Essex County Quitclaim Deed (Partnership or Limited Partnership Grantor) Form

Massachusetts lets one partner sign a partnership out of its real estate, and it keeps a way open to take the land back. Under General Laws Chapter 108A, Section 10, where title stands in the partnership name any partner may convey it by a conveyance executed in that name, yet the partnership may still recover the property unless the signing partner's act bound it under Section 9, or unless the land has moved on to a holder for value who did not know the partner had exceeded his authority. This fillable deed is built around that single signature.

Why one signature carries the partnership

Section 9 is the engine. Every partner is an agent of the partnership, so an instrument executed in the partnership name for apparently carrying on the business in the usual way binds it, unless the partner lacked authority and the person dealing with him knew it. Two limits sit beside that: an act outside the usual course does not bind the partnership without the other partners, and fewer than all the partners cannot do anything that would make it impossible to carry on the ordinary business, a live question where the parcel sold is the partnership's only asset.

Three authority records, one signature block

Where that authority is recorded depends on which partnership signs, and Section 9 of the form has a blank for it. A limited partnership's general partners appear in the certificate of limited partnership filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth under Chapter 109, Section 8, and Chapter 109, Section 24 gives a general partner the powers and restrictions of a partner in a partnership without limited partners. A registered limited liability partnership can go further: Chapter 108A, Section 45 lets its registration name the partners authorized to execute, acknowledge, deliver and record instruments affecting real property, and Section 48 makes a deed so executed binding in favor of anyone relying in good faith, whatever the partnership agreement or an internal vote says. A general partnership that has filed nothing has no such record, Massachusetts having kept the Uniform Partnership Act and never taken up the statement of partnership authority.

A covenant measured by the partnership's own years

Quitclaim is not a promise-free word here. Chapter 183, Section 11 gives a deed drawn on the statutory form the force of a fee simple conveyance with quitclaim covenants, and Section 17 fixes their reach: encumbrances the grantor made, plus a defense against claims traced through the grantor, and nothing older. Farris v. Hershfield is the Supreme Judicial Court's application of that limit. The promise here belongs to the partnership, not to the partner who signs, and the encumbrances section lifts a listed mortgage or easement out of it.

The partnership patterns this deed recites

Section 1 names one partnership as grantor, with its type and jurisdiction of organization; Section 2 names the partner who signs and the capacity held; and the operative section has that partner sign in the partnership name and not individually, under one printed name and one acknowledgment certificate. A limited partnership conveying a parcel after the partners voted on the price, a registered limited liability partnership conveying the office condominium where the firm practiced, and a two-partner general partnership conveying a storefront held under the partnership name, all present the pattern this deed recites. No homestead line appears on it: Chapter 108A, Section 25 keeps a partner's right in specific partnership property clear of dower, curtesy, and any homestead or exemption claim when the property is taken for a partnership debt. The form is not set up for title standing in the names of individual partners, for two signing partners, for a corporation or limited liability company, or for a fiduciary. Searches for a Massachusetts partnership deed or a quit claim deed from a partnership describe this configuration.

Stamps, and a registry district that is not a county

Recording happens at the registry district covering the land, at the statewide $155 fee, with Chapter 64D stamps on the stated consideration: $2.28 for each $500 or fraction, and $3.24 in Barnstable County. The completed example runs a Worcester Northern District pattern in Fitchburg at $780,000, which draws $3,556.80 in stamps.

This download carries the fillable partnership deed, the completed example, and a guide that walks each numbered section, the acknowledgment certificate, and the recording steps. Massachusetts law is described here in general terms, and this is not legal advice.