Legal Environment of Business 8th Edition by Henry Cheeseman

Exercise 1

Recording Statute Burl Brunson purchased a parcel of real property in Newark, New Jersey. The deed for the property was properly recorded and indexed by the county recorder. Subsequently, Brunson borrowed $50,000 from The Howard Savings Bank, secured by a mortgage that was properly recorded; however, the county recorder did not list the mortgage in its index for recorded documents. Brunson sold the property to Jesus and Celeste Ijalba and executed and delivered a deed for the property to them. This deed was properly recorded and indexed at the county recorder's office. Jesus and Celeste Ijalba borrowed money from Chrysler First Financial Services Corporation, secured by a mort­gage on the property that was properly recorded and indexed at the county recorder's office. Subsequently, Howard Savings Bank's mortgage from two years ear­lier was finally indexed by the county recorder. Three months later, Howard Savings Bank brought a fore­closure action on the property for Brunson's default on its loan and claimed that its mortgage had priority over the Ijalbases' deed and Chrysler First Financial's mortgage. The Ijalbases and Chrysler First Financial argued that Howard Savings Bank's mortgage did not have priority because it was not indexed, and therefore when they conducted their title search, Howard Savings Bank's mortgage did not appear in the index. The Ijalbases and Chrysler First Financial filed motions for summary judgment.
Was Howard Savings Bank's mortgage on the prop­erty properly recorded and indexed and thus gave no­tice of its existence to subsequent parties? The Howard Savings Bank v. Brunson, 582 A.2d 1305, 1990 N.J. Super. Lexis 436 (Superior Court of New Jersey)