Fogarty

The .facts in this case being found by the jury, there remains but two questions which have been argued at law upon which I am called to decide. First, whether the plaintiff can recover against the Notary who is defendant; and secondly, what are the proper damages, if he should recover.

On the trial it appeared that the defective certificate of acknowledgement was made on a printed form, accompanying the mortgage, and the filling in of that certificate, even including the words “ Notary Public” at the foot, was in the hand-writing of Gr. J. Hubert Sanders, the certificate being apparently prepared, so that all that the Notary had to do was to sign his name and affix his seal after taking the acknowledgment. It was also in proof that the plaintiff had employed *61 Sanders as his attorney and agent in making this loan, and that Sanders had taken Dupuy to Finlay’s office, where the acknowledgment was made. It also appeared that the prior mortgage to Wolf had precisely the same defect in the acknowledgment as this of Fogarty’s. Under these circumstances I should hesitate somewhat in allowing the plaintiff to recover damages from the Notary for making as it appeared just such an…