N.Y. Real Property Law § 316-a: Indexing and reindexing conveyances, mortgages and other instruments

§ 316-a. Indexing and reindexing conveyances, mortgages and other

instruments. 1. Every instrument affecting real estate or chattels real,

situated in the county of Suffolk, which shall be, or which shall have

been recorded in the office of the clerk of said county on and after the

first day of January, nineteen hundred fifty-one, shall be recorded and

indexed pursuant to the provisions of this act.

2. The clerk of the county of Suffolk is hereby directed and required,

immediately upon the passage of this act, to cause to be prepared one or

more books for each town in the said county of Suffolk for the indexing

therein, under the proper town so designated, of all instruments now

required by law to be recorded in the books of conveyances. And said

clerk shall also cause to be prepared one or more books for each of said

towns in said county for the indexing therein, under the proper town so

designated, of all instruments now required by law to be recorded in the

books of mortgages. Said indexes shall be deposited in the office of

said clerk. They shall be prepared so as to contain the date of

recording of each instrument, the names of the parties to each

instrument and the liber and page of the record thereof and shall be

substantially the forms of the schedules hereto annexed, designated

respectively as schedule A, schedule B, schedule C, schedule D, which

schedules shall be deemed and taken to be a part of this act. Said books

shall be entitled "town indexes of conveyances and mortgages"

respectively, and shall indicate the towns to which they respectively

relate.

3. It shall be the duty of the said clerk to provide and keep in his

office, besides said town indexes, a "daily index, or tickler of

conveyances," and a "daily index, or tickler of mortgages," together

with books or records in which shall be recorded at length conveyances

and mortgages recorded in his office, each of which shall be endorsed in

its proper liber number.

4. Every instrument presented to said clerk for record, and requiring

to be indexed under this act after the date when this act shall go into

operation, in order to entitle the same to be recorded, shall have

included therein, in the description of the premises, a designation of

the town in said county in which the land affected by the instrument

lies, and if it lies in two or more towns of said county the name of

each and every town in which the land affected by the instrument is

situated. Every assignment of a mortgage, and every agreement respecting

a mortgage, to entitle the same to be recorded, shall have included

therein a designation of the town in said county in which the land lies

which is affected by the mortgage to which such assignment or agreement

relates, and if such land lies in two or more towns of said county the

name of each and every town in which the land affected by the mortgage

to which such assignment or agreement relates. And a record of the

instrument shall not be effectual by way of notice to bona fide

purchasers or encumbrancers in respect to any land situated in any town

of said county not so designated except as hereinafter provided.

5. Whenever any instrument affecting or relating to land in said

county entitled to be recorded and required to be indexed under the

provisions of this act shall be presented to the said clerk for record,

he shall forthwith endorse thereupon the date, hour and minute of

acceptance for recording by him, and enter in the proper index or

tickler the name of every party executing said instrument, the date of

record thereof and the name of every town designated as aforesaid for

the indexing of such instrument and as soon as practicable thereafter

shall cause the said instrument to be indexed in the proper book or

books of the town indexes under the proper town designated in which such

property is situated.

6. The entries made in said indexes in conformity with the

requirements of this act shall for the purpose of notice be deemed and

taken to be a part of the record of the instrument to which such entries

respectively refer and shall be notice to such subsequent purchasers or

encumbrancers to the same extent and with the like effect as the

recording of such instruments in the office of said clerk now is or may

be notice.

7. For the purposes of indexing under the provisions of this act all

conveyances, mortgages, or other instruments recorded and indexed or

reindexed under the provisions of this act shall be so indexed or

reindexed under the proper town book of index indicated in the

description hereinbefore provided for, and in an order and sequence

known as the "first letter of the last name and first letter of the

first named method". The corporate names shall be indexed under the

first letter of the first substantive word of the name of the

corporation, or in the event of a corporation using the proper name of

an individual, such as John Smith, Inc., such index shall be under

Smith, John, Inc., as well as John Smith, Inc.

8. In cases where any instrument shall have been recorded without such

designation as required by this act, or with erroneous designation, the

said clerk shall, on presentation of proper proof thereof, enter such

instrument in the proper index of the proper town, the designation of

which shall have been erroneously stated or omitted, and shall at the

same time make a note of such entry and the date thereof, in every place

in which such instrument may have been erroneously indexed, opposite the

entry thereof, and also upon the record of the instrument and upon the

instrument itself, if the same be in his possession or produced to him

for the purpose, and the record of such instrument shall be constructive

notice as to the property in any town not duly designated at the time of

such record, only from the time when the same shall be properly indexed.

9. No entry in any book or index in said clerk's office shall be

erased so as to be illegible, but in case of any correction, the same

shall be made without destroying the original by drawing a line through

such original entry, and in such cases the date of such correction,

attested by the signature of the clerk or his deputy, shall be entered

upon the same page on which such correction is made, on the margin

opposite such correction. In the event the indexes are in a microfilm

the correction shall be made by a hole being punched in the margin

adjacent to the corrected entry. No initials being required in this

event.

10. Any person presenting to said clerk an instrument for record,

under this act, shall pay to said clerk, in addition to the fees now

required by law for recording like instruments, the further sum of one

dollar for each additional town beyond one under which said instrument

is required to be indexed, and the sum of one dollar for each town shall

be payable whenever an instrument already recorded is required to be

reindexed under section eight.

11. The provisions of this act shall not apply to the indexing of

general assignments, wills, powers of attorney, executory contracts for

sale or purchase of land or satisfaction of mortgages, but such

instruments shall be filed or recorded as now required by law and when

recorded they shall be indexed in separate alphabetical indexes.

12. For the purpose of carrying out the various provisions of this act

the clerk may employ such necessary clerical help as may in his judgment

be required.

13. The board of supervisors of said county is hereby authorized and

directed to appropriate, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions

of this act, all such sums of money as may be necessary therefor.

14. The records and indexes herein provided to be made under the

authority of this act shall be deposited in the office of the clerk of

said county for public use and the same shall be public records.

15. To the extent that the provisions herein are inconsistent with any

general or special law, this act shall be controlling.

16. This act shall be deemed and taken to be a public and not a

private act.

17. The county clerk may adopt a new indexing system utilizing

electro-mechanical, electronic, or any other method he deems suitable

for maintaining the indexes. Such system shall be approved by the county

legislature before being implemented.