Section 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.