Article 1. No conveyance of immovable property or of an interest therein, or a mortgage thereon, shall be effective except by an instrument in writing, executed and delivered between parties competent to contract, and sufficiently describing the property conveyed, or mortgaged, and signed by the person executing the same, or if he is not able to write he shall affix his mark thereto,—and duly acknowledged in accordance with the provisions of this order, before some officer authorized to take acknowledgments, provided, however, that a copy of any instrument in writing, affecting immovable property in the Canal Zone, duly executed before a Notary Public in the Republic of Colombia prior to November 3, 1903, or in the Republic of Panama after said date, and authenticated by the Notary Public charged with the custody of the protocol containing the original deed from which the copy was taken, shall be valid and effective as a conveyance of the lands or interests in the lands therein, described.

Art. 2. The acknowledgments provided for in this order shall be made in the manner and form provided for the husband's acknowledgment in the Executive Order of August 20, 1910, entitled "Executive Order.—Conveyance of Real Estate by Married Women."

Art. 3. If for any reason the Grantor in the instrument can not appear before the officer authorized to take acknowledgments, the execution of such instrument must be attested by not less than two subscribing witnesses, and may be proven by the oath of one of the subscribing witnesses to such instrument, taken before any of the officers authorized to take acknowledgments, to the effect that he subscribed such instrument as a witness at the request of the grantor, who signed the same in his presence, or who acknowledged to him that he had signed the same, for the purposes and consideration therein expressed.

The Certificate of Acknowledgment shall be sufficient if it is substantially in the following form:

The .............................. Judicial Circuit,	${\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}}$
⁠Canal Zone.
Before me ......................................................, in and for .............................., in the Canal Zone on this day personally appeared .............................. known to me (or proven to me on the oath of .............................., a credible witness), to be the person whose name is subscribed as a witness to the foregoing instrument, and after being duly sworn by me, on his oath deposes that he subscribed the same as such witness at the request of .............................., the grantor named in the foregoing instrument, and that he saw the grantor execute the same (or that the grantor acknowledged to him that he had executed the same, as the case may be), for the purposes and consideration therein expressed.
Given under my hand and seal of office this .............................. day of .............................. A. D. ..........
...........................................⁠
...........................................⁠

Art. 4. The officers authorized to take acknowledgments under this order shall issue proper certificates of all acknowledgments taken or proven before them.

Art. 5. The Clerk of the Circuit Court of the First Judicial Circuit of the Canal Zone shall be, ex officio, Registrar of Property of the Canal Zone, and it shall be his duty to record all instruments authorized to be recorded by this order, or any other law or order of the Canal Zone, and presented to him for record, in a well bound book or books kept by him for that purpose, and he shall attach a certificate to each deed so recorded by him; which certificate shall state the date and hour of the filing of the instrument for record, as well as the book and page or pages of the record upon which the same is recorded;—and shall be signed by him under his official title, and shall be impressed with his seal. The seal of the Registrar shall contain the words "Registrar of Property of the Canal Zone."

He shall keep an index, direct and cross, of the instruments recorded by him, which shall show the names of the grantor and grantee of each instrument recorded by him, the date of the instrument and the date of the filing of the same, and the book and page or pages in which it is recorded.

Art. 6. It shall be the duty of the Registrar of Property to keep a file docket wherein he shall note the filing of all instruments when presented to him for record, which docket shall contain the names of the parties to the instrument, the date of the same, and the date and hour of its filing in the Registrar's office; and all such instruments shall be deemed to have been recorded from the time of such filing.

Art. 7. No instrument in writing shall be admitted to record in the Registrar's office except such as are acknowledged or authenticated in the manner provided for in this order.

Art. 8. The instruments described in Article 1 of this order, and executed in conformity therewith, as well as the instruments described in the Executive Order of August 20, 1910, entitled "Executive Order.—Conveyance of Real Estate by Married Women," and executed in accordance therewith, shall be admitted to record in the Registrar's Office.

Art. 9. A copy of any Notarial deed relating to property in the Canal Zone, taken from the records in the office of the Registrar of Property of Panama or Colon, Republic of Panama, and recorded therein prior to February 26th, 1904, and duly certified by the Registrar issuing the same, shall be recorded in the office of the Registrar of Property of the Canal Zone, in like manner as provided for deeds executed in the Canal Zone.

Art. 10. In all cases in which Spanish documents are admitted to registration under the provisions of this order, such documents shall be accompanied by English translations which shall be recorded with them.

Art. 11. A copy of any final judgment or decree of a court of competent jurisdiction of the Canal Zone, vesting the title to immovable property or any interest therein, in one or more of the parties to said judgment or decree, and duly certified by the clerk of the court in which the judgment or decree was rendered, as being a true copy of such judgment or decree as the same appears in the records of the court, shall be admitted to record in the Registrar's office in like manner as provided herein for deeds executed in the Canal Zone.

Art. 12. A copy of a judgment or decree of a court of competent jurisdiction of the Republic of Panama, affecting immovable property situated in the Canal Zone, rendered prior to the 26th day of February, 1904, and duly certified by the clerk or secretary of the court rendering such judgment or decree, and by the judge thereof, when the signature of the said judge is authenticated by the Secretary of Foreign Relations of Panama, shall in like manner be admitted to record in the Registrar's office under the provisions of this order.

Art. 13. No deed or other instrument in writing affecting immovable property shall be valid against subsequent creditors of, or bona fide purchasers for value, without notice, from the owner of such property, unless the same shall have been recorded with the Registrar of Property of the Canal Zone.

Art. 14. The Registrar's offices at Empire and Cristobal shall be discontinued on and after the date on which this order goes into effect, and the books and records of immovable property in those offices shall be transferred to the Registrar's office hereby created, and shall become a part of the records of his office; and after this order takes effect all deeds, or other instruments, required to be recorded by the provisions of this order or any other law or order of the Canal Zone, shall be recorded in the office of the Registrar herein provided for.

Art. 15. The Registrar of Property shall be entitled to charge for his services rendered as Registrar, the following fees, United States currency:

For each instrument recorded, including his certificate thereto ten cents per folio of one hundred words; but no charge shall be less than fifty cents for any one instrument.

For each certified copy issued by him of an instrument recorded in his office, including certificate thereto, ten cents per folio of one hundred words; but no charge shall be less than fifty cents for each copy thereof.

For searching his records and giving a certificate thereto of any fact or facts contained in his records, fifty cents for each certificate, provided that where more than one record book is searched he may charge twenty-five cents for each additional book.

The fees so collected by the Registrar of Property shall be turned in by him to the Canal Zone Treasury.

Art. 16. Any instrument in writing mentioned in Article 1 of this order and duly acknowledged or authenticated in the manner therein described, and any deed or other instrument executed and acknowledged in accordance with the provisions of the said order of August 20th, 1910, relating to conveyances by married women, may be used in evidence on the trial of any action or special proceedings without the necessity of proof of its execution unless such instrument is attacked for forgery by the affidavit of the adverse parties; provided, however, that such instrument shall not be admissible in evidence without proof of its execution unless the same or a copy thereof be filed with the clerk of the court wherein such action or special proceeding is pending, and due notice is given to the opposite party or his attorney at least three days before the trial of such action or special proceeding.

Art. 17. A copy of any instrument duly recorded under the provisions of this order and certified to by the Registrar in charge of the record, may be used in evidence in any judicial proceedings in like manner and effect as might be done with the original if produced, provided such certified copy is filed with the clerk of the court wherein the action or proceeding is pending, and due notice of the filing of such copy is given to the adverse party or his attorney at least three days before the trial or proceedings in which the said copy is to be produced in evidence.

Art. 18. All orders or decrees and parts thereof in conflict with this order are hereby repealed, and the Executive Order of March 12, 1907, effective April 15, 1907, relating to the execution and recording of deeds is also hereby repealed; provided, however, that this order shall not affect a deed or other instrument relating to immovable property executed pursuant to the said order of March 12, 1907, prior to the date on which this order shall take effect, and provided further that this order shall not be construed to modify in any manner the Executive Order of August 20th, 1910, relating to the conveyance of real estate by married women.

Art. 19. This order shall take effect sixty days from its date.

Wm. H. Taft.

The White House, February 2, 1911.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).

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