22 February 1867. of the plaintiff's demand against the defendant, shall adjudge that the plaintiff recover his demand against the defendant, and that he may have execution thereof as at law. Proceedings to enforce liens. 2 Feb. 1859 1. 11 Stat. 376. Debts contracted for erecting or repairing a building to be a lien. Ibid. 2. in the circuit Court, within three months. XV. MECHANICS' LIENS. 139. Any person who shall hereafter, by virtue of any contract with the owner of any building, or with the agent of such owner, perform any labor upon, or furnish any materials, engine or machinery, for the construction or repairing of such building, shall, upon filing the notice prescribed in section second of this act, have a lien upon such building and the lot of ground upon which the same is situated, for such labor done, or materials, engine or machinery furnished, when the amount shall exceed twenty dollars. 140. Any person wishing to avail himself of this act, whether his claim be due or Notice to be filed not, shall file in the office of the clerk of the circuit court for the District of Columbia, at any time after the commencement of the said building, and within three months after the completion of such building or repairs, a notice of his intention to hold a lien upon the property declared by this act liable to such lien, for the amount due or to become due to him, specifically setting forth the amount claimed; upon his failure to do so, the lien shall be lost. The clerk aforesaid shall file and record such notice in a book provided for that purpose. Such notices to be recorded. Ibid. 3. Within what 141. Such lien shall cease to exist at the expiration of one year after the completion of the building or repairs, unless before that time, an action to enforce the same shail period suit to be have been commenced in the said circuit court, by the person having such lien, against commenced. Ibid. 24. Form of com plaint. Ibid. 5. Service of pro cess. Ibid. § 6. Proceedings and execution. Ibid. § 7. Precedence. the owner with whom or with whose agent the contract was made; unless such claim be not due at the expiration of one year after such completion, in which case the action shall be commenced within three months after the same shall have become due. 142. The complaint of the plaintiff shall contain a brief statement of the contract on which the claim is founded, the amount due thereon, the time when the notice was filed with the clerk, the time when the building was completed, if it be completed, with a description of the premises, and any other material facts; and shall pray that the premises may be sold and the proceeds of the sale applied to the discharge of the lien. 143. The summons shall be served as in other cases, or, instead of service by publication, it may be made by delivering a copy thereof to the person in possession of the premises. If the defendant shall have sold or disposed of the premises before the service of the summons, the court shall direct notice of the proceedings to be served on the purchaser, or his agent for the premises, who may thereupon, if he desire it, be made a party defendant in the action. 144. The proceedings in an action to enforce such lien shall be the same as in other actions, except as otherwise provided in this act; and if judgment be rendered for the plaintiff, he may have execution issued against the premises, and thereupon the marshal shall proceed as upon other executions upon real property. 145. The liens created in pursuance of the provisions of this act shall have precedence over all other liens or encumbrances, which attached upon the premises subsequent to the time at which said notice was given. If, upon a sale of the premises on execution, Apportionment. the proceeds be insufficient to pay all such liens, the court shall order them to be paid Other property in proportion to the amount, respectively, due to each. And any other property of the defendant, not exempt from execution, may be sold to satisfy such execution. to be liable. Ibid. 8. to be embraced in the lien. 146. If the building be on any land lying outside the corporate limits of Washington What curtilage city and Georgetown, the land upon which the same is erected, together with the space around the same, not exceeding five hundred square feet, clear of the building, shall also be subject to the said lien, if the said land, at the time of the erection or repair of such building, shall have been the property of the person contracting for the erection or repair of the same; if the building be in Washington city or Georgetown, the ground on which the same is erected, and a space of ground equal to the front of the building, and extending to the depth of the lot or lots on which it is erected, shall also be bound by the said lien, subject to the foregoing proviso. Ibid. 29. Several lien-cre 147. All or any number of persons, having liens on the same building, pursuant to the provisions of this act, may join in one action; but their claims shall be stated disditors may join tinctly as in a separate action, and the judgment shall show the amounts to which they are respectively entitled. If several such actions be brought by different claimants, and be pending at the same time, the court may order them to be consolidated. in one action. Actions may be consolidated. Ibid. 10. 148. Whenever any person having a lien, by virtue of the provisions of this act, shall Satisfaction to be have received satisfaction for his claim, and the cost of his proceedings thereon, he shall, upon the request of any person interested, and upon the payment or tender of the costs of entering satisfaction, within six days after such payment or tender, enter satisfaction entered, in case of payment, &c. of his demand in the office of the clerk aforesaid; and upon failure to do so, he shall 2 February 1859. forfeit and pay fifty dollars to the party aggrieved, and all damages which he may have sustained in consequence of such failure or neglect. Ibid. 11. 149. In all proceedings commenced under this act, the defendant may file a written undertaking, with surety to be approved by the court, to the effect that he will pay the Lien may be disjudgment that may be recovered and costs, and thereby release his property from the charged on giv lien hereby created. ing security. 150. Any person, having possession of the same, who shall make, alter, repair or Ibid. 12. bestow any labor on any article of personal property, at the request of the owner or Liens on personal lawful possessor thereof, shall have a lien on such property so made, altered or repaired, property. or upon which labor has been bestowed, for his just and reasonable charges for the labor he has performed and the materials he has furnished; and such person may hold and retain possession of the same until such just and reasonable charges shall be paid; but if possession pass from such person, by his consent, the lien shall cease. 151. The provisions of section twelve of this act shall not interfere with any special agreement of the parties. Ibid. 13. Special agree Ibid. 14. 152. That the act entitled "An act to secure to mechanics and others," &c., approved ments. March 2d 1833,(a) and all other acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act, be and the same are hereby repealed. XVI. DEEDS AND MORTGAGES. Act of 1833 repealed. 12 Stat. 91. take acknow 153. All the powers conferred upon a justice or justices of the peace in the District 23 June 1860 1. of Columbia, by the existing laws, in the acknowledgment of deeds for the conveyance of real or personal estate, may hereafter be exercised by any notary public duly Notaries may appointed within said District of Columbia; and when certified under the hand and ledgments. official seal of such notary public, shall have the same force and effect as if taken or made by or before a justice or justices of the peace of said district.(b) 154. There shall be appointed by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, a register of deeds (c) for the District of Columbia, who shall perform all the duties respecting the recording of deeds and other instruments of writing, and all other services connected therewith, authorized to be performed by the clerk of the circuit court of said district, by the fifth section of the act approved March 3d 1801, entitled "An act supplementary to the act entitled 'An act concerning the District of Columbia,'" and shall receive the same fees and emoluments for the same. And the said register shall receive and have the charge and custody of all the records, papers and property which may be in the custody or possession of said clerk of the circuit court, properly appertaining to and belonging to the office of the register of deeds. 14 Feb. 1863 3 1. 12 Stat. 651. Register of deeds to be appointed. of deeds. 155. That the secretary of the interior be directed to appropriate such rooms in any Ibid. 22. of the public buildings under his charge for the use of said register, as may be neces- Office of register sary for his accommodation, unless it shall appear to said secretary that such rooms cannot be so appropriated without interfering with the business of his department; and in that event the said register shall procure, with the approbation of said secretary, such rooms in the city of Washington as may be necessary for the security of the records and the convenient transaction of the business of said office. 13 Stat. 531. 156. All deeds heretofore recorded in the lands records of the District of Columbia, 3 Mar. 1865 ? 1. which have been executed and acknowledged by femes covert (their husbands having signed and sealed the same) for conveying any real estate, or interest therein, situated Defective acknowledgments in said district; and all acknowledgments of deeds heretofore recorded, as aforesaid, validated. which have been made by femes covert (whether they have executed the deed or not) for the purpose of releasing their claims to dower in the lands described therein, situated as aforesaid, in which acknowledgments the form prescribed by law has not been followed; and all deeds heretofore recorded, as aforesaid, which have been executed and acknowledged by an attorney-in-fact, duly appointed for conveying real estate situated in said district; and all deeds heretofore recorded, as aforesaid, executed and acknowledged, or only acknowledged by such attorney-in-fact, for conveying real estate situated in said district, as to which the acknowledgment was made before officers different from those before whom proof of the power of attorney was made, and as to which the power of attorney was proved before only one justice of the peace; and all deeds heretofore executed and recorded, as aforesaid, for the purpose of conveying land situated in said district, acknowledged out of the District of Columbia, before a judge of a United States court, or before two aldermen of a city, or the chief magistrate of a city, or before a notary public; and all deeds heretofore executed and recorded, as aforesaid, (a) 1 vol. 247, pl. 103. (c) See infra 159. (b) See supra 97. 3 March 1865. for the purpose of conveying land situated in said district, acknowledged by an attorneyin-fact, duly appointed, or by an officer of a corporation, duly authorized, who has acknowledged the same to be his act and deed, instead of the act and deed of the grantor, or of the corporation; and all deeds heretofore executed and recorded, as aforesaid, for the purpose of conveying land situated in said district, to which there is not annexed a legal certificate as to the official character of the officer or officers taking the acknowledgment; shall be, and the same are hereby, declared to be of the same effect and validity to pass the fee simple or other estate intended to be conveyed, and bar dower in the real estate therein mentioned, in favor of parties in actual possession, claiming under and through such deeds, as if such deeds had been, by such femes covert, executed and acknowledged, or acknowledged, in case of a dower right, in the form heretofore prescribed by law; as if such deeds had been executed and acknowledged by the grantor in the deed; as if such power of attorney had been proved before the officer or officers taking the acknowledgment; as if such power of attorney had been proved before two justices of the peace; as if such acknowledgment had been made before any judge of a state court, or before two justices of the peace; as if such attorneys-in-fact, or officer of a corporation, had acknowledged the deed to be the deed of the grantor, or of the corporation; as if such deeds had thereto annexed a certificate, in legal form, that the officer or officers taking the acknowledgment were really what they purport to be: Provided, That the certificate of acknowledgment by a feme covert shall show that the acknowledgment was made "apart" or "privily" from her husband, or use some other term importing that her acknowledgment was made out of his presence, and also that she acknowledged or declared that she willingly executed or that she willingly acknowledged the deed, or that the same was her voluntary act, or to that effect: And provided also, That when the power of attorney shall have [been] executed by a feme covert, the same shall be effectual and sufficient, if there shall have been such an acknowledgment of the same as would be sufficient, under the provisions of this act, to pass her estate and interest therein, were she a party executing the deed of conveyance; the record and copy thereof of any deed recorded as aforesaid to be evidence thereof, in the same manner, and to have the same effect, as if such deed had been originally executed, acknowledged and recorded according to law. Ibid. § 2. Acknowledg ments of deeds, how taken. 26 March 1867 15 Stat. 6. 1. 157. The acts of congress approved May 31st 1832, and April 20th 1838, (a) in reference to the acknowledgment and recording of deeds of land situated in said district, shall be taken and construed as cumulative with the acts of Maryland on the same subject, in force in said district at the passage thereof; and an acknowledgment made and certified in compliance with any one of said acts, and before any officers authorized by either of said acts to take an acknowledgment (whether in or out of the District of Columbia), shall be good and effectual; and if it shall appear that the grantor "acknowledged said deed," it shall have the same effect as if he or she acknowledged the deed to be his or her act and deed. And any acknowledgment made by a feme covert under either of said acts of congress (which shall be sufficient under the provisions of this act) of any deed executed by her husband, and heretofore recorded in the District of Columbia, shall be good and effectual to bar all claim on her part to dower in the lands described therein, situated in said district, although she shall not have executed the same. 158. Acknowledgments of deeds for the conveyance of real estate in the District of Columbia may be taken by the recorder of deeds for said district, or by a single justice How deeds may of the peace; and any such acknowledgment heretofore taken by a single justice of the be acknowledged. peace is hereby made and declared to be a valid acknowledgment: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be held to impair the title of bona fide purchasers who, by conveyances and formal acknowledgments, have, prior to the passage of this act, acquired paramount titles under existing laws. 3 March 1800 1. 15 Stat. 341. Ibid. 2. Fees of recorder of deeds. 159. The style of the "Register of Deeds of the District of Columbia" shall be "Recorder of Deeds of the District of Columbia." 160. The legal fees for the services of said recorder of deeds shall be as follows, viz. : The filing, recording and indexing, or for making certified copy of any instrument containing two hundred words or less, fifty cents, and fifteen cents for each additional hundred words, to be collected at the time of filing, and when the copy is made. For each certificate and seal, twenty-five cents. For searching records extending back two years or less, next preceding current date, twenty-five cents, and five cents for each additional year, to be paid by the party for whom the search may be made. For recording a town plat, three cents for each lot such plat may (a) 1 vol. 249, pl. 105, 108. contain. For recording a plat or survey, five cents for each course such survey may contain. cents. For each examination of title, by the party or his attorney, fifty cents. For taking any acknowledgment, fifty cents. 3 March 1869. Ibid. § 3. 161. All deeds of conveyance, leases, powers of attorney, and other written instruments required by law to be filed and recorded, and all copies of instruments and Certain records records and certificates authorized by law, filed, recorded, made and certified by to be valid. William G. Flood, as acting register of deeds for said district, since the death of Edward C. Eddie, late register, up to the date of the appointment and qualification of his successor, shall be and are hereby declared to be legally performed, the same as if the said William G. Flood had been legally appointed and qualified as register of deeds. XVII. WILLS. 15 Stat. 340. 162. Whenever a will or codicil shall be exhibited for probate to the orphans' court 3 March 1869 1. of the District of Columbia, if any of the witnesses to the same shall reside out of said district, or be temporarily absent therefrom, at the time when said will or codicil shall Probate may be taken by combe so exhibited for probate, it shall and may be lawful for said court to issue, upon per- mission. sonal notice of not less than twenty days, to all parties in interest, a commission to one or more competent persons, to take the deposition of such absent witness or witnesses, in such form as said court may prescribe, touching the execution of such will or codicil, and the competency of the testator or testatrix, at the time of the execution thereof; and such deposition, when returned to said court, shall be received therein as competent evidence, and have the same force and effect as if said witness or witnesses were personally present and testifying in said court: Provided, That in all such cases the original will or codicil shall accompany such commission, and be exhibited to the witnesses so testifying. XVIII. MARRIED WOMEN. 16 Stat, 45. ried women in 163. In the District of Columbia, the right of any married woman to any property, 10 April 1869 2 1. personal or real, belonging to her at the time of marriage, or acquired during marriage, in any other way than by gift or conveyance from her husband, shall be as absolute as Rights of marif she were feme sole, and shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband, nor be their separate liable for his debts; but such married woman may convey, devise and bequeath the property. same, or any interest therein, in the same manner and with like effect as if she were unmarried. 164. Any married woman may contract, and sue and be sued, in her own name, in all matters having relation to her sole and separate property, in the same manner as if she were unmarried; but neither her husband nor his property shall be bound by any such contract, nor liable for any recovery against her in any such suit, but judgment may be enforced by execution against her sole and separate estate in the same manner as if she were sole. XIX. DIVORCES. Ibid. 2. May contract and sue in their own name. 12 Stat. 59. 165. The circuit court for the District of Columbia shall have jurisdiction of all appli- 19 June 1860 ? 1. cations for divorces, to be made by petition, upon which the same proceedings shall be had as are had in other cases, except so far as is otherwise hereinafter provided. Jurisdiction. turn. 166. The petition for a divorce shall specify the causes therefor with certainty ; (a) and upon the same being filed, the clerk shall issue summons for the defendant to appear Petition. and answer. If it shall appear by the affidavit of a disinterested witness, that the Process and redefendant is a non-resident of this district, or has been absent therefrom for the space of six months, the circuit court, after the return of one summons, not found, may authorize notice of the pendency of the petition to be given, by publication in such manner as it shall direct. The court shall proceed to hear and determine such cause, whenever such summons shall have been served twenty days, or such publication made forty days before the commencement of the term. No judgment for a divorce shall be rendered on Proof. default without proof; nor shall any admissions contained in the answer of the defendant be taken as proof of the facts charged as the ground of the application, but the same shall in all cases be proved by other evidence. 167. A divorce a vinculo matrimonii (from the bond of marriage) may be granted in any of the following cases, to wit: Ibid. 23. Causes of divorce monii. I. Where such marriage was contracted whilst either of the parties thereto had a a vinculo matriformer wife or husband living, unless the former marriage shall have been lawfully dissolved, and no restraint shall have been imposed on the party contracting such second marriage : (a) See Hoffman v. Hoffman, 30 Penn. St. 417. 19 June 1860. Ibid. 4. Causes of divorce a mensa et thoro. Ibid. § 5. Residence. Ibid. 26. II. Where such marriage was contracted during the lunacy of either party; or where either party was matrimonially incapacitated at the time of the marriage: IIL Where either party has committed adultery during the marriage. 168. A divorce a mensa et thoro (from bed and board) may be granted for either of the following causes, to wit: cruelty of treatment, endangering the life or health of one of the parties; (a) reasonable apprehension, to the satisfaction of the court, of bodily harm; (b) the wilful desertion and abandonment by the party complained against of the party complaining, for the full uninterrupted space of three years. (c) 169. No divorce shall be granted for any cause which shall have occurred out of this district, unless the party applying for the same shall have resided within the district for two years next preceding the application. 170. Upon the dissolution of a marriage on account of either of the parties having a former wife or husband living, if it shall appear that the second marriage was contracted in good faith by the party whose second marriage has been thus dissolved, and to bastardize the with the full belief on his or her part that the former wife or husband was dead, that When divorce on the ground of precontract, not issue. Ibid. 7. Lunacy. Ibid. 8. Other causes. Ibid. 29. Alimony. Name. Ibid. 10. fact shall be stated in the judgment or sentence of divorce; and the issue of such second marriage, born or begotten before the commencement of the suit, shall be deemed to be the legitimate issue of the parent who, at the time of the marriage, was capable of contracting. 171. Upon the dissolution of a marriage on account of the lunacy of either party at the time of such marriage, the issue of the marriage shall be deemed to be legitimate. 172. A divorce for causes not herein before specially provided for, shall not affect the legitimacy of the issue of the marriage; but the legitimacy of such issue, if questioned, shall be tried and determined according to the course of the common law. 173. In all cases where a divorce is granted, the court allowing the same shall have power, if it see fit, to award alimony to the wife, and to retain her right of dower, and to award to the wife such property, or the value thereof, as she had when she was married, or such part, or the value thereof, as the court may deem reasonable, having a regard to the circumstances of the husband at the time of the divorce. The court may also, in granting a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, restore to the wife her maiden or other previous name. 174. The court shall also have power to order and direct, in every case of divorce, who Custody of child- shall have the guardianship and custody of the children of the marriage so divorced, and who shall be charged with their maintenance. reu. Ibid. 11. Ibid. § 12. When alimony to 175. The court may also award alimony to the wife for her sustenance, during the pendency of a petition for a divorce filed for any of the causes aforesaid. (d) 176. In case of adultery by the wife, committed after judgment or sentence of divorce a mensa et thoro, the court may, on the petition of the husband setting forth and accombe forfeited, &c. panied by legal proof of such adultery, deprive the wife of alimony from the date of her said criminal act, and rescind her right of dower, as well as dispossess her, if the court judge fit, of the care, custody and guardianship of any child or children, which, under the original judgment of the court in granting the divorce, may have been assigned to Ibid. 13. Deserted wife may have the privileges of a feme sole. Proceedings to vacate order. her. 177. A wife deserted by her husband may, at any time after such desertion, apply to the court in session, or to either one of the judges thereof, when the court is not in session, for an order to protect any money or other property, real or personal, of which she may have become possessed after such desertion, against her husband or his creditors, or any one claiming through or under him; and the court or a judge thereof, as the case may be, if the fact of such desertion be proved by evidence other than that of the wife herself, and that the same was without reasonable cause, and that the wife is maintaining herself by her own industry or property, may make and give to the wife an order protecting her earnings, money and property aforesaid, real or personal, acquired since the commencement of such desertion, from her husband and all creditors and persons claiming through or under him, and such earnings, money or property aforesaid shall belong to the wife as if she were a feme sole: Provided always, That every such order shall, within ten days after the making and giving thereof, be entered by the clerk of the court on the records of the county of Washington, in the District of Columbia; and that it shall be lawful for the husband and any creditor claiming through or under him, to apply to the court in session for the discharge thereof, and he may obtain it if, in the judgment of the court, good cause shall be shown why such (a) See Butler v. Butler, 1 Pars. 329. Paterson v. Paterson, 12 Eng. L. & Eq. 19, 29. Richards v. Richards, 1 Grant 389; 40 Penn. St. 225. Ingersoll v. Ingersoll, 49 Penn. St. 249. (b) See Cattison v. Cattison, 22 Penn. St. 275. Eschbach v. Eschbach, 23 Penn. St. 343. (c) See Butler v. Butler, 1 Pars. 329. (d) See Anld v. Auld, 4 Cr. C. C. 84. Denton v. Denton, 1 Johns. Ch. 364-5. If the husband be respondent, such order will be enforced by attachment; if libellant, by staying proceedings until it be complied with. But in order to obtain an attachment, it must be shown that he is of ability to pay. Ormsby v. Ormsby, 1 Phila. 578-9. Walker v. Walker, 1 Curteis 564. |