§ 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.