Whitehead v. Galloway

Citations

• 249 U.S. 79
• 39 S. Ct. 206
• 63 L. Ed. 490
• 1919 U.S. LEXIS 2228

Syllabus

<p>Congress, having provided, through the Act of February 19, 1903, c. 707, 32 Stat. 841,. and the provisions of Mansfield’s Digest as thereby extended to the Indian Territory, that instruments affecting the title to land, to be valid against subsequent purchasers for value, should be recorded or filed in the office of the clerk or the deputy clerk of the United States Court for the Indian Territory, at the place of holding court in the recording district in which the land was located, afterwards, by the Act of June 21, 1906, c. 3504, 34 Stat. 343, created and defined a new recording district, naming a place for recording and for holding court therein, but an interval of somé days occurred between the date of the apt and the time when a deputy clerk was appointed and qualified for the new district and opened the office for reception of instruments. Held, that the law made no provision whereby during this interval a deed of land in the new district might be filed in an older district in which the land was previously located, and that a deed so filed was not constructive notice to subsequent purchasers who bought several months after the recording office in the new district was opened. P. 84.</p> <p>The provision made by the Act of February 19,1903, supra, for transfer of recorded instruments to the indices of new recording districts, applied only to instruments recorded before the date of the act. Id.</p>