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REAL ESTATE
AND
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 4, 1916
REAL ESTATE BOARD STATES POSITION
ON TORRENS REGISTRATION LAW
Xl
LAURENCE McGUIRE.
'HE Real Estate Board of New York,
•*• through its president, Laurence Mc¬
Guire, and Professor Alfred G. Reeves,
chairman of its Torrens Law Commit¬
tee, has replied to statements made by
Register John J. Hopper in the Record
and Guide of October 28, on amendments
to the Torrens Law.
Replying to that portion of the state¬
ment which applies especially to the
Real Estate Board and its committee,
Mr. McGuire said:
"The Real Estate Board can have no
objection to the Re.G;ister of New York
City or Walter Fairchild, who appears
to be his legal adviser, confinin.ar them¬
selves to a discussion of the merits of
the four Torrens bills presented to the
1916 Le.a:islature and the Torrens Act
as amended by tliat body. It is well
understood that the act as now on the
statute books is a comnromise measure,
endorsed by the Le.ajislative Committee
which had before it these four measures
and which finally approved the 1916 Act
after conference by the sponsors of the
other four bills.
"The Register, however, does not con¬
fine himself to such a discussion. He
seems to prefer to lose no opportunity
to inipua:n the good faith of the Real
Estate Board and to make it apnearthat
its committee was a packed comniittee,
that its findings were nrejudiced in fa¬
vor of the title companies and that the
position taken by the committee was not
leP'ally sound.
"The Register persists in emphasizing
the fact that the committee had upon it
'solicitors and officers of the four lead-
in? title companies in New York City.'
He fails to inention that the committee
consisted of twelve, all members of the
Real Estate Board, and including, be¬
sides the title company solicitors, four
real estate brokers arid four attorneys in
general practice. The Register also
knows that one of the committee mem¬
bers connected with a title company has
been opposed to the views of the com¬
mittee almost from its formation and,
it mav interest him to know, has since
resigned: and that another member long
since severed his connection with the
title company and is in private practice.
The Register will thus find it difficult to
convince intelligent persons on the point
Answers Certain Statements Macde by Register Hopper
he is so anxious to make—for the simple
reason that if such a thing could be con¬
ceived as that the Real Estate Board
were trying to play into the hands of
the title companies, it is extremely un¬
likely that what is practically the most
influential title company in New York
City would be found passively, if not
actively, opposing its efiforts to make the
Torrens System a workable instrument
"It might be mentioned incidentally
that Mr. Fairchild, styled Special Depu-
tv Register and Official Examiner of
Titles for New York County, was, before
the Register selected him as his adviser
on legal matters, an employee of a title
company.
"The Register seems to wish to estab¬
lish the position that the Real Estate
Board is furthering a form of the Tor¬
rens Act which is not in the interests of
property owners. He did not himself
make the arguments in favor of his own
measure. These were made by Mr.
Fairchild.
"The spectacle of the Register posing
as the friend of property owners has in
it an element of humor. He is an
avowed and active single taxer and an
honored member of an organization
which styles itself the Societv to Lower
Rents and Reduce Taxes on Homes. It
proposes to do these things through the
medium of a diluted form of single tax.
".Some will recall that at a hearing of
one of these single tax measures the de¬
fender of the measure was asked by a
member of the Leeislative Committee to
state whom he represented. He claimed
to represent labor. He subseaiientlv did
produce a labor union card. But it was
an expired card. It developed that he
was an employee in the Register's office.
I understand his expenses at the hear-
in"' were paid bv the Register. The tax-
pavers, of course, were navine him to
attend to his official business in New
York.
"The Board has entire confidence in
its Torrens Title Committee and it leaves
it to the verv able iudsment of the chair¬
man of that committee. Professor Al¬
fred G. Rfeves. to show how the Regis¬
ter, even if he is sincere in this matter, is
entirelv inaccurate in his claims fnr the
so-called reforms which he complains he
has been unable to secure for the Tor¬
rens svsteiTi of title rep'i'^tration."
Professor Reeves, taking up the legal
phases of the matter, said:
"When the Torrens Law was before
the Legislature of last winter. Register
Hopper and those who more or less fully
harmonized with him. presented in sub¬
stance five proposed changes in the Tor¬
rens Law:
"(1) Making the ree-istr^tton of the
title permanent, i. e.. forbiddine a ree'is-
tered title to be taken out from the sys¬
tem.
"(2) Requiring all who registered to
pav into an assurance fund,
"(3) Simplification of the procedure for
initial resristration,
"(41 Making examination of title un¬
der the svstem purelv official, and
"(5) Putting the obligation of the State
or county back of the assurance fund—a
public guarantee of resristered titles.
"The Real Estate Board, through its
committee of conservative real pronertv
experts, who have studied the workings
of the svstem in this State for eicht vears
and profited by experience, could not see
any material advantage in making these
PROF. ALFRED G. REBTVBS.
changes. But when the compromise or
'get together' arrano-ement was suggest¬
ed by the legislators themselves, a con¬
ference was held, which resulted in a
general agreement for the adoption of
the first two of Mr. Hopper's proposed
changes, and not the other three.
"Brou.ght into that conference, taking
part in it, presenting his arguments, and
given his full opportunity to convince the
legislative mind, Mr. Hopper was as¬
sumed to co-operate in bringing about
the compromise, and it was expected that
from his great office in New York Coun¬
tv would thereupon proceed all the aid
possible to the law, as perfected by the
other careful amendments made thereto.
Those other amendments, proceeding
along the lines of experience and care¬
ful investigation, put the statute into a
very compact, workable form with the
most careful safeguards for the inter¬
ests of all who should deal with it, or
, whose titles should be touched by it,
and made it what land owners want in
this State.
"In reachinar this result, careful con-
vevancers and title companies in this
city had expressed their readiness to be¬
come official examiners and aid in the
propagation of this beneficial system of
dealing with titles. When the Legisla¬
ture had done its work, thev proceeded
to carrv out this understanding. 0"'f''^
a number of individual lawvers have
since become official examiners, and in
this citv the Hotne Title Company. New
York Title Insurance Companv and the
Lawvers' Title and Trust Company have
Qualified as such examiners, and others
are contemplating a similar step. In
other words, these individuals and com¬
panies have decided that here is some¬
thing that the people of New York
should want, and they are eoing to do
this duty by ofTering it to those people:
"Now comes Mr. Hopper and refuses
to play. He was a partv to the com¬
promise; he knows that the law is good
and sound: he is in an especially advan¬
tageous position to propaeate it, and
he and those in his office discourage ev-
ervbody who comes to them bv the story
of the excessive cost and so-called un-
necessarv labor in brinp-ing a_ title under
(he svstem. Their position is unsports¬
manlike, to say the least, if not unfair
and unprofitable. For what Mr. Hopper