Court Opinion

ID: 9791164
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:06:56.618498+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:34.519658
License: Public Domain

*1227HALL, Justice
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent.
U.C.A., 1953, 76-6-503 provides as follows:
(1) Any person who with intent to deceive or injure anyone falsifies, destroys, removes, or conceals any will, deed* mortgage, security instrument, or other writing for which the law provides public recording is guilty of fraudulent handling of recordable writings.
(2) Fraudulent handling of recordable writings is a felony of the third degree.
Whereas, U.C.A., 1953, 76-6-504 provides:
(1) Any person who, having no privilege to do so, knowingly falsifies, destroys, removes, or conceals any writing, other than the writings enumerated in section 76-6-503, or record, public or private, with intent to deceive or injure any person or to conceal any wrongdoing is guilty of tampering with records.
(2) Tampering with records is a class B misdemeanor.
A comparison of the foregoing statutes readily reveals that they do not proscribe the same conduct. This is apparent in the fact that Section 503 proscribes the falsification of those writings which may by law become part of the public record, whereas Section 504 proscribes the falsification of all other writings of lesser dignity and importance, not enumerated in said Section 503.
Inasmuch as said statutes address wholly separate subject matter, it necessarily follows that the elements of the respective offenses provided for therein are not the same. Consequently, it is not to be concluded that the lesser offense is included within the greater.
“Included offenses” are only those which may be established by proof of the same or less than all of the facts required to establish the commission of the offense charged.1
Irrespective of the foregoing, the majority opinion concludes to the contrary, doing so by a strained interpretation of the terms “file” and “record.” Aside from any neat interpretation of those terms, the inescapable fact remains that the term “file” is defined as a record,2 and a document is said to be filed when it is delivered to the proper officer and by him received to be kept on file as a matter of record and reference.3
The term “record” is defined as an authentic official copy of a document entered in a book or deposited in keeping of an officer designated by law.4 A “public record” is defined as a record, memorial of some act or transaction, written evidence of something done, or document, considered as either concerning or interesting the public, affording notice or information to the public, or open to public inspection; any writing prepared, owned, used or retained by an agency in pursuance of law or in connection with the transaction of public business.5
The foregoing definitions aptly describe and encompass articles of incorporation as concern us here, and the “filing” thereof with the secretary of state certainly constitutes a “writing for which the law provides public recording” within the contemplation of said Section 503. The primary purpose of the statutory requirement that articles of incorporation be filed,6 aside from the necessity thereof to effect corporate status itself, is to preserve a duplicate original of the articles in the office of the secretary of state which may be relied upon by the public as a permanent record.7
Of further support of my view of this matter is the comparability in dignity and importance of articles of incorporation to wills, deeds, mortgages and security instruments which are specifically delineated in Section 503 as “recordable writings.”
*1228There is, of course, no law which provides for the recordation of wills, at least in the sense of delivery of the same to a county recorder for filing and subsequent recording.,8 However, a will may be deposited with the county clerk for safekeeping,9 and by the explicit terms of Section 503, such would become a “public recording” thereof.
In the case of deeds, mortgages and security instruments, the law specifically permits their deposit with the county clerk for filing and recordation, all of which serves the purpose of imparting notice.10 However, security instruments are of two types: those which secure interests in realty and those which secure interests in personalty. The former are properly deposited with and thereafter filed and recorded by the county recorder,11 while the latter are simply deposited with and thereafter filed by the secretary of state.12 Certainly in the case of the latter, it cannot be said that the filing thereof by the secretary of state can be anything less than a “public recording” thereof within the meaning of Section 503, supra.
In light of the foregoing analysis, it is to be observed that the Legislature has recognized other means of “public recording” short of, in all instances, requiring recordation by a county recorder. Consequently, I attach no significance to the fact, as observed in the main opinion, that the Legislature did not see fit to expressly categorize articles of incorporation as a “recordable writing.”
In the same vein, it is of note that, in general, there is no absolute requirement of recordation of any writing, either by the county recorder, or others. The law only makes provision therefor. On the other hand, there is no legal prohibition against the recordation of any writing by the county recorder, including articles of incorporation, so long as one advances the fees therefor.
The only significant issue on appeal being whether articles of incorporation rise to the level of a “writing for which the law provides public recording,” I would rule that they do and therefore affirm the conviction and judgments of the trial court.

. As provided by U.C.A., 1953, 76-1—402(3).

. Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition.

. Id.

. Id.

.Id.

. Provided for by law in U.C.A., 1953, 16-10-50.

. See U.C.A., 1953, 16-10-134 providing that certified copies are admissible as prima facie evidence.

. As provided by U.C.A., 1953, 17-21-20.

. Pursuant to the provisions of U.C.A., 1953, 75-2-901.

.See U.C.A., 1953, 57-1-6 and 57-3-2.

. See U.C.A., 1953, 70A-9-302(5)(a).

. See U.C.A., 1953, 70A-9-302(5)(b).