666

LAWS OF MARYLAND.— 1817.

ments in debt, or damages under which any lands or tenements
have been seized in execution, and the several executions by
virtue of which the same have been sold, and the several
returns to such executions, and all decrees, petitions, commis-
sions, returns, deeds, papers and proceedings, whatsoever, relat-
ing to lands, tenements, or other real estate, remaining in their
respective offices unrecorded, and which they respectively are
bound to record ; and the records of such judgments, decrees,
papers and proceedings shall be made up at full length, and
contain the pleadings, continuances, and all other documents
and entries, necessary to complete the same, according to the
forms and customs heretofore most used and approved.

Chancellor
and judges
to examine
the dockets,
&c.

SEC. 6. And be it enacted, That the chancellor and the
judges of the said respective courts of justice, in the office be-
longing to which such judgments, decrees, papers and proceed-
ings, shall remain unrecorded, or any one or more of them, at
any time during the ensuing and other terms, shall examine the
dockets and files thereof, and specify certain periods from term
to term when the same, or such portions thereof as he or they
shall prescribe, ought to be recorded, and shall direct an entry
to be made of the respective portions and periods which they
shall assign ; and at the termination of every period the book
or books shall be brought before him or them, and the said
chancellor and judges respectively, or any one or more of them,
shall determine whether the records are made up in the manner
required by this act; and upon every failure to perform the
duties hereby directed and provided, the attorney for the state,
prosecuting in such court, shall put in suit the bond of such
officer, who, or whose executors, administrators or securities,
shall make default, unless the court shall see reasonable cause
for granting more delay ; and a sum of money not exceeding
one thousand dollars, according to the nature of the offence,
and the injury which may be probably sustained, shall be
assessed by the jury, and collected and paid over, as the case
may be, either to the justices of the levy court to defray the
county charges, or to the treasurer of the respective shores for
the uso of this state.

Records to
be made up
and com-
pleted—to
be in-
spected.

SEC. 7. And be it enacted, That from and after the end of
this session of assembly, it shall be the duty of each and every
officer, being the clerk or register of any court of justice within
this state, to make up and complete his records in sufficient and
well bound books, and in a fair and correct manner, of all and
singular the judgments duly rendered in each and every action
of ejectment, trespass quare clausum fregit, dower, partition,
replevin wherein an avowry shall be pleaded or rent recovered,
judgments in debt or damages under which any lands or tene-
ments shall be seized in execution, and the several writs of