RECORDING OF DEEDS. At common law, the transfer of title to real property by livery of seisin {q.v.) was a public and notorious act. making unnecessary any formal public record of the transaction. The modern practice of record ing transfers of property on public records was therefore unknown to the common law. The Statute of Uses (27 Henry V111.. c. 161. which made permissible the conveyance of real estate by deed privately executed, gave rise to the neces sity of sonic method of publicly recording all instruments of conveyance. The first step in this direction was taken by the Statute of Enroll ments (27 Henry \III.. c. 161. which provided for the enrollment or recording of all deeds of bargain and sale. As the statute (lid not in terms apply to leases of real estate, the lawyers of the time speedily invented a method of evad ing the statute by means of conveyance by lease and release (q.v.)._ The Statute of Enrollments thus became practically inoperative almost from the time of its enactment. (See CoxvEYANcE.) A later statute (7 Anne, c. 20) required the re cording of deeds of all real estate located in the County of 1Nliddlesex, and this was followed by sonic other statutes having a purely local ap plication. There is, however, no statute in Eng land of general application requiring that deeds be recorded, and the practice of recording deeds has never become common in that country.
in the United States from the earliest time there have been statutes providing for the re cording of conveyances of real estate, and now generally in the different States there are statutes providing for the recording of all deeds or instruments affecting the title to real estate, and in certain eases instruments affecting the title to personal property. Thus generally deeds, leases, mortgages, assignments, and releases of mortgage, wills, lis pendens, mechanics' liens, and liens upon or affecting real estate may be record ed. And in many States mortgages and conditional sales of personal property may be recorded. The method of recording is usually prescribed by statute. Generally the document is transcribed on public record books provided for the purpose. The place of record is usually, in ease of real estate, the county in which the property is lo cated, or, in ease of personal property, the town or city in which the property is located or where the mortgagor or owner resides, or both ; and there are numerous special provisions gov erning the recording of instruments affecting transitory property, as vessels, canal boats, and the like. The instrument to be recorded must be
properly executed, and it is generally required that it shall be acknowledged before a notary or a corresponding public officer. It is generally deemed to be recorded from the time it is filed in the office of the public officer whose duty it is to record the instrument.
The effect of recording a deed or conveyance in accordance with the various recording acts is to give constructive notice of the deed or conveyance to all who deal with the property. Recording a deed is not necessary to determine the rights of those who are parties to it and their privies; but if the deed is not recorded a subsequent pur chaser who has recorded his deed and who had no notice of a prior conveyance will he deemed to have title rather than the first purchaser who did not record his deed. In other words, as be tween two innocent parties claiming from the same grantor he has a good title who first re cords his deed.
Unless the recording net specifically otherwise provides, creditors or those buying with notice of a prior conveyance will not be protected by the recording act, but will acquire only the title actually vested in their grantor. The effect of the recording acts, therefore, is to make the public record the conclusive record of the ownership o• interest in real property to all who rely upon it, and any one who deals with the property. ex cept a creditor or one having actual notice of an unrecorded instrument affecting the property, may rely upon the state of the public record on the date of taking a deed or conveyance as deter mining completely the right or interest which he acquires. In England, owing to the practice of not recording instruments of conveyance, it is usual to give the buyer of real estate who is entitled to receive them all the conveyances affecting the property as muniments of title. In the United States this is not necessary or usual, as the public record is sufficient evidence of the title; and the buyer is entitled only to the grantor's conveyance with the usual cove nants of warranty.