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Punishment of vendor, &c. for fraudulently concealing deeds, &c. or falsifying pedigree.
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24. Any seller or mortgagor of land, or of any chattels, real or personal, or choses in action conveyed or assigned to a purchaser [1
or mortgagee], or the solicitor or agent of any such seller or mortgagor, who shall after the passing of this Act conceal any settlement, deed, will, or other instrument material to the title or any incumbrance from the purchaser [1
or mortgagee], or falsify any pedigree upon which the title does or may depend, in order to induce him to accept the title offered or produced to him, with intent in any of such cases to defraud, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being found guilty shall be liable, at the discretion of the Court, to suffer such punishment, by fine or imprisonment for any time not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, or by both, as the Court shall award, and shall also be liable to an action for damages at the suit of the purchaser or mortgagee, or those claiming under the purchaser or mortgagee, for any loss sustained by them or either or any of them in consequence of the settlement, deed, will, or other instruments or incumbrance so concealed, or of any claim made by any person under such pedigree, but whose right was concealed by the falsification of such pedigree; and in estimating such damages, where the estate shall be recovered from such purchaser or mortgagee, or from those claiming under the purchaser or mortgagee, regard shall be had to any expenditure by them or either or any of them in improvements on the land; but no prosecution for any offence included in this section against any seller or mortgagor, or any solicitor or agent, shall be commenced without the sanction of Her Majesty's Attorney General, or, in case that office be vacant, of Her Majesty's Solicitor General; and no such sanction shall be given without such previous notice of the application for leave to prosecute to the person intended to be prosecuted as the Attorney General or the Solicitor General (as the case may be) shall direct.
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