payment to the survivor for his or her life of the income of both
properties; (4) after the death of the survivor, both as to capital
and income, for the issue of the marriage as the husband and wife
shall jointly by deed appoint, and in default of joint appointment
as the survivor shall by deed or will appoint, and in default of such
appointment for the children of the marriage who attain twenty-one,
or being daughters marry, in equal shares, with the addition
of a clause (called the hotchpot clause) precluding a child who
or whose issue takes a part of the fund by appointment from sharing
in the unappointed part without bringing the appointed share into
account. Then follows a power for the trustees with the consent
of the parents whilst respectively living to raise a part (usually a
half) of the share of a child and apply it for his or her advancement
or benefit. Power to apply income, after the death of the life tenants,
for the maintenance and education of infants entitled in expectancy,
is conferred upon trustees by the Conveyancing Act 1881. The
ultimate trusts in the event of there being no children who attain
vested interests are (1) of the husband’s property for him absolutely;
and (2) of the wife’s property for such persons as she shall when
discovert by deed, or whether covert or discovert by will, appoint,
and in default of appointment, for her absolutely if she survive the
husband, but if not, then for her next of kin under the Statute of
Distributions, excluding the husband. For all ordinary purposes
the trustees have now under various statutes sufficient powers and
indemnities. They may, however, in some cases need special protection
against liability. A power of appointing new trustees is
supplied by the Trustee Act 1893. It is usually made exercisable
by the husband and wife during their joint lives, and by the survivor
during his or her life.
The form and contents of wills are extremely diverse. A will of, perhaps, the commonest type (a) appoints executors and trustees; (b) makes a specific disposition of a freehold or leasehold residence; (c) gives a few legacies or Wills. annuities; and (d) devises and bequeaths to the executors and trustees the residue of the real and personal estate upon trust to sell and convert, to invest the proceeds (after payment of debts and funeral and testamentary expenses) in a specified manner, to pay the income of the investments to the testator’s widow for life or until another marriage, and subject to her interest, to hold the capital and income in trust for his children who attain twenty-one, or being daughters marry, in equal shares, with a power of advancement. Daughters’ shares are frequently settled by testators upon them and their issue on the same lines and with the same statutory incidents as above mentioned in the observations upon settlements; and sometimes a will contains in like manner a strict settlement of real estate. It is a point often overlooked by testators desirous of benefiting remote descendants that future interests in property must, under what is known as the rule against perpetuities, be restricted within a life or lives in being and twenty-one years afterwards. In disposing of real estate “devise” is the appropriate word of conveyance, and of personal estate “bequeath.” But neither word is at all necessary. “I leave all I have to A. B. and appoint him my executor” would make an effectual will for a testator who wished to give all his property, whether real or personal, after payment of his debts, to a single person. By virtue of the Land Transfer Act 1897, Part I., real estate of an owner dying after 1897 now vests for administrative purposes in his executors or administrators, notwithstanding any testamentary disposition.
It remains to mention that by the Land Transfer Act 1897 a system of compulsory registration of title, limited to the county of London, was established. (See Land Registration.)
Conveyancing counsel to the court (i.e. to the chancery division of the High Court) are certain counsel, in actual practice as conveyancers, of not less than ten years’ standing, who are appointed by the lord chancellor, to the number of six, under s. 40 of the Master in Chancery Abolition Act 1852. They are appointed for the purpose of assisting the court in the investigation of the title to any estate, and upon their opinion the court or any judge thereof may act. Any party who objects to the opinion given by any conveyancing counsel may have the point in dispute disposed of by the judge at chambers or in court. Business to be referred to conveyancing counsel is distributed among them in rotation, and their fees are regulated by the taxing officers.
United States.—American legislation favours the general policy of registering all documents in the contents of which the public have an interest, and its tendency has been steadily towards more and more full registration both of documents and statistics. From the early days of the colonial era it has been customary to record wills and conveyances of real estate in full in public books, suitably indexed, to which free access was given. During the last decade of the 19th century, three states—Illinois, Massachusetts, and Ohio—adopted the main features of the Torrens or Prussian system for registering title to land rather than conveyances under which title may be claimed. These are the ascertainment by public officers of the state of the title to some or all of the parcels of real estate which are the subject of individual property within the state; the description of each parcel (giving its proper boundaries and characteristics) on a separate page of a public register, and of the manner in which the title is vested; the issue of a certificate to the owner that he is the owner; the official notation on this register of each change of title thereafter; and a warranty by the government of the title to which it may have certified. To make the system complete it is further requisite that every landowner should be compelled to make use of it, and that it should be impossible to transfer a title effectually without the issue of such a government certificate in favour of the purchaser.
Constitutional provisions have been found to prevent or embarrass legislation in these directions in some of the states, but it is believed that they are nowhere such as cannot be obeyed without any serious encroachment on the principles of the new system (People v. Chase, 165 Illinois Reports, 527; State v. Guilbert, 56 Ohio State Reports, 575; People v. Simon, 176 Illinois Reports, 165; Tyler v. Judges, 173 Massachusetts Reports; 55 North-Eastern Reporter, 812; Hamilton v. Brown, 161 United States Reports, 256).
Conveyances which have been duly recorded become of comparatively little importance in the United States. The party claiming immediately under them, if forced to sue to vindicate his title, must produce them or account for their loss; but any one deriving title from him can procure a certified copy of the original conveyance from the recording officer and rely on that. Equitable mortgages by a deposit of title-deeds are unknown.
The general prevalence of public registry systems has had an influence in the development of American jurisprudence in the direction of supporting provisions in wills and conveyances, which, unless generally known, might tend to mislead and deceive, such as spendthrift trusts (Nichols v. Eaton, 91 United States Reports, 716).
Conveyances of real estate are simple in form, and are often prepared by those who have had no professional training for the purpose. Printed blanks, sold at the law-stationers, are commonly employed. The lawyers in each state have devised forms for such blanks, sometimes peculiar in some points to the particular state, and sometimes copied verbatim from those in use elsewhere. Deeds intended to convey an absolute estate are generally either of the form known as warranty deed or of that known as release deed. The release deed is often used as a primary conveyance without warranty to one who has no prior interest in the land. Uniformity in deeds is rendered particularly desirable from the general prevalence of the system of recording all conveyances at length in a public office. Record books are printed for this purpose, containing printed pages corresponding to the printed blanks in use in the particular state, and the recording officer simply has to fill up each page as the deed of similar form was filled up. One set of books may thus be kept for recording warranty deeds, another for recording release deeds, another for recording mortgage deeds, another for leases, &c.
Authorities.—Davidson, Precedents and Forms in Conveyancing (London, 1877 and 1885); Key and Elphinstone, Compendium of Precedents in Conveyancing (London, 1904); Elphinstone, Introduction to Conveyancing (London, 1900); Prideaux, Precedents in Conveyancing (1904); Pollock, The Land Laws (London, 1896). (S. Wa.; S. E. B.)
CONVEYORS. “Conveyor” (for derivation see Conveyance) is a term generally applied to mechanical devices designed for the purpose of moving material in a horizontal or slightly inclined direction; in this article, however, are included a variety of appliances for moving materials in horizontal, vertical and combined horizontal and vertical directions. The material so handled may be conveyed in a practically uninterrupted stream,
