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