Request By:
Ms. Nina Mooney
Bullitt County Court Clerk
Shepherdsville, Kentucky 40165
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
As county clerk you record various instruments and a recording certificate is stamped on each instrument. That form reads:
"State of Kentucky
County of Bullitt
Sct.
I, Nina Mooney, Clerk of the Bullitt County Court for the County and State aforesaid, certify that on 19 at the foregoing was produced to me in my said office and lodged for record. Whereupon I have duly recorded the same in my office.
Witness my hand this day of , 19.
Clerk By D.C."
You are in the process of buying an electric clock-stamp and have the wording incorporated on the clock to read as follows:
"Fee Paid St. Clerk LODGED AND RECORDED THIS
Date
Time
Nina Mooney
BULLITT COUNTY CLERK
By: D.C."
You ask: Will it be legal to use the electric clock stamp as above shown, thus eliminating all the extra work and certificates. The answer is "yes".
KRS 382.270 [see also KRS 382.110 and KRS 382.080] provides that deeds and mortgages involving real estate are not valid against purchasers or creditors, without actual notice thereof, unless they are properly acknowledged and lodged for record. "It is the policy of the law that title should be made a matter of record, and bona fide purchasers of property are not bound by a matter not of record, unless they have notice of such facts as would put a reasonable man on notice. " Terry v. Ellsworth, 236 Ky. 54, 32 S.W.2d 558 (1930) 561. In 26 C.J.S., Deeds, § 73, p. 798, it is written that "Registry acts of a state have been declared to be remedial, and it has been decided that they should be liaberally and beneficially construed . . ."
The county clerk is required, under KRS 382.300, to record all deeds, mortgages, etc., that are lodged for record, properly certified, or that are acknowledged or proved before him as required by law. The clerk must also record the certificates indorsed on such instruments, "and shall certify the time when the instrument was lodged in his office for record." (Emphasis added). If acknowledged or proved before the clerk, he must also certify the time of acknowledgment or proof, and by whom proved, and that the instrument and the certificate thereon have been duly recorded in his office.
But your question relates strictly to the matter of noting the mere lodging and recording of the instrument. KRS 382.300 provides for no formal certificate as to just the lodging and recording of the instrument. It does, however, specifically require the clerk to show or certify the precise time when the instrument was lodged in his office for record. To certify, in connection with documents, means generally to make known or establish as a fact. No certain words are necessary to create a valid certificate. State v. Abernathy, 190 N.C. 768, 130 S.E. 619, 620; U.S. v. Ambrose, 108 U.S. 336, 2 S. Ct. 682, 27 L. Ed. 746; and Harting v, Cebrian, 51 P.2d 195, 10 Cal. App.2d 10.
When considering the purpose of recording legislation and the fact that the statutes require no specific form of certificate covering the lodging and recording of the instrument by the clerk, it is our opinion that the proposed wording or statement on the electric clock stamp will be a substantial compliance with KRS 382.300 as a recording certificate.