J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor                      441

CHAPTER 181
(House Bill 65)

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, Sections 98, 99
and 100 of Article 21 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1963
Supplement), title ''Conveyancing", subtitle "Defective Convey-
ances", validating certain defective deeds, mortgages, bonds or OF
conveyances, bills of sale, and other conveyances, AND CLARIFY-
ING THE LANGUAGE THEREIN.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Sections 98, 99 and 100 of Article 21 of the Annotated Code
of Maryland (1963 Supplement), title "Conveyancing", subtitle
"Defective Conveyances", be and the same are hereby repealed and
re-enacted, with amendments, to read as follows:

98.

All deeds of conveyance of property in this State which may have
been recorded without any certificate of the clerk of any of the
courts of this State accompanying the acknowledgement thereof,
in cases in which such certificates are necessary and proper, cer-
tifying to the official character and signature of the justice of the
peace taking the same, and all deeds of conveyance of property in
this State which may have been recorded without the seal of the
notary public before whom the acknowledgment was taken, having
been first attached, when the grantor resided in another state, and
the acknowledgment was made in that state, shall be valid to all
intents and purposes as if such defect and omission did not exist;
provided, that the execution and acknowledgment of such deeds in
all other respects conform to the laws of the State, in such cases
made and provided; saving, nevertheless, the rights of bona fide
purchasers and encumbrancers without notice who may have be-
come so prior to June 1, [1961] 1964.

99.

All deeds, mortgages, releases, bonds of conveyances, bills of
sale, chattel mortgages and all other conveyances, or OF real or per-
sonal property, or of any interest therein or agreements relating
thereto which may have been executed, acknowledged or recorded
in the State subsequent to the passage of the act of the General
Assembly of Maryland passed at its January Session, 1858, Chapter
208, which may not have been acknowledged according to the laws
existing at the time of said acknowledgment, or which may not have
been acknowledged before a proper officer, or in which the certifi-
cate of acknowledgment or affidavit of consideration is not in the
prescribed form, or in which the official character of the officer
taking the acknowledgment is not set out in the body of the cer-
tificate, or has not been certified to as required by law, or in which the
conveyance has not been witnessed to or sealed by an individual or
corporation as required by law, or any deed heretofore made to or
from a corporation prior to the payment of the bonus tax which
was afterwards paid, shall be and the same are hereby made valid,
to all intents and purposes as if the conveyances and agreements
had been acknowledged, certified to, witnessed and sealed accord-
ing to law; providing the said deeds, mortgages, bonds of convey-
ances, bills of sale and other conveyances and agreements are in