Case Name: Connolly v. Stewart
Court: Constitutional Court of South Carolina
Jurisdiction: South Carolina
Decision Date: 1803-05
Citations: 1 Brev. 271
Docket Number: 
Parties: Connolly v. Stewart.
Judges: (Bay, Johnson, Trezevant, and Brevard, Justices, absent, Guimke, J. and Watiks, J.)
Reporter: South Carolina Law Reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 271–273

Head Matter:
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT,
CHARLESTON,
MAY, 1803.
Connolly v. Stewart.
Under the act of 169'1, a mortgage of a chattel interest in land, must be recorded in the Reg.ster’s office: and where such a mortgage has been recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, and not in the Register’s, it will be postponed to a junior mortgage recorded in the latter. The distinction in the act, as to the offices m which mortgages and other conveyances must be recorded, is in respect to the subject, and not to the interest of the party in it. Vide 2 Bay, 509. S. C.
Motion to reverse the decision of Johnson, J., in this case, in Charleston district; upon the following point: R. B., being in. debted to the plaintiff by bond, dated 1709, for securing the payment thereof, mortgaged a certain house built upon a leasehold estate. The mortgage w; s recorded in August, 1800. in the office of the Secretary of Slate. The defendant sued R. R. and recovered a judgment against him in IcOI; and, by virtue thereof, had the mortgaged premises sold under execution. The proceeds of this s<Je were stopped in the sheriff’s hands by the plaintiff, who claimed siime by virtue of the mortgage afoiesaid. For the defendant it was contended, that the mortage was not recorded in the proper office required by law. Johnson, J., was of opinion the mortgage was not recorded as by law required ; and, therefore, that the plaintiff was not entitled to the money. It appeared that the defendant bad also a mortgage of the same premises, to secure his debt;- and, that his mortgage, which was ju nor to the plaintiff’s, was recoided in the office of the Register of mesne conveyances, int Charleston.
By the act of assembly, of lfl&'8, P. L. 3, it is enacted,that “ That sale, conveyance, or mortgage, of lands and tenements, except originnl grants, which shall he first registered in the register’s office,in Charlestown, shall be taken, deemed, adjudged, allowed of, and held to he the first sale, conveyance, and mortgage, arid to be good, firm, substantial, and lawful, in all courts of judicature, &c. any former or other sale, conveyance, or mortgage, of the same land, not before registered, not withstanding : and (hat that sale, or mortgage, of negroes, goods, or chattels, which shall he first recorded in the secretary’s office, in Charlestown, shall be taken, deemed, adjudged, allowed of and held to be the first mortgage, and good, firm,substantial, and lawful in all courts of judicature, &.c. anv former, or other sale, or mortgage, for the same negroes, goods, and chattels, not recorded in the said office, notwithstanding.” And in support of the motion it was insisted, that (he mortgage to the plaintiff in this case being ot a leasehold estate, which is a chattel real, must he intended by the act of assembly under the denomination of “ chattels,” and therefore was properly recorded in the secretary’s office.

Opinion:
Sed per Curiam.
(Bay, Johnson, Trezevant, and Brevard, Justices, absent, Guimke, J. and Watiks, J.)
It seems to have been the policy of the act, to require that mortgages con. ceruing real property should be recorded in one public office; and mortgages concerning personal property in another public office. The act, in making this distinction, seems to have had respect to the thing or subject mortgaged, and not to the interest or title of the mortgagor, in, or to the thing. In this case, the thing, or property mortgaged, was land. It was a house and lot in possession of the mortgagor. It appears that the mortgagor was not entitled to the absolute property : he had only a term for years in the land. But the quantity of interest, does not alter the case. It is not the quantity of interest, but the nature of the property, whether land, or personal estate, that must decide in which office the mortgage shall be recorded.
Ward, for the motion. Cheves, contra,
Decision of the district court affirmed.