§ 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.