| 1786.
CHAP.
XLIV. |
LAWS of MARYLAND.
said general plot shewing and describing the part and quantity taken
away by any
elder survey or title, and representing also any well grounded contrary
claims;
and the said certificates and plots shall be examined by the examiner-general;
and the said commissioners and intendant are directed to be careful and
diligent
in their inquiry as to the true location of the lands sold, and of the
interfering
loans by which the same may be any way affected, and in their examination
of
the claims and pretensions which may affect the said lands sold, and the
public
interest therein; and where it shall appear to the said late commissioners,
or any
two of them, or to the said late intendant, that there ought to be any
discount
or allowance of any part of the purchase money for land sold by them respectively,
and the interest thereon, they shall certify the same with the facts
and reasons
on which they ground their opinion to the chancellor, who may pass his
order
thereon, or if he sees cause, may farther inquire and proceed as if
he was originally
possessed of the matter by petition, and the chancellor may make such allowance
as aforesaid, where it shall appear that the purchaser or any other person
had an equitable title under the land-office terms of Pennsylvania, and
the agreement
between the said two late proprietors; and where any sale shall be certified
by the late commissioners, or any two of them, or the intendant, making
the
sale, that the sale and purchase was a mere mistake, and that the purchaser
can
hold no part of the land really purchased, the chancellor shall order as
equity
requires; and the register in chancery shall be entitled to five shillings,
and no
more, on any order passed under this act, or on petition by virtue
of any other
act, to discharge the purchaser in whole or in part of his contract, and
for all
proceedings respecting it, unless there shall be summonses for, or an examination
of witnesses; and all orders passed under this act, shall have the
same effect as
those passed by the chancellor by virtue of the act ascertaining the mode
of
granting titles to the purchasers of certain confiscated property;
and the purchasers
of confiscated property shall have the like redress, after deed and
conveyance,
as they would have been entitled to before such deed and conveyance by
virtue of this or the said act; and any purchaser as aforesaid, may
also in manner
aforesaid have the relief that justice may require where the land purchased
is
discovered to be under incumbrances not known at the time of the purchase,
as
subsisting leases title to dower, and the like. |
Chancellor
may grant
lands, &c. |
III. And be
it enacted, That the chancellor may grant any lands held under
equitable title as aforesaid, where the office terms of Pennsylvania
hath been
complied with, and for which a grant ought therefore to have issued, in
the same
manner as he may by the said act for lands within this state granted
by any late
proprietary of Pennsylvania. |
Commissioners,
on affidavit,
may stay
executions,
&c. |
IV. And,
whereas executions or other process may issue on the said bonds before
the contract can be adjusted as aforesaid, and it would be unjust towards
the
debtors, and grievous to them to be compelled to pay more than is due
on their
contracts, Be it enacted, That
on any of the said debtors making affidavit, that
they do respectively believe that the whole or some part of the purchase
money,
mentioning the sum at the least, is not justly due, because as he believes
he can
take no benefit of the contract for want of title of the public in the
land sold,
or that a number of acres mentioned in the affidavit at least will be taken
away
by an elder title or purchase, or that he or some other person, naming
him, hath,
as he believes, an equitable title to such a number of acres at the least
of the land
purchased, complying with the office terms of Pennsylvania as aforesaid,
as the
case may be, the said late commissioners, or any one or more of them,
or the
late intendant, who sold the land, may stay the issuing or service
of execution,
or the bringing of suit, on the bond given by such debtor, as to the sum
and interest
they or he may think ought to be discounted or abated for the cause mentioned
in such affidavit, for any time not exceeding six months. |
|
No fees demandable,
&c. |
V. And,
whereas many executions have improvidently issued on bonds taken
under the consolidating act, and are or ought to be stayed without any
expence
to the debtors, Be it enacted, That
no fees shall be demandable on any execution
improvidently issued, and if any hath been received, the same shall be
returned. |
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