searcher of records for damages must be commenced within two years after the delivery of the defective abstract, or it is barred by the statute of limitations.

Section 458. SALE OF GOOD WILL OF ABSTRACTING BUSINESS.-Section 1674 of the Civil Code of California, providing that one who sells the good will of a "business" may agree with the buyer to refrain from carrying on a similar "business," is broad enough to include, and does include, the business of abstracting.

Notary Public.

Section 459.-DUTIES OF NOTARY.-The duties of a Notary Public are prescribed by law, and are varied and important. In business affairs, the taking of acknowledgments to deeds, mortgages, leases, and other instruments, constitutes the greater and most important part of a Notary's work. His duties, however, extend to a number of other matters. He is required, when requested, to demand acceptance and payment of foreign, domestic, and inland bills of exchange, or promissory notes, and protest the same for non-acceptance and non-payment; he may take acknowledgment or proof of powers of attorney, mortgages, deeds, grants, transfers, and other instruments of writing executed by any person; he may take depositions and affidavits, and administer oaths, to be used before any court, judge, officer, or board in this State. He is required to keep a record of all official acts done by him; to keep a record of the parties to every instrument acknowledged or proved before him, with the date and character of the instrument; and when requested, and upon payment of his fees, he must make and give a certified copy of any record in his office.

Section 460.-NUMBER OF NOTARIES.-The governor may appoint and commission such number of notaries public for the several counties and cities and counties of this State as he shall deem necessary for the public convenience,

except that in cities and counties of the second class the number shall not exceed one hundred.

Act of the Legislature, approved April 18, 1911.

Section 461.-BOND OF NOTARY.-Every Notary in California must give an official bond in the sum of $5000, which must be approved by the Judge of the Superior Court, of his county, and recorded as other official bonds of county officers.

Section 462.-LIABILITY OF NOTARY.-The law provides that for the official misconduct or neglect of a Notary Public, he and the sureties on his official bond are liable to the parties injured for all the damages sustained. Political Code, Section 801.

Section 463.-WHAT ACTS COVERED BY OFFICIAL BOND.-The condition of a bond of a Notary Public being, that he will "well and truly perform and discharge the duties of a Notary Public according to law," this embraces every act which he is authorized or required by law to do in virtue of his office. By accepting the office, a Notary contracts with those who employ him that he will perform the duties of the office with integrity, diligence, and skill. He gives his bond to indemnify those who shall suffer by the unfaithful or unskilful performance of his duty. Before a Notary and his bondsmen can be held liable for damages, is is necessary to determine whether the act done or not done was or not authorized by law, was or not incumbent upon him, was or not required of him, whether he was directed to do it, whether he has failed to discharge the duty, and whether injury has been sustained. Where a Notary does a thing which the law does not authorize him to do, although he does it in his capacity of Notary Public, his bondsmen are not responsible for his act. Notaries and their sureties are liable only to the persons who have employed the Notary, and are only liable to those who suffer injury on account of the Notary's failure to perform the duty incumbent upon him or required by law.

Section 464-LIABILITY OF SURETIES ON OFFICIAL BOND.-The surety on a Notary's official bond is only bound for such acts of his as the law authorizes or requires him to do in his official capacity. By signing the bond, the surety tells all who may need the services of a Notary: "You can go with security to this Notary; I assure you that he is a competent officer; that he will well and faithfully discharge and perform all the duties imposed upon him by law; and if he fails in doing so, I will be responsible to you for losses sustained." If, therefore, a person calls on a Notary for the performance of a duty incumbent upon him, and the Notary fails or neglects his duty, and injury is suffered, the surety is liable to the party injured. A surety cannot be held liable because the Notary has done acts which the law did not authorize or compel him to perform, and which were therefore not incumbent upon him. The sureties upon the official bond of a Notary Public are only liable for damages occasioned by his negligence or misconduct in the line of his official duty.

Section 465.-PREMATURE PROTEST OF PROMISSORY NOTE.-In case of a promissory note falling due, according to its face, upon Sunday, a Notary cannot present it for payment, nor make protest, on the preceding Saturday. The following Monday is the proper date for presentment and protest, unless that is also a legal holiday, when the next would be the proper day. Sunday, not being a legal day for exacting payment, cannot be computed, except when it is an intermediate day. To do so would. make another contract for the parties, and by requiring payment on Saturday would compel the obligation to be met before the contract time for its performance had arrived. The act of a Notary in wrongfully protesting a promissory note before it is due gives a right of action against him for damages, and against his bondsmen, in favor of the injured party. For the Notary is presumed to know the wrongful character of the act, and that, in the trading community, the protest of a note is likely to impair the maker's credit.

If lawfully protested, the maker cannot complain; but he can complain, and justly so, if presentment and protest are made prematurely, before the law authorizes the acts.

Section 466. FALSE CERTIFICATE TO TO ACKNOWLEDGMENT.-The sureties on the official bond of a Notary are liable for the full amount of a mortgage purchased in reliance on the genuineness of the Notary's certificate of acknowledgment, where the certificate is in fact false and the mortgage a forgery, and where the purported maker was solvent and able to pay the mortgage debt. When a Notary certifies that the mortgagor duly acknowledged the execution of a mortgage, which in fact is a forgery, the measure of damages, in a suit against the Notary or his sureties, brought by one who has parted with value on the face of such certificate, is the amount which would be the value of the mortgage if genuine. The value of the mortgage depends not merely upon the value of the mortgaged property, but also on the solvency of the mortgagor. When it appears, in such a suit for damages, that the plaintiff, had the mortgage been genuine, would have been able to collect the whole amount named therein, he is entitled to recover that amount from the Notary or his sureties, without regard to the value of the mortgaged property or the interest of the mortgagor in the property. If it should appear that the mortgage, if valid, could not be collected and would not be worth anything, then the plaintiff would not be entitled to damages, because it would not be shown that he had suffered any injury. But whatever value was shown, if the mortgage were valid, could be recovered against the Notary and his sureties.

Section 467. NOTARY CANNOT AMEND CERTIFICATE.-When an acknowledgment has been made, before a Notary, the party making it has done all that the law requires to make the instrument his act and deed. The embodiment of the fact of acknowledgment, in the form of the certificate prescribed by law, devolves upon the Notary, and not upon the party making it. And if the Notary

blunders in certifying to an acknowledgment duly made, or if he makes a defective or false certificate, he cannot alter or amend it; because, after taking the acknowledgment and delivering the return, his functions cease, and he is discharged from all further authority. The Superior Court, and not the Notary, has power to correct a defective certificate of acknowledgment.

Section 468.-NOTARY'S KNOWLEDGE OF PARTY ACKNOWLEDGING INSTRUMENT.-A Notary is bound to know the person acknowledging an instrument before him, or, if he is not personally acquainted with him, he is bound to have the person's identity established by competent proof. If he knows the person, he may so state in his certificate of acknowledgment; if he does not know him personally, he may state in his certificate of acknowledgment the proof presented to establish his identity. When a Notary Public, in taking and certifying an acknowledgment to a mortgage, neglected to state in his certificate that the party acknowledging the instrument was known to him, or was identified by the testimony of a witness examined by him for that purpose, the Supreme Court of California held that the Notary was guilty of gross negligence, and that he and his bondsmen were responsible to the party injured for the damages resulting from his negligence. The Court said: "Plaintiff loaned to one Dupuy a sum of money, taking as security a mortgage on a lot in San Francisco. The mortgage was acknowledged by Dupuy before defendant Finlay, who was a Notary Public. The mortgage used was an ordinary printed form, having a certificate of acknowledgment in blank, in which was inserted, in the hand of one Sanders, who acted in the transaction as attorney for both mortgagor and mortgagee, the name of the mortgagor and the date of the acknowledgment. To this certificate the Notary affixed his signature and seal, but omitted to state either that the party acknowledging was known to him, or was identified by the testimony of a witness examined for that purpose. In consequence of that omission, the record of the mortgage was