ESCROW
If an instrument is
delivered to take effect on the happening of a specified event or upon
condition that it is not to be operative until some condition is performed
pending the happening of that event or the performance of the condition the
instrument is called an escrow.
A deed – after it
is written and signed and /or sealed - is required to be delivered to the
person in whose favour it is executed.
If not delivered
all the rest is to no purpose.
A deed takes effect
not from the date it bears but from the date of delivery.
Delivery signifies
the handing over of something, for instance, land or an intangible interest in
it which could not by physically transferred by hand as a chattel could do.
Date:
Where a deed bears
no date – that must be construed as delivery.
But if the deed
bears a sensible date – it must be the date of that deed and not that of the
delivery.
In an
attempted delivery- three possibilities
1)
No
deed may be delivered - unconditionally
2)
No
deed may be delivered – subject to a certain condition being complied with,
until which time the grantor may revoke or reverse the deed. (If this occurs
the document is not a deed, it is a nullity)
3)
The
deed may be delivered subject to certain conditions or the happening of some
event but without any overriding power in the grantor to recall the deed.
This
is known as ‘escrow’