Conveyances in United Kingdom

Meaning of Conveyances Under the Statute of Uses

The following is an old definition of Conveyances Under the Statute of Uses [1]: Such as have force and operation by virtue of that statute0 They are: covenant to stand seized to uses, bargain and sale, lease and release, deed to lead or declare the use of another more direct conveyance, deed or revocation of a use.1 At common law, words of conveyance were give, grant, bargain and sell, alien, enfeoff, release, confirm, quitclaim, qsee, in this resource, the term The meaning of these terms has been somewhat modified.2 The forms of conveyance are prescribed by statutes in many .States; but such statutes are generally deemed directory only, not mandatory; and the common-law modes are recognized as effectual. Conveyance by bargain (see this term in this resource) and sale is the mode ordinarily practiced. Whatever be the form or nature of the conveyance, if the grantor sets forth on the face of the instrument, by way of recital or averment, that he is possessed of a particular estate in the premises, which estate the deed purports to convey, or if the possession is affirmed in the deed in express terms or by necessary implication, the grantor and persons in privity with him, are estopped from denying that he was so possessed. The estoppel works upon the estate, and binds an after-acquired title. See Abandon; Condition; Deed; Delivery, 4; Estoppel; Influence; Record; Transfer; Under and Subject. Fraudulent conveyance. In a general sense, any transfer of property, real or personal, which is infected with fraud, actual or constructive; more specifically, such transfer of realty by a debtor as is intended or at least operates to defeat the rights of his creditors. Voluntary conveyance. A transfer without valuable consideration. Celebrated statutes upon this subject, adopted by the States, are: (1) 13 Elizabeth (1571), c. 5, which declares void conveyances of lands, and also of goods, made to delay, hinder, or defraud creditors; unless ” upon good [valuable] consideration, and bona fide,” to a person not having notice of such fraud. (2) 27 Elizabeth (1585), c. 4, made perpetual by 39 Eliz. (1597), c. 18, s. 31, which provides that voluntary conveyances of any estate in lands, tenements, or other hereditaments, and conveyances of such estates with clause of revocation at the will of the grantor, are also void as against subsequent purchasers for value. The effect of the last statute is, that a person who has made a voluntary settlement of landed property, even on his own children, may afterward sell the property to any purchaser, who, even though he has notice of the settlement, vrill hold the property; but, otherwise, if the settlement is founded on a valuable consideration. These statutes are to be liberally construed in suppression of fraud. The object of 13 Elizabeth was to protect creditors from frauds practiced under the pretense of discharging a moral obligation toward a wife, child, or other relative. It excepts the bona fide discharge of such obligation. Hence, a voluntary conveyance, as to creditors, is not necessarily void. The object of 13 Elizabeth was to give protection to subsequent purchasers against mere volunteers under prior conveyances. As between the parties such conveyances are binding. In England, all voluntary conveyances are void as to subsequent purchasers, with or without notice, although the original conveyance was bona fide, upon the ground that the statute infers fraud. In New York, only voluntary conveyances, originally fraudulent, are held to be within the statute. In Massachusetts, a conveyance, to be avoided, must have been fraudulent, not merely voluntary, at its inception. In Pennsylvania, the grantor must have intended, by his voluntary conveyance, to withdraw his property from the reach of his future creditors; any such creditor must prove that fraud on him was intended: a man need not provide for indebtedness he does notanticipate and which may never occur. And the Supreme Court of the United States holds, what is the settled doctrine generally, that if a person, natural or artificial, solvent at the time, without actual intent to defraud creditors, disposes of his property for an inadequate consideration, or makes a voluntary conveyance of it, subsequent creditors are not injured; that a conveyance for value (as for marriage) will be upheld, however fraudulent the purpose of the grantor, if the grantee had no knowledge thereof.67 A deed made to prevent a recovery of damages tor a tort is fraudulent and void. Conveyances to defraud creditors are also indictable; expressly made so by 13 Elizabeth, c. 5, § 3. The conveyance to a wife, in payment of a debt owing by her husband, is not voluntary, nor fraudulent as to other creditors; but there must have been a previous agreement for repayment.0 See further Declaration; Fraud; Hinder; Possession, Fraudulent; Preference; Settle, 4. Mesne conveyance. A conveyance between others; an intermediate transfer. Reconveyance. A transfer’ of realty back to the original or former grantor. Conveyancer. One who makes a business of drawing deeds of conveyance of land, and, perhaps, of examining titles. One whose business it is to draw deeds, bonds, mortgages, wills, writs, or other legal papers, or to examine titles to real estate.1 Conveyancing. That branch of the law which treats of transfers of realty. Inclufles the examinations of titles, and the preparation of instruments of transfer. In England, Scotland, and some of our larger cities, it is a highly artificial system of law, with a distinct class of practitioners.

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Notes and References

1. Concept of Conveyances Under the Statute of Uses provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)