifying the abstract therewith at the vendor's expense, if the probate is ready for inspection.

254. Probate is the best evidence as to personalty even in a court of law; but it must be ascertained that the will was made in conformity with the statute.

If probate is lost, an official copy, or the original, will be equally satisfactory.

255. The vendor is bound to produce all documents set out in the abstract, without express stipulation to the contrary, whether they are in his possession or not, and without any reference to the right of the purchaser to have them delivered to him on completion of the purchase; but this only applies to such documents as are usually handed over to him, and not to records or wills, of which office-extracts, probates, and copies, are all which the purchaser can claim.

256. Expense of such production must be borne by the vendor, but this does not generally apply to attested copies of instruments of record; for, where the vendor has not the instrument itself, and cannot procure it, he is bound to obtain an attested copy, and the purchaser will be entitled to it on completion of the purchase, unless the vendor retains other estates under the same title.

257. Unnecessary expenses in comparing documents with the abstract are not chargeable to the vendor.

258. Comparison of documents with abstract should always include the ascertaining that every conveying party named in a deed has put his hand and seal to it, and that each execution has been duly attested, and that, when necessary, the receipt clause is indorsed, signed, and witnessed; also, if the terms of a power require an appointment to be executed before a certain number of witnesses, or in any other special manner, it should be seen that those terms are strictly complied with.

259. Proof of execution of documents cannot be demanded by the purchaser.

260. Acknowledgment of married women must be ascertained to be in conformity with the statute. It should also be shown that the women were of full age, for a minor, although a married woman, cannot make a valid acknowledgment.

261. The nature of the tenancy should be inquired into whenever the property is the occupation of a tenant; for otherwise the purchaser will be considered to have implied notice of the title-notice of a tenancy being construed as implied notice of the terms upon which the premises are holden.

262. If the title is not required by the agreement to be carried back beyond a certain period, that will not prevent the purchaser from showing that, from defect before that period, the vendor cannot confer a marketable title.

263. Purchaser should not act as owner of the estate until satisfied of the validity of the title.

264. Prosecuting the treaty, after discovery that the estate is only leasehold when a freehold was contracted for, will be a waiver of the objection, and specific performance with compensation may be

enforced.

265. Taking possession as a waiver of objections to the title will depend upon the mode by which such possession is acquired. If purchaser enters without consent of vendor he will be considered to have approved of the title, but not so, generally, if it is done with the vendor's approval, or in pursuance of the terms of the contract, except the purchaser do such acts of possession as deprive him of all right to have his objections removed.

A memorandum under the hand of the vendor that the purchaser's taking possession shall not be construed as a waiver of objections to the title, or as a ground for calling upon him to pay the purchase money before the title is perfected, and a conveyance executed in terms of the contract should be required.

266. Counsel's approval of the title does not bind the purchaser. 267. If vendor's solicitor denies there are incumbrances when incumbrances exist he is personally liable; this question, therefore, should always be put; and so, if the purchaser suspects that any one has a claim on the property, he should ask such person, and state, at the same time, that he intends to buy the property. If, then, such person denies that he has an incumbrance, equity will not permit him to enforce it against the purchaser.

268. Trustees should always be inquired of as to incumbrances, when an equitable estate or interest is the matter in treaty; and, if they make a false statement, equity will compell them to make good any loss of the purchaser which was caused by it.

269. Judgments to be binding must now, by statute 20 Vic., cap. 57, be re-registered every three years. The search, therefore, need not go back beyond that time, and it must be borne in mind that judgments bind leaseholds by statute in the same manner as freeholds, though formerly they were only bound from the time the execution was put into the sheriff's hands. If search is not made for judgments, the purchaser's solicitor will be personally liable, and his client may recover the amount of them in an action at law.

270. Vendor has no right to call upon the purchaser to accept a conveyance, until he has discharged all incumbrances; and, if they are of such a nature that he cannot discharge them, the purchaser will be entitled to all his costs from the vendor, including that of the conveyance, if one is prepared, and whether the search is made before or after such preparation.

271. Judgments against a mortgagor after the mortgage are charges upon the moneys arising from a sale under a power contained in the mortgage-deed, and the mortgagee will be bound to apply them in discharging all such judgments of which he has notice.

272. Judgments and crown-debts against mortgagees who have been paid caused great inconvenience by continuing to bind the lands, when conveyed to purchasers, or to other mortgagees. This inconvenience was remedied in England by the 18 Vic., c. 15, which releases the lands so conveyed. In Upper Canada, the 9 Vic., c. 34, § 24, makes a discharge of mortgage operate as a reconveyance of the "original estate of the mortgagor." Perhaps this alone would not release the lands from such incumbrances; but, as it is settled law here that a mortgagee in fee has no interest in the mortgaged lands which is saleable under a fi fa lands, we may safely conclude that such incumbrances do not attach, and that the "original estate" is, quoad any acts of the mortagee, released by a statutory discharge in its original state, free from [his] incumbrances.

273. Tenant in tail is bound by judgments, and also the issue in tail, and the remainder-man where the entail may be barred without the consent of the protector.

274. Lis pendens binds land after a certificate by the registrar, or deputy registrar of the court, is registered in the registry office of the county in which the land is situate. The form of certificate prescribed by the statute is:

"I certify that, in a suit or proceeding in chancery, between "A. B. and C. D., some title or interest is called in question in the "following land, (describing it,) 18 Vic., c. 127, § 3; 20 Vic., c. 56, "§ 9."

275. Wills should be registered, and a purchaser may insist upon this being done; for otherwise a bona fide purchaser, without notice of the will, might gain precedence against a devisee under the will by registering his conveyance.

276. Inadequate price is not generally a sufficient ground for resisting specific performance either by vendor or purchaser, except where fraudulent misrepresentation caused the inadequacy, or the inadequacy is so gross as to be itself evidence of fraud.

277. Imperfect title with indemnity is sometimes accepted; and, when that is done, the objections should be clearly stated, and the terms of acceptance should be such as will cover them all.

278. Vendor may rescind the contract when the purchaser, by his own laches, has lost the right to specific performance. Hence, where time is of the essence of the contract, breach by the purchaser will entitle the vendor to annul the sale, dispose of the property as he pleases, and proceed against the purchaser for the breach.

When time is not made of the essence of the contract in the original agreement, it is not settled whether any subsequent acts can make it so.

SALES UNDER DECREE. POSSESSION. -RENTS AND PROFITS.

279. The abstract itself is the property of the purchaser, if the contract is fulfilled; but, if it is rescinded, it reverts to the vendor, and meanwhile the purchaser may retain it for investigation of the title and preparation of the conveyance; and, even if the purchaser reject the title, he may retain the abstract until the dispute is finally settled.

280. Counsel's opinion on title vests in the vendor if the contract be rescinded, but only on the ground that he has paid for it; and, if he will not pay for it, the purchaser may keep it, or erase it. 281. Costs are paid by the vendor if the contract is rescinded because he fails to make a good title.

282. Sales under a decree of the court of Chancery are under similar rules as to delivery of the abstract; and, if vendor does not deliver it in the time specified, an order may be obtained on motion by notice, or on application in chambers.

It is important to see that all persons who are necessary conveying parties are before the court; for, if the purchaser's solicitor take a title which a decree in an imperfect suit does not protect, he must take the consequences.

283. Error in the decree will entitle the purchaser to abandon the contract, even though the parties are proceeding to rectify the error; and, if objections arise which cannot be disposed of out of court, the purchaser's solicitor should apply to a judge in chambers, and the vendor will be required to remove them, or to argue them in open court.

284. Reference to conveyancing counsel as to such matters is authorized in England by 15 and 16 Vic., c. 80, § 40, and has superseded the former practice of referring them to the master; but any party may object to his opinion, and then the point in dispute will be disposed of by the court or a judge, according to the nature of the case.

285. Application to take possession without prejudice to the right to object to the title may be made, but a purchaser will not be allowed to pay in his purchase money without accepting the title, where there are any special circumstances to induce the court, as for the purpose of preventing the accrual of interest, and such payment can only be made under an order of the court, for which purpose a summons must be taken out and served on the opposite party. Then vendor's solicitor only is entitled to appear and see that the amount of money paid in, and the time when possession is sought, is correctly set out.

286. When the estate is sold subject to incumbrances the purchaser should, after notice given, apply to the court for leave to pay them off; but, if the incumbrances do not appear in the report, semble that the purchaser will not be allowed to apply part of the money in paying them off, if any of the parties refuse or are incompetent to

consent.

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