| 1807.
CHAP. 52. |
LAWS OF MARYLAND.
are entertained whether they are effectual to convey the property
therein contained, because the precise form of acknowledgment had
not been pursued: And whereas doubts are also entertained whether
deeds acknowledged under a power of attorney, in the name of
the attorney, and not in the name of the principal, are valid: And
whereas doubts are also entertained whether deeds acknowledged
before two justices of the peace, who were not justices of the county
court, are valid: And whereas also deeds of bargain and sale
have been executed, without having been indented, under which
deeds property has long been peaceably held; and if such deeds are
adjudged to be void, bona fide purchasers will be greatly injured,
and creditors deprived of the funds on which the credit was given,
it having been obviously the meaning and intention of the parties
therein, and sound policy and justice dictate that all such defective
deeds should be aided by law; therefore, |
Certain deeds,
heretofore made,
to have effect.
Proviso. |
2. BE IT ENACTED, by the General Assembly
of Maryland, That
all deeds heretofore made for conveying or passing any estate of
inheritance or freehold, or declaring or limiting any use or uses,
trust or trusts, or for conveying any estates for above seven years,
and all acknowledgments of a release or relinquishment of a right
of dower in lands, tenements or hereditaments, which have been
acknowledged by femes covert, in which acknowledgments the precise
form prescribed by law has not been observed, and all deeds
for conveying any estate as aforesaid, heretofore made and acknowledged
in virtue of a power of attorney, in which the acknowledgment
is made (a), and all deeds of bargain and sale for conveying
any estate as aforesaid, heretofore made and not indented, shall be,
and the same are hereby declared to be, of the same effect and validity,
to pass the property and estate limited and expressed
therein, as if such deeds had been, by such femes covert, acknowledged
in the precise form heretofore prescribed by law, as if such
deeds had been acknowledged by the attorney in the name of the
principal, as if such deeds had been acknowledged before any
judge of the late general court, or before a judge of the county
court, and as if such deeds had been duly indented; Provided it
shall appear, by the acknowledgment of such femes covert, that
the same was made willingly, and out of the presence and hearing
of the husband, or privately and willing out of the hearing of
the husband, or words to that effect (b); And provided also, that
in
every other respect the aforesaid deeds have been executed, acknowledged
and recorded, agreeably to the laws heretofore made on
the subject.
(a) By Nov. 1809, ch. 164, notwithstanding
a deed may have been acknowledged
neither in the county where the lands lie, nor where the grantor resides,
it is declared to be valid.
(b) By 1815, ch. 71, where it
appears by the certificate of the person or persons
lawfully authorised to take such acknowledgments, that the same were made
agreeably to law, or according to the act of assembly, or words to that
effect, although
it does not appear that the same were made by such femes covert, on
private
examination, &c. all such deeds declared to be valid. |
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