Opinion ID: 2812450
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Texas Recording System

Text: In Texas, county clerks are elected officials responsible for recording instruments that are presented to the clerk’s office and maintaining these instruments as “public property.” Tex. Const. art. V, § 20; Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 11.004(a)(1); Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 201.005(a). A county clerk must record “within a reasonable time after delivery, any instrument authorized or required to be recorded in that clerk’s office that is proved, acknowledged, or sworn to according to law.” Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 11.004(a)(1). “The county clerk shall record, exactly, without delay . . . the contents of each instrument that is filed for recording and that the clerk is authorized to record.” Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 191.001(c). Each time an instrument is accepted for recording, the county charges a recording fee for the service. Although deeds of trust are instruments that county clerks must record, promissory notes are not. The Dallas County clerk acknowledged that his employees do not try to determine whether the statements in an instrument are true. If the instrument presented for recording is “normal on its face,” the Dallas County clerk or a cashier at the clerk’s office will accept it. Indeed, “[i]f a document covered by a filing statute is regular on its face, the clerk may not refuse to file it based on extraneous facts.” Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. LO98-016, at 3. By statute, however, a clerk “shall” refrain from recording a document that he “believe[s] in good faith” creates a fraudulent lien so that he can consult the county or district attorney. Tex. Gov’t Code Ann. § 51.901(d). Dallas County did not use this mechanism to investigate whether a MERS deed of trust is fraudulent. Instead, it filed this lawsuit and continued accepting MERS deeds of trust for recording. 4 Case: 14-10392 Document: 00513095770 Page: 5 Date Filed: 06/26/2015 No. 14-10392