Court Opinion

ID: 9579231
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:52:52.222433+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:32:17.902896
License: Public Domain

Hawes, Justice,
concurring specially. I concur in the judgment of affirmance in this case solely because, as noted in the majority opinion, the record as transmitted to this court is insufficient to enable us to determine whether the judgment of the trial court is correct or not. However, the record does reveal from the pleadings that Mrs. Frost held a deed to secure debt executed by a remote grantor of the defendants. That deed which was executed in October of 1958 was duly and properly recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Jackson County. In February of 1964, a cancellation of that deed was entered on the face of the record, Thereafter, in July of 1964, the maker of the deed to secure debt executed a warranty deed to a Mrs. Wilson who, in September of 1967, conveyed the property by warranty deed to the defendant Gasaway. On the same date, Gasaway transferred the property to the Veterans Administration as security for a loan. The record shows that after the cancellation of the original security deed to Mrs. Frost was entered on the record, the debtor continued to pay annual instalments of interest due on the deed up until his death, and even after he had conveyed the property to Mrs. Wilson. It seems to be beyond dispute that the cancellation on the record of the security deed to Mrs. Frost was a fraudulent cancellation. It does not appear that the clerk of the superior court is able to throw any light on the matter respecting by what authority the recordation of the deed was canceled.
These circumstances point up what I deem to be a hiatus *357in the law. As most practicing attorneys are aware, it is the custom of the clerks of the superior courts of this State to enter cancellation of deeds to secure debt on the record merely upon the most informal sort of evidence furnished to them showing satisfaction of the indebtedness. It is frequently the practice, as most certainly must have been done in this case to enter such cancellations upon the presentation of a mere letter or memorandum apparently signed by the holder of such instrument and without requiring that the instrument itself be delivered up to the clerk before cancellation of the same on the record. To be sure, I am aware that this is not a universal practice. Some clerks of court require that entry of the satisfaction on the deed be made with the same formality with which the deed itself was executed; that is, with the attestations of two witnesses, one of whom must be a notary. However, even that would not seem to satisfy the requirement which is implicit in Code § 67-1301 that upon the payment of the indebtedness secured by an absolute deed the grantor therein shall have the right to have the property reconveyed to him. A reconveyance can only be accomplished by the execution and delivery of a deed, and the mere entry on the deed to secure debt of a notation that the indebtedness has been fully paid and satisfied would seem to fall far short of accomplishing a reconveyance.
At any rate, it seems to me that this is a matter which addresses itself to the attention of the legislature. There is no requirement in the law binding the clerk of the various superior courts not to cancel deeds to secure debts on their records in the absence of evidence submitted to them executed with such formality as reasonably to assure against forgeries the possibility that a transaction, or series of transactions, like those appearing in this case could occur again ought to be foreclosed at the first opportunity by appropriate legislation.