Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/333

BOOK REVIEWS 297 BOOK REVIEWS A Manual on Land Registration. With a full, complete annotated copy of the Land Registration Act of the state of Georgia. By Arthur Gray Powell. Atlanta: The Harrison Company. 19 17. pp. xv, 449. 8vo. The Torrens System of land registration would seem to be an ideal method of securing stability in ownership of realty. The old system of recording merely transfers left, as every conveyancer knows, the security of land transac- tions often in doubt, and the purchaser at the mercy of some forgotten heir or neglected dower interest. All this is done away with by the decree of court, after due notice and other formalities, declaring title to be in the registrant, and all other claims barred forever. The state, to be sure, ordinarily guarantees out of funds supplied by fees that claimants barred through negligence or omis- sion of the registrar shall be indemnified. But such mistakes do not affect the title. The expense of the system, however, renders resort to it by no means uni- versal, and indeed for many titles it is unnecessary. It seems to be most serviceable in three classes of cases. First: Certain classes of city property which change hands frequently or are often mortgaged. The registered title passes easily from hand to hand, and also may be as liquid a security as a stock certificate. These titles it is cheaper and more expedient to register, and thus to avoid the expense and delay of a new search by each carefvd pur- chaser who is unwilling to rely on any lawyer but his own. Second: Land constantly the prey of vague, shadowy claims of easements, such as the familiar local assertion of rights of way over seashore property to the ocean. By regis- tration these incumbrances are dismissed or at least well defined. Third: Certain country property where it is desirable accurately to fix boundaries. Much of the work of the registrar lies here where, owing to the introduction of new lines of street railways or other improvements, land hitherto vacant and of little value has begun to sell by the foot instead of by the acre. Nevertheless, much land wiU not find its way to the registrar, — for instance, residential rural or urban property which seldom changes hands. Here it is cheaper and often as safe to rely on one's own lawyer. As late as 191 7 fifteen states, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands had acts based on the Torrens System. The Georgia act of that year has called forth the present volume by one mainly responsible for it. The book is purely local, except for the reprinting of the Uniform Land Registration Act with the notes of the commission. To Georgia lawyers Judge Powell has rendered a valuable service. The divergences in practice between the states, although the same spirit xmderlies all the statutes, renders it desirable that an equally public-spirited lawyer in each jurisdiction should emulate his example, rather than each bar should be obliged to wait for a magnum opus. Especially is this true in view of the limited acceptance of the Uniform Act. Joseph Warren. The Law and Practice of Receivers. By Ralph E. Clark. Cincinnati: W. H. Anderson Company. 1918. Two voliunes. pp. Ixxxv, 2176. This is unquestionably the most satisfactory work for the practitioner's use at the present day on the subject with which it deals. Volume one treats of the law of receivers as laid down by the courts, from time to time. The opening chapter is devoted to the origin of receivers and the concluding chapter dis- cusses the duration of receiverships, the removal and discharge of receivers. The various phases and subdivisions of the law of receivers as laid down by the courts are treated in the intervening chapters.