THE CLERKS' AND CONVEYANCERS' ASSISTANT. A COLLECTION OF FORMS OF CONVEYANCING, CONTRACTS, THE LEGAL AND LEGAL PROCEEDINGS, FOR THE USE OF PROFESSION, BUSINESS MEN, AND PUBLIC UNITED STATES. WITH Copious Instructions, Explanations, and Authorities BY BENJ. V. ABBOTT AND AUSTIN ABBOTT. SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY CLARENCE F. BIRDSEYE, OF THE NEW YORK BAR. NEW YORK: BAKER, VOORHIS AND COMPANY. 1899. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. THE lapse of thirty-three years since the publication of the original edition of this work necessitates a thorough revision of its matter, but no modification of its methods, which have proved so acceptable and satisfactory. Accordingly, all obsolete forms, and those arising under the Codes of Civil Procedure and Criminal Procedure, and which properly belong to books on pleadings and practice, have been omitted. Also those relating to the formation and government of corpora tions, which are now provided for by specific statutes in each state. Frequent statutory changes make many of these latter forms temporary and often valueless, while the subject has become so broad as to require special works relating only to it. The foregoing changes account for the absence from this book of some subjects which were included in the former edition; but the new forms added are sufficient to about double the matter in the subjects which have been retained. Long and intricate corporate mortgages, traffic, underwriting, reorganization and other agreements, railroad and equipment leases, and other similar papers, formerly nearly unknown, now frequently arise in ordinary practice. It has been the aim to cover all such subjects with full forms based upon actual papers, but modified to cover general use. For example, the subject of mortgages in the first edition occupied only ten pages, but covers in the present edition about one hundred and seventy pages, and includes, as new matter, a long and short trust mortgage and forms of second, income, equipment and consolidated railroad mortgages, and also a debenture mortgage, and the statutory forms of the several states. Many states have adopted statutory forms of deeds, mortgages, chattel mortgages, leases, etc., and these have been given in their proper places, with statements of the statutes governing the subject. The present work follows the original edition in giving forms that are not academic, but which are based upon actual papers arising in actual practice and usually passed on by eminent counsel representing opposing interests. No matter how complete such a work as the present may be, its value as an aid to a busy lawyer or layman must depend upon the availability of all its parts, to be obtained only by a complete index. Hence the greatest care has been taken to thoroughly index, not only the titles and subjects of the several forms, but also the important covenants and other provisions of the papers themselves, and to give the fullest cross-references. Thus, while the matter in the book has been about doubled, the index has been increased about fifteen times. NEW YORK, September 15, 1899. CLARENCE F. BIRDSEYE. |