594 ARTICLE 21.

recorded as herein provided; and all such deeds shall be acknowledged
before some one of the officers named in sections two, three, four and five
of this article, and any unmarried woman between the age of eighteen
years and twenty-one years, shall have power to make a deed of trust of
her property, real, personal or mixed; provided, the same shall be approved
and sanctioned by a court having equity jurisdiction in the city or county
. where the grantor resides, upon the petition of said grantor, and such proof
as the said court in its discretion may require.

Acknowledgment.

Where the deed is acknowledged before a justice of the peace out of the county
in which the land lies, and the justice fails to attach the certificate as required by
sec. 3, the deed is not acknowledged as required by this section. This section ap-
plied to such a deed. Sitler v. McComas, 66 Md. 139. See also Gittings v. Hall,
1 H. & J. 14; Johns v. Reardon, 3 Md. Ch. 58.

Where the same deed creates an estate in the grantee with a reservation in favor
of the grantor, acknowledgment by the latter is all that is required. George's
Creek Co. v. Detmold, 1 Md. 240.

Certificates of lots in a cemetery issued by a religious corporation, convey no
title to land, not being acknowledged as provided in this section. Catholic Cathe-
dral v. Manning, 72 Md. 132. (Cf. art. 23, sec. 175.)

Record.

A deed not recorded as provided in sec. 13, does not affect existing creditors or
creditors becoming such between the date of the deed and the date of its record.
As to such creditors without notice, the deed is valid and effective only as a con-
tract for the conveyance. Creditors held not to be charged with notice, by possession
or otherwise. Hearn v. Purnell, 110 Md. 466. And see Hoffmann v. Gosnell, 75 Md.
590; Sixth Ward Bldg. Assn. v. Willson, 41 Md. 514.

The recording of a deed or lease, is the final and complete act which passes title;
until this is accomplished, everything else is unavailing. Until the deed is re-
corded, the legal title remains in the grantor. This section applied to a deed of
the leasehold interest in property relative to the liability of a grantor for ground
rent and taxes accruing after the date of the deed, but before its record. Nickel v.
Brown, 75 Md. 186. Cf. Baltimore v. Peat, 93 Md. 696.

Under the act of 1776, ch. 14, the enrollment of deeds is a substitute for, and
equivalent to, the act of livery. Rogers v. Sisters of Charity, 97 Md. 553; Handy v.
McKim, 64 Md. 569; Key v. Davis, 1 Md. 39; Matthews v. Ward, 10 G. & J. 448.

Leases.

Although equity in a proper case will treat a defective deed or lease as a valid,
contract, and otherwise protect the parties to it, no legal estate of the character
mentioned in this section will be conveyed by deed or lease neither acknowledged
nor recorded. This section applied to a lease. Relation of landlord and tenant im-
plied. Falck v. Barlow, 110 Md. 161. See also Dyson v. Simmons, 48 Md. 214;
Howard v. Carpenter, 11 Md. 275; Johns v. Reardon, 3 Md. Ch. 60.

Where a lease for ten years is not acknowledged and recorded, the covenant to
pay rent is void, and the lessor's remedy is in assumpsit. Anderson v. Critcher, 11
G. & J. 455.

Although a lease does not comply with this section, if it is adequate in other
respects it may constitute an agreement to enter into a lease, which may be specifi-
cally enforced. Ratification of agreement by acceptance of rent. Thompson v.
Thomas & Thompson Co., 132 Md. 485.

A lease for five years with an agreement of renewal for twenty years is not within
this section, the term under the "renewal" being different from that provided in
the original lease and attended by different legal consequences and at a different
rent. Meaning of " renewal." Specific performance; decree modified. King v.
Kaiser, 126 Md. 220.