Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

THEATTORNEYGENERAL
OF TEXAS
Auerrrti.``.
TEXAS
November 21, 1963
Honorable Joe Resweber Opinion No. C-182
County Attorney
'HarrisCounty Re: Whether certain instruments
Houston, Texas submitted to the County Clerk
,of Harris County by the Board
for Texas State Hospitals and
Special Schools can be filed
In the County Clerk's Office,
Dear Mr. Resweber: and related question.
The questionswhich you have ,askeddeal with certain
Instrumentssubmitted to the County Clerk for filing. The in-
struments are claims 'ofliens again&the estates of former
patients of various State Hospitals or Special Schools for the
care and maintenance of the patientswhile they were in the
hospital or school. The,claims are verified by a Claims Repre-
sentativeof the Board For Texas State Hospitals and Special
Schools,
The questions that you have asked are as folloz:
"(1) Can these instrumentsbe filed in the
County Clerk's office?
"(2) If so, in what record should they be
recorded?"
Article 6601 of Vernon's Civil Statutes reads as fol-
lows:
"All deeds of trust, mortgages or judgments
which are required to be recorded in order to
create a judgment lien, or other instrumentsof
writing intended to create a lien, shall be re-
corded in a book or books separate from those in
which deeds or other conveyancesare recorded."
(Emphasis added).
Article 6626 of Vernon's Civil Statutes reads in part
as follows:
"The following instrumentsof writing which
shall have been acknowledgedor proved according
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Hon. Joe Resweber, page 2 (C-182)
to law, are authorizedto be recorded,viz: all
deeds, mortgages, conveyances,deeds of trust;.
bonds for title, covenants,defeasances or other
instrumentsof writing concerning any lands or
tenements, or goods and chattels, or moveable
property of any description; . . .I*
It is well settled that the duties of % recording of-
ficer such as the County Clerk are ministerial. First National
Bank v. McElroy 112 S.W. 801 (Tex.Civ.&pp.1908); The instru-
ments submitted'showon their face that they are instrumentsof
writing intended to create a lien and therefore fall clearly
within the purview of Article 6601, quoted above. However, this
opinion is not intended to pass on whether these particular in-
struments create a valid lien. The recording officer does not
have the power to pass on ,thevalidity of such an instrument;it
is his duty to file the instrumentprovided that it complies
with the form prescribedby dFCicle 6626, as set out above. Such
instrument should be filed in accordancewith Article 6601 and
placed in the mortgage records.
Instrumentsof writing intended to create a
lien which are in the proper form should be filed
in the County Clerk's Office in accordance with
Article 6601 of Vernon's Civil Statutes.
Yours very truly,
WAGGONER CARR
Attorney General
*A ?F-@-
Jack G. Norwood
JGNrwb Assistant
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
George Gray, Qairman
Cecil Rotsch
Paul Robertson
APPROVED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: Stanton Stone
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