Recording Instruments
The North Dakota County Recorders Association has sent out a notice
advising of the changes to N.D.C.C. Ch. 11-18. This notice provides
as follows:
As of the effective date, 12/1/2003, an instrument presented for
recording to the County Recorder will be deemed unrecordable
and returned to the sender if that instrument
bears a social security number or tax identification number
of any kind.
Financial institutions should ensure that mortgages and deeds
do not have social security numbers or tax ID numbers on them in
any location on the document. However, this notice has raised the
question of whether a financing statement filed as a fixture filing
in county real estate records can be legally sufficient without
a social security number. We advise our clients that the law still
requires a social security number on a fixture filing. The amendments
set out in HB 1092, read together, appear to mean that the secured
party still can and still must include the debtor's social security
number in order to make a valid fixture filing, but that the county
recorder has the responsibility to redact that particular number
off the fixture filing – the secured party cannot leave the
number off the filing.
In plain English, do not include a social security number or tax
ID number on a mortgage or deed, but do include the number on a
financing statement filed as a fixture filing to be filed with the
County Recorder.
Safe Deposit Box Ownership Problem
by Mary Beth Guard
Question: I have a dilemma concerning ownership of a safe deposit
box. In my example I will use first names only just for expediency.
I have a safe deposit box that was opened a year and a half ago
in the name of Shirley and Laverne, let's say. Shirley was the person
who
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came in and
she is the only person to sign the signature card. She signed the
card as both an owner and a deputy (why, I don't know). On our system,
the box was entered with Laverne being the owner. However, Laverne
never signed the rental agreement. Since the time the box was rented,
our records show only one entry into the box, and that was last week.
On Wednesday, Shirley signed to get in the box at 11:00 a.m. As it
turns out, Laverne died that day at 11:00. We were not directly notified
of Laverne's death. We found out two days later in casual conversation
with someone going to her funeral. I see so many things wrong I can't
even verbalize what all they are, but my question to you is "How
do I treat this box? Who should be considered the owner of the contents?"
This is the only relationship our bank had with Laverne.
Answer: I wanted to publish your question because
it serves as a great reminder of how screwy customer behavior can
sometimes be. Regardless of which area of the bank you're dealing
with, signature cards and other contracts completed by the customer
should always be reviewed after they are executed - and before keys
to a safe deposit box are handed over (or an account number is assigned
on a deposit account or proceeds of a loan are disbursed, in other
contexts) to ensure they have been properly completed.
Shirley, for some unknown reason, signed the safe deposit rental agreement
as both renter/owner and deputy. Obviously, a person is either one
or the other. If Laverne had signed as renter/owner, then it would
have been plausible to think perhaps Shirley was just going to be
a deputy on Laverne's box. With Laverne never showing up to sign,
however, you don't even know for sure that Laverne ever knew about
the box, nor do you know whether she intended to enter into the contract.
One thing is certain: you never had a valid, completed contractual
agreement with Laverne. The only party you have a contract with is
Shirley, and she's the only one who has accessed the box. I would
treat Shirley as the owner of the contents.
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