Mortgage
in law, the conveyance of property as security for the payment of a debt or performance of a promise, and on the condition that if the debt be duly paid or the promises fulfilled the conveyance shall be void. The term is applied: (1) To the act of making such a conveyance; (2) to the deed by which such conveyance is made; (3) to the rights thereby conferred on the mortgagee. He who makes the mortgage is the mortgagor; he for whose benefit it is made is the mortgagee. Whatever may be sold may be mortgaged. Mortgages may therefore cover chattels or ing, either in one single instrument con- real estate. Mortgages must be in writtaining the whole case, or in two, one containing the conveyance, the other the condition of the conveyance, this last document being the "defeasance." A deposit of title-deeds, with a verbal agreement, creates an equitable mortgage in some States which recognize this proceeding as a mode of securing a debt. The different States regulate the time in which mortgages are to be recorded, in order to protect innocent purchasers, but an unrecorded mortgage is good as against the mortgagor, or any purchaser knowing of its existence at the time of his purchase. In those States which recognize chattel mortgages (or mortgages of personal property), a record of the same within a specified time is required, to render them valid as against other claimants.