Standard Finance Co. v. Little

Bond, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant, a mortgagee of land and chattels, has sued the clerk of the Superior Court of Baltimore City for damages supposed to have resulted from a failure to enter its mortgage in the general index of land records kept by the clerk. The appeal is from a judgment for the defendant •entered on the sustaining of a demurrer to the third amended •■declaration. The appellant contends that the indexing of conveyances, is .-a part of the recording which is required to pass title, and 'that without an indexing of the particular instrument the recording was not complete, the mortgage lien was not pre- ■ served as against'a subsequent vendee without actual notice • of it, and there having been a conveyance to such a vendee the ■■appellant was deprived of his security by the omission of the clerk.

This court concurs with the trial court in disagreeing with this contention. We are of opinion that the lien would be secured and continue unaffected by the omission from the index, and that the declaration does not therefore show the possibility of loss assumed. The lien of a mortgage is preserved under the statutory ⁶²³ provisions that deeds shall, in order to- pass title, be executed, acknowledged and recorded, and that mortgages shall be executed, acknowledged and recorded as is required with respect to deeds. Code, art. 21, secs. 1, 13, 15 and 32.

The relevant sections of that article, which covers the subject of conveyancing, speak of recording as necessary to the passing of title without referring to- an index. It is in article 17 of the Code, concerning clerks of courts, that the provisions for an index are found. Sections 59, 61 and 62. These latter sections require, first, that the- clerks in the state shall record such instruments in well-bound books which shall themselves contain alphabetical indexes of the contents, and, further that the clerks shall make and keep np general indexes.

It is the