2 & 3 Vict. c. 11, s. 8. 23 & 29 Vict. Future crown to affect land till writ of execution issued and registered. inquisition, obligation, specialty or acceptance of office, as is by sect. 8 of the first-mentioned act required to be registered (22 & 23 Vict. c. 35, s. 22). By 28 & 29 Vict. c. 104, s. 48, crown judgments, &c. obtained or made after 5th July, 1865, do not affect land unless a writ of extent, or of diem clausit extremum, or other writ or process of execution in pursuance of or in relation to such judgment, &c., has been issued and registered before the execution of the conveyance and the payment of the purchase-money. 23 & 24 Vict. c. 115 (post, p. 474), provides for the entry of satisfaction on the registry of crown debts. The existence of crown debts incurred before the 4th June, 1839, must be ascertained by the old mode (ante, p. 467). For the registration of crown debts since that date, provision was made by 28 & 29 Vict. c. 104, s. 49. As to present searches for crown debts, see Conv. Act, 1882, s. 2 (post). See also Dart, V. & P. 539, 562, 6th ed. Quietus to debtors or accountants REGISTRY OF A QUIETUS. 9. Whenever a quietus shall be obtained by a debtor or accountant to the crown, and an office copy thereof shall be to the crown to left with the senior master of the said Court of Common Pleas, be registered. together with a certificate, signed by the accountant-general, that the same may be registered, the said master shall forthwith enter the same in the said book of debtors and accountants to the crown, in alphabetical order, by the name of the person whose estate is intended to be discharged by such quietus, with the date, and shall for any such entry be entitled to a fee of two shillings and sixpence (c). (c) Formerly, where a vendor was a debtor or accountant to the crown, the title was not good until a quietus was entered up on record (See Wilde v. Fort, 4 Taunt. 334). And a purchaser could not be compelled to take the title, although the crown consented to the payment of the purchasemoney into the Exchequer on account of the debt (Brakespear v. Innes, Sugd. V. & P. 1009, 11th ed.; see Ex p. Fleetwood, 4 M. & G. 640). For discharge of the estates of debtors or accountants to the crown in certain cases. DISCHARGE OF CROWN DEBTOR'S ESTATE. 10. It shall be lawful for the treasury, upon payment of such sums of money as they may think fit to require into the receipt of her Majesty exchequer, to be applied in liquidation of the debt or liability of any debtor or accountant to the crown, or upon such other terms as they may think proper, to certify that any lands, tenements or hereditaments of any such crown debtor or accountant shall be held by the purchaser or mortgagee or intended purchaser or mortgagee thereof, his or their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, wholly exonerated and discharged from all further claims of her Majesty, for or in respect of any debt, claim or liability, present or future, of the debtor or accountant to whom such lands, tenements or hereditaments belonged, or, in cases of leases for fines, to certify that the lessees, their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, c. 11, s. 10. shall hold so exonerated and discharged, without prejudice to 2 & 3 Vict. the rights and remedies of the crown against the reversion of the lands, tenements or hereditaments comprised in any such leases, and the rents and covenants reserved and contained by and in the same; and thereupon the same lands, tenements or hereditaments shall respectively be held accordingly wholly exonerated and discharged as aforesaid, but in the cases of leases without prejudice as aforesaid (d). (d) The preliminary recital in this section, and some unimportant words describing the treasury and the crown in sects. 8, 10, and 11, have been repealed by 53 & 54 Vict. c. 51. PART DISCHARGE. estate of a 11. Any such certificate, or the discharge of any such lands, Discharge of tenements or other hereditaments by virtue of this act, shall in part of the nowise impeach, lessen or affect the right or power of her debtor or Majesty to levy the whole of any debt or demand which may creditor to the at any time be due from any such debtor or accountant to the crown not to crown out of or from any other lands, tenements or heredita- the crown on ments which would have been liable thereto in case no such other lands certificate had been granted and no such discharge had been liable. obtained (e). (e) By 1 & 2 Geo. 4, c. 121, s. 10, where an estate is sold under a writ of extent, or by the Court of Chancery or Exchequer, and the purchase-money is paid into the receipt of the king's exchequer, that will absolve the purchaser. IRELAND. 14. This act shall not extend to Ireland (ƒ). (f) The provisions of the above act, with some alterations, were extended to Ireland by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 90. affect claim of Act not to extend to Ireland. 18 & 19 VICTORIÆ, CAP. 15. An Act for the better Protection of Purchasers against (a) Other sections of this act are noticed ante, pp. 448, 452, 460, 462, 463. 12. And whereas by reason of the repeal in the last session 18 & 19 Vict. of parliament of the act of the fifty-third year of King George c. 15, s. 12. the Third, chapter one hundred and forty-one, requiring the Life annuities enrolment of life annuities or rent-charges, purchasers are no and rent charges not to c. 15, s. 12. &c., until memorandum left with senior master. 18 & 19 Vict. longer enabled to ascertain by search what life annuities or rent-charges may have been granted by their vendors or others: affect lands as be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid as follows: to purchasers, any annuity or rent-charge granted after the passing of this act, otherwise than by marriage settlement, for one or more life or lives, or for any term of years or greater estate determinable on one or more life or lives, shall not affect any lands, tenements or hereditaments, as to purchasers, mortgagees or creditors, unless and until a memorandum or minute containing the name, and the usual or last known place of abode, and the title, trade, or profession, of the person whose estate is intended to be affected thereby, and the date of the deed, bond, instrument or assurance, whereby the annuity or rent-charge is granted, and the annual sum or sums to be paid, shall be left with the senior master of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, who shall forthwith enter the particulars aforesaid in a book in alphabetical order by the name of the person whose estate is intended to be affected by the annuity or rent-charge, together with the year and the day of the month when every such memorandum or minute is so left with him, and he shall be entitled for every such entry to the sum of two shillings and sixpence, and all persons shall be at liberty to search the same book, together with the other books or registers in the office, on payment of the sum of one shilling (b). Annuities, (b) An annuity, even if not registered under this section, will be good as against a subsequent incumbrancer taking with notice, and against the trustee in bankruptcy of the grantor (Greaves v. Tofield, 14 Ch. D. 563). 14. The provisions of this act shall not extend to require the &c., given by registry of annuities or rent-charges given by will. will excepted from act. 23 & 24 VICTORIÆ, CAP. 38. An Act to further amend the Law of Property. [23rd July, 1860.] 23 & 24 Vict. BE it enacted as follows: c. 38, s. 1. Judgments. Writs of exe- 1. Whereas it is desirable to place freehold, copyhold and cution of customary estates on the same footing with leasehold estates, in judgments to be registered. respect of judgments, statutes and recognizances as against purchasers and mortgagees, and also to enable purchasers and mortgagees of estates, whether freehold, copyhold or customary or leasehold, to ascertain when execution has issued on any judgment, statute or recognizance, and to protect them against c. 38, s. 1. delay in the execution of the writ: be it therefore enacted, that 23 & 24 Vict. no judgment, statute or recognizance to be entered up after the passing of this act shall affect any land (of whatever tenure) as to a bona fide purchaser for valuable consideration, or a mortgagee (whether such purchaser or mortgagee have notice or not of any such judgment, statute or recognizance), unless a writ or other due process of execution of such judgment, statute or recognizance shall have been issued and registered as hereinafter is mentioned before the execution of the conveyance or mortgage to him, and the payment of the purchase or mortgage money by him: provided always, that no judgment, statute or recognizance to be entered up after the passing of this act, nor any writ of execution or other process thereon, shall affect any land of whatever tenure as to a bona fide purchaser or mortgagee, although execution or other process shall have issued thereon, and have been duly registered, unless such execution or other process shall be executed and put in force within three calendar months from the time when it was registered (a). (a) As to judgments entered up before the 23rd July, 1860, see the previous acts, ante, pp. 461 et seq. As to judgments entered up after the 29th July, 1864, see 27 & 28 Vict. c. 112, post, p. 476. As to judgments after 1st January, 1889, see 51 & 52 Vict. c. 51, post, p. 480. Having regard to sections 5 and 6 of the last-mentioned act, it would seem that registration under the above section of any writ or process has no effect since 1st January, 1889. Under the above section, a registered judgment creditor who had issued execution, but never executed the same, was a proper party to a foreclosure suit instituted more than three months after registration of execution (Appleton v. Sturgis, 10 W. R. 312). The section applied to property of the judgment debtor which was not extendible; and, as against a purchaser, a judgment would not affect an equity of redemption unless a writ of execution was issued before completion (Wallis v. Morris, 12 W. R. 997). The first five clauses of this act do not extend to Ireland (sect. 15). 2. The registry herein before required of any writ of execu- Mode of tion, or other due process on any judgment, statute or recog- registering. nizance, in order to bind a purchaser or mortgagee, shall be made by a memorandum or minute referring to the judgment, statute or recognizance already registered, so as to connect the registry of the writ of execution or other process therewith; such memorandum or minute to be left with the senior master of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, who shall forthwith enter the particulars in a book in alphabetical order by the name of the person in whose behalf the judgment, statute or recognizance upon which the writ of execution or other process issued was registered, and also the year and the day of the month when every such memorandum or minute is left with him, and such officer shall be entitled for any such registry to the sum of five shillings; and all persons shall be at liberty to search the same book, in addition to all the other books in the same office, on payment of the sum of one shilling only: and all the provisions in this act in regard to writs of execution or other 23 & 24 Vict. c. 38, s. 2. Double search necessary. Provision for protection of heirs and executors against unregistered judgments. process and the registry thereof, or otherwise relating thereto, shall extend, mutatis mutandis, to writs of execution or other due process issuing on judgments of the several Courts of Common Pleas of the county palatine of Lancaster, and of pleas of the county palatine of Durham; but none of these provisions are to extend to Ireland (b). (b) As the writ of execution is to be registered in the name of the judgment creditor, two searches are necessary in the case of judgments falling within this act, viz.: first, in the register of judgments in the name of the debtor; and, secondly, in the register of executions in the name of the creditor. 3. And whereas by an act passed in the fourth and fifth of their late Majesties King William and Queen Mary, years intituled "An Act for the better Discovery of Judgments in the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer in Westminster," it was enacted, that no judgment not docketed and entered in books in the manner thereby provided should affect any lands or tenements as to purchasers or mortgagees, or have any preference against heirs, executors or administrators in their administration of their ancestors', testators' or intestates' estates: And whereas by several later acts judgments are required to be registered with more particulars than were required by the said recited act; and it is thereby enacted, that judgments not so registered shall not affect any lands, tenements or hereditaments, as to purchasers, mortgagees or creditors, unless and until the same shall be registered in manner thereby required; and in obedience to a direction in one of the same acts contained the dockets existing under the said firstrecited act have been finally closed: And whereas the said several later acts do not expressly enact that judgments not docketed as thereby required shall not have any preference against heirs, executors or administrators in their administration of their ancestors', testators' or intestates' estates, in consequence whereof such heirs, executors or administrators have been held to have lost the protection which they enjoyed under the said first recited act, and it is expedient that the same should be restored; be it therefore declared and enacted, that no judgment which has not already been or which shall not hereafter be entered or docketed under the several acts now in force, and which passed subsequently to the said act of the fourth and fifth years of King William and Queen Mary, so as to bind lands, tenements or hereditaments as against purchasers, mortgagees or creditors, shall have any preference against heirs, executors or administrators in their administration of their ancestors', testators' or intestates' estates (c). (c) In consequence of the decision in Fuller v. Redman (26 Beav. 600), the above section was passed. Where judgments had been recovered against a deceased testator, but had never been registered, they were not entitled to priority over simple contract debts (Re Turner, 12 W. R. 337). And where a judgment was |