Collection of School Taxes.

Seals.

1255. Collector's Notice to Pay Taxes.

The undersigned has received from the trustees of school district No. town of the warrant and tax-list to collect the sums therein specified from the persons therein named as liable to pay the same in said district; and all persons who pay their tax to me within two weeks from this date will be charged but one per cent. fees, and five per cent. will be collected from all persons who do not pay their taxes until after the expiration of said two weeks.

[Date].

[Signature of] Collector.

1256. Return of the Collector.

I hereby certify and return, that, by virtue of the foregoing warrant, I have collected the sum of dollars, being the amount of the several sums thereon marked by me as paid; and that the following persons have not paid the sums in which they are taxed, nor have I been able to find any property of them upon which I could levy [names.] [Date.]

[Signature of] Collector.

1257. Notice of Levy and Sale by the Collector.

By virtue of a warrant and tax-list issued to me by the trustees of school district No.

of the town of

I have levied upon and taken the following described goods of M. N., which I shall sell at public auction at

ACCORDING to the more strict authorities, a seal is an impression upon wax, wafer or some other tenacious substance affixed to the paper or parchment on which an instrument is written. In many of the Southern and Western States, as well as in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, this kind of seal has been dispensed with, the courts holding a scroll or device, made by the pen or printed, to be a sufficient seal, if intended as such. In some of the States, the use of private seals has been wholly dispensed with by statute. In others, as in New York, the statutes authorize corporate, official and judicial seals to be made by an impression upon the paper directly, without the use of wax or wafer.

The rules which prevail in the several States, in respect to private seals, are

General Rules.

for greater convenience, stated in the chapter of DEEDS, where the law will be found, in the alphabetic order of the names of the States.

The effects of affixing a seal upon a contract are, in general-first, that it imports or implies a consideration sufficient in itself to support the contract; and second, that lapse of time will not bar a right of action on the contract until twenty years have passed, instead of barring it in six years or such other briefer period as the law may prescribe for unsealed contracts.

CHAPTER LXXXIV.

SEARCHES.

IN examining the title to real property, the conveyancer may look through the records himself, or may, by a requisition addressed to the recording officer, procure him to search for and certify the conveyances and encumbrances. The requisition and certificate is termed a search. In drawing it or filling the blanks (which can usually be procured at the law stationer's), particular regard should be had to the time during which the person searched against has owned the premises, so as to cover fully his period of title in seeking for conveyances, etc., and to the times fixed by the statutes regulating other liens, such as judgments, which may affect the property though recovered against him before he became the owner. The clerk who searches for judgments will return those that have been satisfied, as well as those which have not; and satisfied judgments should be inquired into, for they may have been satisfied by a sheriff's sale of the very property in question.

ALL THAT CERTAIN [etc., inserting a full description of the land; and, if a city lot, it will be convenient to give a diagram of the block, showing the position of the lot].

THE REGISTER of the city and county of New York will please search for mortgages, conveyances, leases and all other encumbrances of record in his office, of, upon or affecting the premises above described, or any part thereof, by the persons whose names are hereto subjoined, and for the periods set opposite their respective names, and certify the result below, for [Signature of conveyancer.]

[Date.]

The clerk of the city and county of New York will please search his office for judgments and decrees, and also

Decrees in chancery or equity.

Judgments from the late and present Supreme Court.

For transcripts of Judgments from the Superior Court.

Judgments from the Court of Common Pleas.

Judgments from other courts.

Also transcripts from the marine and justice's courts against the following: [Here insert names and periods.]

Also for surrogate's decrees, and forfeited recognizances, against the same

Also, for unsafe building-notices affecting same property since the passage

of the act, against A. B.

Also, for bonds of collectors, and their sureties, from April, 1838, to April,

Against the persons following, for the following periods respectively [names

and periods].

[Signature of conveyancer.]

1260. Search for Judgments in United States Courts.

To the clerk of the Circuit [or, District] Court:

Please search for judgments in the Circuit [or, District] Court of the United States for the district of New York, against the persons whose names are hereto subjoined, and for the periods set opposite their respective names, and certify the result below, for [Date.]

[Add names and periods.]

[Signature of conveyancer.]

The commissioners for loaning moneys of the United States in the county of will please search in their office for mortgages upon premises [here briefly designate them], made by [names].

[Date]

[Signature of conveyancer.]

1262. Tax Search.

To M. N.:

Please search for taxes, assessments, water-rents, and sales for the same or either of them, of, upon or affecting the premises laid down on the following diagram, or any part thereof, and certify the result below, for [Date.] [Signature of conveyancer.]

[Diagram showing location and dimensions of premises.]

CHAPTER LXXXV.

SERVICE (AND PROOF OF).

WHERE the law requires written notice to be given to a person, it usually is to be understood to intend a delivery of the notice to him personally. This is termed personal service, in contradistinction to service by leaving the notice at the person's residence in the hands of another, or by mailing or by publication. Personal service is in general to be required, if the object of the notice is to subject the party to the jurisdiction of a court or magistrate, or if he is to be punished for not regarding the notice, or if it is a condition precedent to some. act on the part of others prejudicial to the party to be notified.(a) Where a statute giving a special or summary mode of proceeding specifies the manner of service, its directions should be strictly complied with. Forms of proof in such instances will be seen in the chapter on FORECLOSURE and INSOLVENCY.

1263. Sheriff certificate of service

1264. Affidavit of personal service.

1263. Sheriff's Certificate of Service.

[If in an action, insert here its title.]

PAGE

647

648

I

served on Y. Z. [one of the defendants above named] the summons in this action [or, the annexed notice], by delivering a copy thereof to him personally, and leaving the same with him. [Signature of] Sheriff.

[Date.]

(a) See the chapter on notices.

Affidavit of Service.

Shipping Articles.

1264. Affidavit of Personal Service.

[If in an action, insert here its title.]

COUNTY OF

M. N., being duly sworn, says that he is [a clerk in the office of plaintiff's attorney herein]; and that on the day of 18, he served on Y. Z. [one of the defendants above named] at [his place of business] No. street, in the city of New York, the within summons [or, notice], by delivering a copy thereof to him personally, and leaving the same with him [or, by tendering a copy thereof to him personally, and on his refusal to receive the same, deponent laid them down upon his desk, saying to him: "I hereby deliver these to you."] Deponent further says that he knows the person so served to be the person mentioned and described in the summons as defendant therein [or, the person to whom said notice is addressed]. [Signature.]

SWORN [etc., as in Form 1115].

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

SHIPPING ARTICLES.

THE Statutes of the United States(a) provide that every master or commander of any ship or vessel bound from a port in the United States to any foreign port, or of any ship or vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upwards, bound from a port in one State to a port in any other than an adjoining State, shall, before he proceed on such voyage, make an agreement in writing or in print, with every seaman or mariner on board such ship or vessel (except such as shall be apprentice or servant to himself or owners), declaring the voyage or voyages, term or terms of time, for which such seaman or mariner shall be shipped.

Carrying out a seaman without his first signing such articles subjects the master to a penalty, and entitles the seaman, for his service, to the highest wages given at the port, within three months preceding the time of shipment. At the foot of every such contract there must be a memorandum in writing of the day and hour on which the seaman or mariner, who shall so ship and subscribe, shall render themselves on board, to begin the voyage agreed upon. Nothing repugnant to the foregoing requirements can be inserted; but additional provisions not inconsistent with them may be inserted.(b) The courts, however, are careful, in protection of seamen, to inquire into harsh or unusual stipulations, and they will not enforce, against seamen, stipulations which operate to their disadvantage, and are inserted in the articles in addition to the stipulations recognized by this act, unless it appear, from evidence outside the articles, that the seamen fully understood the stipulations and received an adequate consideration therefor.(c)

(a) 1 U. S. Stat. at L., 131.

(c) Brown v. Lull, 2 Summ., 444; Har

(b) Webb v. Duckingfield, 13 Johns., den v. Gordon, 2 Mas., 541; The Sarah Jane, 1 Blatchf. & H., 401.

890.