George J. Meyer Mfg. Co. v. Sproul

CLARK, Circuit Judge.

Appellant here is contending for a liberal construction of one of the Pennsylvania Recording Acts. The argument is, we think, inappropriate. That type of statute is for protection, not for punishment. Its interpretation should be strong to help its beneficiaries and not, as in the criminal law, tempered with mercy toward those it strikes down. This is particularly so in a State whose “abhorrence of the secret lien” did not even admit of the palliative of recording.1

The particular Recording Act is that applicable to the conditional sale of chattels attached to the realty.2…