Note and Comment

Deeds Delivered Conditionally to the Grantee – Generally courts have shown a commendable disposition to get away from the formalism, which in the past played such a large part in determination of questions of delivery. While the actual tradition of the instrument to the grantee or to someone on his behalf, on the one hand, or its retention in the hands of the maker, on the other, is still very important evidentially, such facts are not by any means controlling. Thus it is entirely possible for a deed to be delivered though it never has been out of the grantor’s hands; likewise a deed may be undelivered though in the hands of the grantee by the voluntary act of the grantor. See the discussion by Professor Tiffany ir I7 MCHc. L. Rv. 1o4, et seq., citing many cases. This result has come from the growing appreciation by the courts that delivery after all is simply the manifestation of the grantor’s intent that, as to him, the instrument is a completed legal act. This intent is normally shown by a handing over of the deed to the grantee or to someone- for him, but there are other ways of showing such intent. A deed in the hands of the grantor prima fade has been delivered; if in the hands of the grantor, prima facie, it has not been delivered.