crown CU Home > Libraries Home
[x] Close window

Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Use your browser's Print function to print these pages.

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 60, no. 1546: October 30, 1897

Real Estate Record page image for page ldpd_7031148_020_00000707

Text version:

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.
October 30, 1897. Record and Gu'ĸle 633 ;Hm^i868, DeAfltb TO Rp^LEsTWt.BuiLDIlJb A;_^ITEeTlIĨ^>{cUSElIOlDDEGCHM10li-ĩ BLfSn/ESS AÎÍD TheHES OF ŨEJÍER^i lĩftEIÍ.ES7^ PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE. SJX OOLLARS. J'nhliylieil ccvnj ,'^iiliirday ' '. ;' Tiiiiiíl'udSiĩi . . . , . CORTr,AKUT 1370. Oommunicatlons should hi> addruased to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. ■T. 1. LINDSEY. 7îí(Síii(w,s- Mcnĸujer. ^^___ "Entcred fil 'he l'isl Office ut .Wĸ; yoil:. X. 1',, as seeond-rtiiss ■iiiallcr." \'ol. LX. OCTOBER 30, 1S97. No. 1,546 WITH ono excoptiou to lic noted liereaftei', nll tbe uiaL'- kets are.dull, as ís usual at tbis time of the year. Tlie reasons for this have boen given ouly too receutly iu this col- umu to make it requisite to niention them npw. , The Stock Market Is not the exccption to the general rule, haviug got into :í. rut from 'îvhich thore seems to be no chaDce of rescuing ĩt for somc time. So long as tbo market is limited there wiU be •A danger of lower priees, because wheuever a block of a par- líeular isstie has to be sold ĩt not onlj', by forcĩng tlie market, lowers the price for tbat issue, but also Bympathetically affects all others, aud compels liouidatiou. That thero is no desiro to onter on a uew bull movement îs evident from tbe fact tbat the pxcellént opôratiug statements comîng to hand from day to day from the railroad eompanies faii to raise tbe prices of the se- curities direcíly afíected, or at best raises tbem only momeu- tarily. ■ TJuder tbe surfaee, of course, theso statemeuts are not witboUt îufluence. They serve to sustain tbe coũfldence of holdei's of securitics and thus keep off tbe market much stoek that would otherwise be ofCered. Good railroad earnings so generálĩy distributed miíst also be taken as an indicatiou of imprOved industrial and commercĩal cooditions, so that wben we say the times are dull we use thc term relatively to an al- tered couditiou of affairs. For example, at tbis time last year tliere was a conditioii of business compared with wbĩch tbe present is one of activity. The esception previously alluded to ís the wheat market, whicb bas showu uew strengtb this week; but before tbis can be considered altogetber satisfactory its causes must be made known. It is said to be caused by a revival of the foreigu domand, but back of that is au anticipa- tion tbat the govorument report to be issued in the eoming week will show tliat the receut drougbt curtailed wintcr wbeat .■íOWÍUg. REPORTS of the BritiHb bauks for tbe year euded Juue 30th last, íabulated, sbow a síationary coudition as to in- vestments, a decline iu reserve and in discounts, but a large iucrease in loaus. High prices keep tbese institutĩons out of the security market, and the low rates for mouey compelled them to pusb that market as mucb as possible in order to míiiu- taiu proflts ou their operatious. The receut movement iu "Kau- garoos," or West Australiau gold mining sbares, is based upou .1 large iucrease of the gold output iu the new fields. Tbe pro- duction for West Australia for the flrst nine months of this year amounts to 451,037 ozs., as eompared with tbe following- for the whole years uamed: 180G, 281,265 ozs.; 1895, 231,513 ozs.; 1894, 287,132 ozs.; 1893, 110,890 ozs. Trouble in tbe Laneasbire cotton industry is likely to bo averted by an agreement betweeu employers and employod, based ou a reductiou of 5 per eent iu wages and a spell of short time. The couíinued narrowing of Frencb commercial thougbt is displayed by the argumeuts in the Paris newspapers against tbe émployment of tbe resources of the great banks to float foreign loans, which, it is claimed, injures the bome state issues. Tbe governmeQt is also said to have iDtervened to preveut an Algerian order for rails aud sleepers going to Belgium, iu order that it might bc secured by a French flrm. Iii course of time, presumably, drumming ĩu France will be a state monopoly, like tbe sale of tobacco or tho making of matcbes. At Beriin the money rates are 5 per ceut for discounts and 6 per cent for loans, rates that, notwith- standing tbat tbey are high euougb to be oppressîve to busi- ness, are expected to prevail uutil the end of the year, or uutil tbe large outflow of money iuto the hands of tbe public makes It more plentiful. The iron trade, wbile good iu Germany, ia but poor in Austria, as the failure of the sheet iron union bas proved. Moreover, the losses in crops are being keenly felt and have not a Ilttle to do with the present bad home political sit- iiatlon. ■HE New York Court of Appeals this moulh (October 5. 1897,) afilrmed tbe docision of the Supreme COurt îu the caso of Blauck against Sadlier, that íf a purebaser at auetiou. wbere property is sold subject lo a mortgage discovers that tbe niortgage is payable in gold that.ísnot a grouud- 'fûr setting' aside tbo sale. . The Court bolds, by Cbief Justice Audrews. tliat iu view of the lcgislatiou aud govcrnmotital action ou tbe subjecl, the coutiugeucy that tho tíuited States will r-easo to maintain the parity of tbe currency aud refusc to pay iis obligations iu gold is too remote to raise an assumption or implication tbat au exeeutory eoutract for tbe sale of laud, sub- jeet to a mortgage, of which tbe amount, rate of intcrest and time to ruu were staled in tbe-terius of sale, withoutauy rep- rcsentation made as to fhe mediuTĩi oî payment, was mado lipou íbe basîs of the mortgage boing payabio generally in any lawful currency and uot in a particular kiud of lawful mouey, as gold. It is not a valid objectiou, ou tbe purcbaser, to tbe com- pletion of any executory coutract fcr tbe sale of land subject to a speciíĩc mortgage, tbat a speeial clause in the mortgago making it payablo in gold was uot disclosed aí íhe timethe contract was made, provided tliere was not deeelt or misrepre- sontatiou, aud it appears that íhc silence of the eontract did uot affect the vahie of the property or influence 4hé púrchaser iu making bis bid, and that it will Dot impose auy additional burden on Iilm iu case the contract is eompleted. ■ —.-------------------»------------------— The New Lien Law."' By Bdward L. Heydecker of tbe New York Bar. CHAPTER VII. THE NEWLIEN LAW: CHANGES AND AMENDMENTS. ■^■I-IERE is now in progress, and has been for some years, a ■^ revisiou of the general laws of the State of New Xork. By tbis work it is intended to rocodify and arrange symmetrieally tbe whole mass of statute law which has bceu accumulating. year by year, since the last revision. At. the last session, the Legislature rectived tb-ĩ roport of the Statutory Revisiou Com- niissiou on ilio siil'jcct of lieus and ODaeted it as chnptcr XLIX. of the Gcneral Laws, to take eftect on September 1, 1897. I'rlor to 1885, the lien law was în great confusion, there being a large number of statotes iu force and some applying to one c-ouuty, some to anotber. Tiie act of 1885 repealed most of these and substituted one generaĩ law for Ibe wliole State. This was a great gain, for not only was the statute an advance upou auy that bad preceded it but by makiug the law uniform througbout tbe State it gave an element of stability to the syMteiu of lU'otcctidu to meehanics by means of a lien, and, on the other hand, enabled owuers to kuow fully the uature of'tbe- claims to be made ou thom. But useful as was the act of 1885, it was bampered by cumbersome pbraseology, and it coDtained many weaknesses, botb for lieuors and owners. Thc new licn law has followed the act of 1885 iu tbe main, and has incorporated also the act of 1878, relating to liens ou public buildiũgs, and the other minor acts which related to sep--. arate subjects, such as gas aud oil wells. The uew act has- a careful liue of defluitions wbich does away with the cumber- some wording of tbe former act and makes the meaning clearer, and tbe sections relatiug only to practiee are transferred to-the Code of Civil rrocedure, where tbey belong. But a number of împortant cbangos have been inserted iĩi the new law, some of which have beeu pointed out in the forego- ing papers. Some of these are in favor of the lienor, some lu favor the cwuer, aud others are simply in the way of greater certainty aud uniformity of practice. Those in favor of the lienor are the foUowing: Tlie extension of tlie lien to work done heneath the. surface of real estate; de- claring that tbe romoval of any part of the real property sub- joc tto tiic licu sha.'I not free such part from tbe lieu or affiect the lien on the remaining part; declaring voidauy mortgage lien or incuiubrance made by an owuer of real property for the purpose of avoiding tbe lieu, etc; providing that the death of the owuer before liou flled sbaĩl not aflfect tbe right to file a lieu; giving the lieu priority over advancos made upou a con- tract by an owner for an improvemeut of real property, which coutains an optiou to the contractor, his successor or assigns to purchase the property, if such advances were made after the time when the labor began or the first item of material was furnished, as stated iu the uotice of lien; providing that in the event of confiicting claims under an operation involving 'aev- eral parcela of property, each lienor shall have prioriíy upon the particular buildiug or premisea where bis labor is performed or his materials nre.used; providiug that a contraet for the sale of ĩand:With a bullding loan and any modlfication thereof, must •Coprrlght, 1897, hj "Eecord and Gulde."