(r) See above, pp. 687, 688.

(s) Davidson, Prec. Conv. vol. i. 591: vol. ii. pt. i. 663 n., 4th ed.

By the Vendor and Purchaser Act, 1874 (z), such covenants for production as the purchaser can and shall require shall be furnished at his expense, and the vendor shall bear the expense of perusal and execution on behalf of and by himself and all necessary parties other than the purchaser. This enactment is now applicable where statutory acknowledgments and undertakings are given instead of covenants.

Expenses of acknowledgment and undertaking.

A statutory acknowledgment only imposes the obligation defined in the Act of producing and delivering copies of the documents included therein; it does not confer any right to damages for loss or destruction of or injury to the documents, from whatever cause arising (a). But a statutory undertaking imposes the liability to pay damages for any breach thereof (b). It appears that a person entitled to the benefit of a statutory undertaking cannot obtain compensation for any depreciation of the market value of his land, which might be supposed to arise from the loss of or injury to the title deeds (c). But he may obtain compensation for the expense of additional documents of title, rendered necessary by such loss or injury (d).

Liability created by acknowledgment or undertaking.

(t) Stat. 44 & 45 Vict. c. 41, 8. 9 (2), (9).

(u) Above, p. 688.

(x) Above, p. 688.

(y) Dart, V. & P. 692, 5th ed.; 783, 6th ed.; 712, 7th ed.; Davidson, Prec. Conv. vol. ii. pt. i. 663 n., 4th ed.

(z) Stat. 37 & 38 Vict. c. 78, s. 2, rule 4.

(a) Stat. 44 & 45 Vict. c. 41, s. 9(4)-(6).

(h) Sect. 9 (9), (10); see above, p. 689, and n. (z).

Since the Conveyancing Act of 1881 (c) took effect, it has no longer been the practice to endorse on purchase or other deeds a receipt for any purchase, mortgage or other consideration money therein expressed to have been paid and received: but the receipt clause usually inserted in the body of such deeds is treated as a sufficient acknowledgment of such payment (f).

Endorsement of receipt.

The draft of the conveyance is prepared, as we have seen (g), by the purchaser's solicitors. It is then sent to the vendor's solicitors for approval on his behalf; and if there be any other necessary parties to the conveyance besides the vendor (h), the draft is of course forwarded to their solicitors also to be settled on their behalf. Here it may be mentioned that when an instrument of assurance drawn by one conveyancer, whether counsel or solicitor, is sent to another to be settled on behalf of some party, whom the framer of the draft did not represent, the other should of course make all such alterations as he considers necessary to safeguard the interests of his client: but he should not alter the draft further or otherwise than is necessary to effect this end. In short, his alterations should be directed to matters of substance only and not of form; and it is a grave breach of conveyancing etiquette for one practitioner to amend another's draft in any point, on which his client's interests would not really be affected if the instrument were to stand as originally drawn (i). When the parties are agreed as to the form of the draft, the purchaser procures it to be engrossed at his own expense (k).

Settling the conveyance.

Conveyancing etiquette as to altering

(c) Brown v. Sewell, 11 Hare, 49.

(d) Hornby v. Match am, 16 Sim. 325.

(e) Stat 14 & 45 Vict. c. 41, s. 55, making a receipt in the body of a deed or indorsed therecn sufficient evidence of payment in favour of a purchaser without notice of non-payment.

(f) For some time prior to that Act it was the practice to indorse such a receipt; and the absence of an indorsed receipt was con-sidered sufficient to put a purchaser upon inquiry whether the money had in fact been paid, and to entitle him to further evidence of payment. It is thought that at the present time, where a title deed dated before 1882 has a receipt for consideration money in the body thereof but not indorsed thereon, and conies from the custody in which it would naturally be if the money had been duly paid, it may, in the absence of any other fact tending to prove the contrary, Be presumed that the money was paid as stated in the body of the deed.

See 3 Preston on Abstracts, 15; White v. Wakefield, 7 Sim. 401, 417; Greenslade v. Dare, 20 Beav. 284, 292; Kettlewell v. Watson, 21 Ch. D. 685, 703: Rimmer v. Webster, 1902, 2 Ch. 163, 173, 174: Wms. Real Prop. 193, 194 and n. (x), 13th ed.: 615, 627, 628, 21st ed.; Wms. Conv. Stat. 228 -230: above, pp. 114, 118, 134, 144. 304.

(g) Above, p. 578.

(h) Above, p. 618.

Drafts settled by other practitioners.

Engrossment.

The deed of conveyance must of course be duly stamped according to the ad valorem duty charged on conveyances on sale by the Stamp Act, 1891 (l), as amended by the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910 (m); and unless the conveyance be executed in pursuance of some contract made before the 29th of April, 1910, or be made for transferring on sale a lease of some separate tenement, flat or dwelling being part of a building used for the purpose of separate tenements, flats or dwellings, either the contract or the conveyance must bear the appropriate increment value duty stamp (n). Let us first consider the stamping of the deed with the amount of duty charged on conveyances on sale as such. This is the concern of the purchaser; the vendor is under no duty to see that it be done; and the deed may well be stamped after its execution (o). The vendor and his solicitor and conveyancing counsel are, however, concerned to see that all the facts and circumstances affecting the liability of the instrument of conveyance to duty, or the amount of the duty with which it is chargeable, are fully and truly set forth therein; for every person who, with intent to defraud the Crown, executes any instrument in which all such facts and circumstances are not so set forth, or being employed or concerned in or about the preparation of any instrutnent neglects or omits so to set forth therein all such facts and circumstances, incurs a fine of ten pounds (p). Under the Stamp Act, 1891, as now amended by the Act of 1910, the duty on conveyances on sale is charged at the rate of one per cent. of the amount or value of the consideration; except where the amount or value of the consideration for the sale does not exceed five hundred pounds and the instrument contains a statement certifying that the transaction thereby effected does not form part of a larger trans-action or of a series of transactions in respect of which the amount or value, or the aggregate amount or value, of the consideration exceeds five hundred pounds (q). It is thought that, to bring a case within the terms of this exception, the statement required must be contained in the body of the instrument and not merely endorsed thereon. This is a point of great importance, and must be kept in mind in drafting conveyances on sales for five hundred pounds or less; as it appears that a deed purporting to carry out such a sale, and stamped at the rate of one-half per cent only (r), may be objected to on some subsequent investigation of the title, as insufficiently stamped (s), unless it comply exactly with the terms of the exception. The conveyances chargeable with ad ralorem in duty under the Stamp Act, 1891, as above amended, include not only conveyances on sale in the strict sense of the word (t), but also all absolute conveyances of any property (n) in consideration of the transfer of stock, shares, securities or other chattels personal (x), or of a covenant to pay and indemnify against some mortgage or charge on the property (y) or to pay a debt or other sum not charged on the property, or of the release of a debt (z), or of the grant of a rent-charge or an annuity. That Act contains (besides sect. 59 set out above (a) ) the following special provisions as to conveyances on sale: Stamps on conveyance.