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Show kME lid hct MIMO TAPE New Law Is Improved System Sys-tem of Registrations of Titles. TWICE TURNED DOWN Measures Puts Real Estate on Par With Negotiable Paper. Probably one of the most important and far-reaching laws cuacted by the twelfth Utah legislature, not even excepting ex-cepting uiot of the so-called administration adminis-tration measures, was the Torrens system sys-tem of registration of land titles. Two fornueislatures had expressed their -?r'Ova of the system, but in each in- stance the hill failed to become a law. On the first occasion an important section sec-tion was omitted on the engrossed bill and two years ago the bill was vetoed by former Governor Spry. The chief advantage of the Torrens system is that it puts real estate on a par with negotiable paper and eliminates elim-inates the red tape and voluminous abstracts ab-stracts necessary to land transactions under the old law. Practically all the red tape to the Torrens system is that of establishing title. Once title is established es-tablished it is incontestible in so far as the individual is concerned, and is guaranteed guar-anteed by the state. Becoming Uniform. For many years the Torrens system has been under fire in various parts of the United States; but one by one the states are falling into line and placing plac-ing on the statute books what is known as the uniform law for registration of land titles recommended by the American Amer-ican Bar association. The principle argument ar-gument against the law has been that it was an innovation, a wide departure from American customs, but in every state where the system has been adopted adopt-ed it has found immediate favor. That the people of Utah have begun to realize real-ize the importance of this form of legis-laiton legis-laiton is reflected in the flood of inquiries in-quiries which has been pouring into the office of the secretary of state. The Utah law ddes not make the adoption of the Torrens system compul-Fory compul-Fory in so far as the individual is concerned, con-cerned, but it does compel each county coun-ty to be prepared to furnish land titles as provided by the Torrens system upon demand. Vefjrfg'of Title. obtain title under the Torrens system the individual so desiring is re-smiired re-smiired to file notice of his intention iTX.the form of a petition or complaint vvitthe district court. Upon receipt -' of such a complaint or petition the district dis-trict judge will instruct the examiner of title, who will be some competent attorney, at-torney, to examine such title as may exist. All persons who may in any way have any claim upon the property will be notified of the proceeding and of the date upon which the hearing is to be held. The hearing being duly held before the district judge, the title will be vested in either the applicant or other party or parties as the evidence introduced may justify, and a decree will be issued. Upon receipt of the decree the owner of the property will present his credentials cre-dentials to the county clerk and will receive a certificate of title which is incontestible. Any suits brought thereafter there-after against the property as to title I prior to the time the decree was issued must be brought against the state and the state guarantees the decree of title. A copy of the certificate of title is kept on file by the county clerk, and upon this copy is kept an accurate record rec-ord of all future transactions in any way affecting title to the property. If the" owner desires to obtain a loan on the property the certificate is taken before be-fore the county clerk, when the necessary neces-sary arrangements for the money has been completed, and a record of the transaction is noted on the certificate and upon the copy in the clerk's office. of-fice. Equally simple is the transaction in connection with the sale of property so registered. The owner and the purchaser pur-chaser appear before the county clerk upon the completion of the deal, the old certificate is surrendered to the clery and a now certificate is issued to the purchaser. The costly and sometimes tedious examination ex-amination of abstracts is done away with. The inauguration of the Torrens Tor-rens system means that land transfers trans-fers comprise as simple a procedure as the selling of a bill of lading or a warehouse ware-house receipt, a promissory note or any other merchantable instrument. If a piece of property is registered under the Torrens system, seller and buyer may come together, go to the county clerk's office, exchange the old certificate certifi-cate for a new one, pay a slight fee and the transaction is closed. The new buyer, under the transaction, is vested with absolute ownership and the whole thing has been done in thirty minutes or less, as against thirty days often, thirty months sometimes, under the old system. iamea ior Author. The Torrens 6ystem derives its name from the man who devised it, Sir Bob-ert Bob-ert Richard Torrens, erstwhile commissioner commis-sioner of land in Australia, and prior to that employed in the Melbourne custom cus-tom house. It wra.s his custom house training that enabled Sir Robert to devise de-vise his land registration system, inasmuch inas-much as he had, while thus employed, ohserverl the method of registering bills of lading of ships and of converting them, ouickly aud readily, into merchantable mer-chantable instruments which could pass from hand to hand by mere tender of sale, and upon which money could be borrowed without cavil or difficulty. In short, of their nature susceptible to pretty much the same technical development develop-ment as written evidences of land title, became, through the custom of their handling, liquid assets, passing current cur-rent as readily almost as common legal tender. Sir Robert sought to find a way by which land titles could be made liquid assets. He also sought a method by which the cumbersome machinery of land transfer might be simplified for the benefit of landholders and at the same time a vast and entirely unnecessary unneces-sary expense saved.' Method Is Simple. The method of custom house registration registra-tion gave him his key, and the remaiu-I remaiu-I der was only a matter of working out, in a careful and philosophic mind, such variations of the British manner of registry reg-istry of ships' cargoes and their paper evidences as would fit land transfers. And the method ho finally evolved was so absurdedly simple that surprise was expressed ,t.hat no one had thought of it before. He took cognizance of the fact that the time-incrusted traditions tradi-tions attaching themselves to land ownership own-ership made it easy to "cloud" a title. He understood that the hitherto unfortunate unfor-tunate land buyer was at the mercy of the conveyancer for judgment as to validity of the title to the plot whose ownership he was about to assume. And these conveyancers sought flaws in titles, for every one discovered led to more or less interminable legal proceedings, proceed-ings, to their great profit or to more or less complex "further examinations," examina-tions," also reflecting comfortably in increased revenues for the conveyancers. convey-ancers. Stands the Test. Sir Robert concluded that his first step must be to establish the validity of every land title registered ajid to protect the owner in his ownership. This done, the remainder was simply the devising of a method of registering titles so that they might be passed by certificate accepted everywhere as complete com-plete and irrefutable evidence of ownership, own-ership, and which certificate would show, practically on its face, every incumbrance in-cumbrance of the land and every point upon which the title might be assailed.! His theory was to change the custom of; "jet the buyer beware'' to one of absolute ab-solute assurance. Wherever the system has been adopted adopt-ed there have been slight changes made to conform to local customs or prejudices, preju-dices, but in the main it remains &s originally orig-inally devised. |
