CONVEYANCING 739

The acts of 1846, ch. 271, and 1847, ch. 305, only apply to such bills of sale as are
required to be acknowledged and recorded; hence if the property passes to the vendee,
no affidavit is required—see notes to sec. 45. Bryan v. Hawthorne, 1 Md. 524; Waters v.
Dashiell, 1 Md. 474.

Generally.

A mortgage without the formalities prescribed by sec. 45 and this section is sub-
ordinate to a second mortgage duly executed, acknowledged and recorded. Butler v.
Gannon, 53 Md. 341.

The affidavit may be made at any time before recording, and before any person
authorized to take the acknowledgment of the bill of sale or mortgage. Fersner v.
Bradley, 87 Md. 492.

Though a bill of sale be defective in not having the affidavit, it may be set up as a
valid contract in equity. Ing v. Brown, 3 Md. Ch. 525; Alexander v. Ghiselin, 5 Gill, 138.

Purpose of this section; a substantial compliance is'sufficient. Marlow v. McCubbin,
40 Md. 136. And see Mackintosh v. Corner, 33 Md. 606. Cf. Denton v. Griffith, 17
Md. 304.

Cited in In Re Universal Storage & Transfer Co., 4 F. Supp. 425.

For cases now apparently inapplicable to this section by reason of changes in the law,
see Fouke v. Fleming, 13 Md. 412; Wilson v. Carson, 12 Md. 54.

See secs. 34 and 45, and notes.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 54. 1912, sec. 53. 1904, sec. 51. 1888, sec. 50. 1886, ch. 368.

55. In all cases, heretofore or hereafter, where bills of sale are taken
on personal property, which, according to the true intent of the parties
thereto, are chattel mortgages, upon the payment or discharge of the debts
named in said bills of sale by the vendors, it shall be the duty of the vendee
therein named to release said bills of sale or re-transfer the property men-
tioned therein to the vendors, which release or re-transfer may be made upon
the original bills of sale, which may be returned to the record office, and
said release or re-transfer entered upon the record book where the bill of sale
is recorded, at the end of the record thereof, or the said release or re-
transfer may be made in the presence of the clerk, with his attestation
thereto, in the record book in which the bill of sale is recorded, at the end
of the record thereof.

Cited but not construed in State v. Md. Casualty Co., 164 Md. 74.

Chattel and Crop Mortgages.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 54A. 1935, ch. 281, sec. 54A.

56. (Chattel and Crop Mortgages; Eligible Mortgages; Property
Which May Be Mortgaged; Lien in General.) Any person, association,
partnership or corporation may enter into an agreement with and borrow
funds from a Production Credit Association or a Bank for Cooperatives
organized under the Farm Credit Act of 1933, a Regional Agricultural
Credit Corporation, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, or the Gov-
ernment of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof,
a Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, or any Institution which has made
arrangements to discount therewith, or to procure funds therefrom on the
security of the obligations of the borrower, and may secure the repayment
of the funds so borrowed, and/or any then existing or future indebtedness
to such institution, by chattel mortgage upon personal property of any
kind, character or description owned at the time of the execution of the
mortgage, or property of the same class as is covered by the mortgage if ac-
quired by the mortgagor subsequent to the execution of the mortgage and
prior to its extinguishment, and/or upon any crop or crops, annual or
perennial, including fruit crops, grown or growing, either already planted
or to be planted and/or maturing within one year from the execution of
such mortgage. Such mortgage shall be a lien upon the property therein