THE REAL PROPERTY LAW OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Being Chapter Fifty of the Consolidated Laws (PASSED FEBRUARY 17, 1909; CHAPTER 52, Laws of 1909) AND ALL THE AMENDMENTS THERETO TOGETHER WITH THE NOTES OF THE BOARD OF STATUTORY CONSOLIDA- THE ORIGINAL ACTS, AND THE FULL IN THE REAL PROPERTY LAW ALSO AN INTRODUCTION, NOTES OF JUDICIAL DECISIONS, AND BY ROBERT LUDLOW FOWLER COUNSELLOR AT LAW Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author NEW YORK BAKER, VOORHIS & COMPANY PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. Since the publication of the second edition of this work, the "Real Property Law" of 1896 (chapter XLVI of the General Laws) has been subjected to a comprehensive revision, at the hands of the Board of Statutory Consolidation, created by chapter 664 of the Laws of 1904. The new Real Property Law, chapter 50 of the Consolidated Laws of 1909, is now, in form, a very different statute from that of 1896. The new law consolidates with the old act a great many other acts which heretofore have not been very accessible or familiar. The process of consolidation, while the simplest form of revision, necessarily required great care upon the part of the Board of Statutory Consolidation, and they have been very faithful to their obligations and to the mandate of the Legislature not to change the statutes in substance. Some adaptations and changes have, however, been inevitable in the ordinary course of re-enacting the Consolidated Laws. Pursuant to the Act of 1904, the Board of Statutory Consolidation designated the author of these commentaries to make the preliminary consolidation of the two chapters, known as the Real Property Law and the Personal Property Law. The first drafts of both laws, subsequently enacted, were largely the results of that employment. The Board in view of their limited authority did not feel at liberty to make some of the changes in substance suggested to them, but they did introduce such proposed changes in the notes on the acts when they came to submit the sections of the chapters of the Legislature. Those notes were, in fact, very largely prepared by this writer, in the course of his employment by the State, and they were adopted by the Board and submitted by them to the Legislature. The notes on the Real Property Law now appear in this treatise as a part of Appendix I. In their final revision of the Real Property Law, the Board of Statutory Consolidation ultimately inserted, of their own motion, some articles which were not contained in the draft first submitted to them, and they also took out of the draft the article on the "Descent of Real Property." Necessarily they renumbered the articles and sections of the draft submitted to them, so as to conform the Real Property Law to other portions of the Consolidated Laws. That the personal work of |