Examination of applicants Rule 1

said, or in any other manner, or to assume to be an attorney or counselorat-law, or to assume, use, or advertise the title of lawyer, or attorney and counselor-at-law, or attorney-at-law, or counselor-at-law, or attorney, or counselor, or attorney and counselor, or equivalent terms in any language, in such manner as to convey the impression that he is a legal practitioner of law or in any manner to advertise that he either alone or together with any other persons or person, has, owns, conducts or maintains a law office or law and collection office, or office of any kind for the practice of law, without having first been duly and regularly licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts of record of this state, or, in case of persons licensed and admitted prior to July first, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, without having first been duly and regularly licensed and admitted to practice as attorney of or in the then Supreme Court or as solicitor in chancery or of the Court of Chancery, and without having taken the constitutional oath and without having subscribed and taken the oath or affirmation required by section four hundred and sixty-eight of the judiciary law and filed the same in the office of the clerk of the Court of Appeals as required by said section. Any person violating the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and it shall be the duty of the district attorneys to enforce the provisions of this section and to prosecute all violations thereof. [Penal Law, § 270.]

RULES RELATING TO APPLICATIONS TO PRACTICE AS OFFICIAL EXAMINERS OF TITLE

(Adopted December 9, 1908)

Rule 1. Examination of applicants

Any person duly admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor-at-law in the courts of record of this state, desiring to be licensed to practice as an official examiner of title, may apply to the State Board of Law Examiners for an examination as to his fitness. Examinations for this purpose shall be held by the board either at the same times and places as designated for the examinations for admission to the bar or at such separate times and places as the board may specially designate.

Each applicant for examination must file with the secretary and treasurer of the board, at least fifteen days

before the day appointed for holding the examination at which he intends to apply, a written application for examination, together with the fee of fifteen dollars and an affidavit stating his age, residence and office address, when and where he was admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor-at-law, the length of time during which he has practiced law, that he has duly filed in the office of the clerk of the Court of Appeals the oath or affirmation required by chapter 165 of the Laws of 1898, as amended, with the date of such filing, and stating the nature and amount of work that he has done in the examination of titles to real property.

Rule 2. Experienced examiners of title

Any person duly admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor-at-law claiming to be an experienced examiner of titles to real property may be licensed by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to practice as an official examiner of title without having passed the examination prescribed by Rule 1, provided the fact of sufficient experience is found and certified to by the State Board of Law Examiners. For this purpose the applicant may submit at any time to the secretary and treasurer of the board, together with the fee of fifteen dollars, an affidavit stating his age, residence and office address, the date of his admission to practice as an attorney and counselor-atlaw, his compliance with chapter 165 of the Laws of 1898, the length of time that he has practiced law, the nature and amount of work that he has done in the examination of titles to real property, which must have covered a period of at least five years, the number of titles that he has examined upon the transfer or mortgage of real property in this state, and specifying in detail the general location of the property and the names of one or more of the owners or mortgagors thereof.

The applicant shall also procure and file an affidavit of the register clerk or deputy having charge of the records of the county in which the applicant resides or where his law office is situated, stating the nature and amount of his work in searching titles in such register's or clerk's office, together with an affidavit of at least two attorneys at law actually engaged in the practice of their profession in that judicial department for at least five years last past, who are personally acquainted with the applicant, stating their knowledge of his work as an examiner of titles and expressing their judgment as to his competency to discharge the duties of an official examiner of titles, which proof must be satisfactory to the State Board of Law Examiners.

Rule 3. Bonds

No person shall be licensed or admitted nor authorized or empowered to practice as an official examiner of titles until he has executed and filed a bond, joint and several in form, with two or more sufficient sureties, to the people of the state of New York, in the penal sum of not less than five thousand dollars, conditioned faithfully to perform and discharge the trust reposed in him as an official examiner of titles, to obey all lawful decrees and orders of the court touching the administration of his office, and to pay all loss or damage which the assurance fund created by chapter 444 of the Laws of 1908 may sustain through, or which may be occasioned to any person by, any fraud, negligence, omission, mistake or misfeasance by him in his office or position of examiner of titles as aforesaid.

The sureties upon said bond shall each make his affidavit, subjoined thereto, to the effect that he is a resident of and a householder or a freeholder within the state and is worth the amount of the penalty of the bond specified over all the debts and liabilities which he owes or has

Certificate of Board of examiners, etc.

Rules 4, 5

incurred, and exclusive of property exempt by law from levy and sale under an execution. Said bond shall be approved by the presiding or acting presiding justice of the Appellate Division of the department in which the applicant is licensed, and such justice may require the sureties to appear before him and to justify. The bond shall be filed in the office of the clerk of that court, and the obligors therein shall be liable for any loss or damage sustained thereunder by reason of any defect in any title certified by the examiner for the period of ten years from the date of such certificate of title. Such bond shall be renewed at least once in every five years, and any failure to renew the same within such period shall of itself operate as a revocation of the license. In case of the insolvency of either of the sureties the Appellate Division must order the renewal of the bond forthwith.

Rule 4. Certificate of board of examiners

If the State Board of Law Examiners, upon examination, finds an applicant qualified under Rule 1, or finds an applicant to be an experienced examiner of titles under Rule 2, it shall certify to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the department in which the applicant resides or in which he has an office for the regular practice of law, the fact that the applicant has complied with the rules and requirements prescribed by the Court of Appeals as precedent to admission to practice as an official examiner of titles in this state.

Rule 5. Suspension from practice and removal from office

An individual official examiner of title who is guilty of any deceit, malpractice, crime, misdemeanor or negligence as such examiner, or who is guilty of any fraud or deceit in the proceedings by which he was admitted to practice as such examiner, may be suspended from practice or re

Appellate division; board of examiners - Rules 6, 7

moved from office and his license revoked by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court by which he was licensed as an official examiner upon notice and hearing had.

Supension from practice as an attorney and counselorat-law shall of itself work a suspension from practice as such examiner, and his disbarment as an attorney and counselor-at-law shall of itself work a revocation of his license as an examiner.

Rule 6. Appellate division rules

The justices for each Appellate Division may adopt for their several and respective departments such additional special rules for ascertaining the fitness of applicants as to such justices may seem proper.

Rule 7. Board of examiners' rules

The State Board of Law Examiners may adopt such rules for carrying out and applying these rules as may be consistent therewith.