House Bill 795

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 9-1-53, 9-1-57, 89-5-1 AND 89-5-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE HARD COPIES OF LAND RECORDS AND OTHER RECORDS TO BE MAINTAINED; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 9-1-53, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

9-1-53. Courts and county offices are hereby authorized but not required to institute procedures for the electronic filing and electronic storage of court documents to further the efficient administration and operation of the courts. Electronically filed or stored documents may be kept but each court shall also keep paper documents. Courts governed by rules promulgated by the Mississippi Supreme Court that institute electronic filing and electronic storage of court documents and offices of circuit and chancery clerks that institute electronic filing and electronic storage of court documents shall do so in conformity with such rules and regulations prescribed by the Administrative Office of Courts and adopted by the Mississippi Supreme Court concerning court records or court-related records. The provisions of Sections 9-1-51 through 9-1-57 shall not be construed to amend or repeal any other provision of existing state law which requires or provides for the maintenance of official written documents, records, dockets, books, ledgers or proceedings by a court or clerk of court in those courts which do not elect to exercise the discretion granted by this section. It is hereby declared to be the intent of the Legislature that official written documents, records, dockets, books, ledgers or proceedings may be filed, stored, maintained, reproduced and recorded in the manner authorized by Sections 9-1-51 through 9-1-57 or as otherwise provided by law, in the discretion of the clerk; provided, however, that the originals of such records shall be maintained.

SECTION 2. Section 9-1-57, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

9-1-57. A plan for the storage system shall require, but not be limited to, the following:

(a) All original documents shall be recorded and released into the system within a specified minimum time period after presentation to the clerk;

(b) Original paper records may be used during the pendency of any legal proceeding and shall be maintained as a permanent record;

(c) The plan shall include setting standards for organizing, identifying, coding and indexing so that the image produced during the duplicating process can be certified as a true and correct copy of the original and may be retrieved rapidly;

(d) All materials used in the duplicating process which correctly and legibly reproduces or which forms a medium of copying or reproducing all public records, as herein authorized, and all processes of development, fixation and washing of said photographic duplicates shall be of a quality approved for permanent photographic records by the United States Bureau of Standards;

(e) The plan shall provide for retention of the court records consistent with other law and in conformity with rules and regulations prescribed by the Administrative Office of Courts and adopted by the Mississippi Supreme Court and shall provide security provisions to guard against physical loss, alterations and deterioration; and

(f) All transcripts, exemplifications, copies or reproductions on paper or on film of an image or images of any microfilmed or otherwise duplicated record shall be deemed to be certified copies of the original for all purposes.

SECTION 3. Section 89-5-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

89-5-1. A conveyance of land shall not be good against a purchaser for a valuable consideration without notice, or any creditor, unless it be acknowledged by the party who executed it, or be proved by one or more of the subscribing witnesses to it that such party signed and delivered the same as his or her voluntary act before some officer authorized to take such acknowledgment or proof; and a certificate of such acknowledgment or proof shall be written upon or under the conveyance, and be signed by the officer before whom it was made, and be lodged with the clerk of the chancery court of the county in which the lands are situated to be recorded; but after filing with the clerk, the priority of time of filing shall determine the priority of all conveyances of the same land as between the several holders of such conveyances. The clerk shall maintain written paper records of such instruments as a permanent record.

SECTION 4. Section 89-5-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

89-5-3. All bargains and sales, and all other conveyances whatsoever of lands, whether made for passing an estate of freehold or inheritance, or for a term of years; and all instruments of settlement upon marriage wherein land, money, or other personalty should be settled or covenanted to be left or paid at the death of the party, or otherwise; and all deeds of trust and mortgages whatsoever, shall be void as to all creditors and subsequent purchasers for a valuable consideration without notice, unless they be acknowledged or proved and lodged with the clerk of the chancery court of the proper county, to be recorded in the same manner that other conveyances are required to be acknowledged or proved and recorded. Failure to file such instrument with the clerk for record shall prevent any claim of priority by the holder of such instrument over any similar recorded instrument affecting the same property, to the end that with reference to all instruments which may be filed for record under this section, the priority thereof shall be governed by the priority in time of the filing of the several instruments, in the absence of actual notice. But as between the parties and their heirs, and as to all subsequent purchasers with notice or without valuable consideration, said instruments shall nevertheless be valid and binding. The clerk shall maintain written paper records of such instruments as a permanent record.

SECTION 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and the requirements of this act shall apply to all instruments recorded on or after that date.