Request By:
Ms. Anna Marie Baker
Powell County Clerk
P.O. Box 580
Stanton, Kentucky 40380
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You ask for our opinion as to whether the county clerk is permitted to make any changes on an instrument after it is recorded. See KRS 382.110, concerning recording of deeds and mortgages.
The county clerk has no authority to change or alter the wording of any instrument lodged for recording in that office, except for any applicable situation under KRS 382.320. Under that statute if the office of any county clerk has been vacated, leaving any instrument recorded in his office, the original of which has never been taken from the office, and the instrument as recorded deviates from such original, the successor clerk shall correct such recording by making it an exact copy of the original instrument. Actually that statute reflects the legislative policy that the clerk's role as a recorder is to simply faithfully record or duplicate 1 instruments lodged for record, which are recordable. But the emphasis is upon the recording of the instrument precisely as it is.
An instrument can be corrected and redrafted by the parties to the instrument. For example, where a deed is already recorded, the parties may correct a mistake by the drafting of a deed of correction. Then the deed of correction can be lodged with the clerk for recording. The deed of correction would have to refer, by specific recording data, to the original deed as previously recorded. Otherwise, the parties would have to resort to the courts for a change or alteration of the instrument. But the county clerk cannot change or alter any such record even though all parties would agree to it. See also 76 C.J.S., Records, § 24.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 By any method of reproduction permitted under KRS 382.300, which includes photocopying or any other mechanical process for reproducing the record.