Several years ago I had the pleasure of working with a British attorney (solicitor) on a matter. His firm was located in Bristol, England, and had been established in the 18 th century. There is a lot to be said for longevity. The matter on which we were working had nothing to do with real estate, but during the course of the case we had an opportunity to compare American and British procedures for record keeping. He indicated that under the English system the deeds for a piece of property were bound into a sheaf, and that issues in involving title were resolved through a review of the deeds contained in the sheaf. Apparently there was a real problem if one or more of the deeds in the sheaf were lost or destroyed. He indicated that England was in the process of adopting the American system of recording, and that at the time approximately half the country was on the American system and the remainder was under the old English system.

With respect to recording liens and mortgages (Connecticut is a title theory state and the mortgage is more than a lien) , perfection of the lien/mortgage by publicly recording it is required to establish it as a security interest under Connecticut's law of Secured Transactions. Recording is also critical in establishing priorities for purposes of bankruptcy and foreclosures.

In a bankruptcy secured creditors are paid before unsecured creditors. The secured creditors are paid to the extent that there are funds available in the bankrupt estate in the order of their priorities established through publicly recorded dates . All debts listed in the matrix are either paid or extinguished in their entirety by the bankruptcy' s reorganization plan or liquidation depending upon the chapter under which it is filed.

In a foreclosure the priorities established by recording determine whether or not a lien/mortgage holder is to be a defendant in the case and the establishment of redemption dates (law dates in Connecticut) for purposes of a strict foreclosure. The promissory note and the mortgage securing it give rise to alternate causes of action. The creditor can sue to foreclose on title interest and/or sue for money damages under the note. Connecticut law requires that all lien/mortgage holders be listed in the complaint in order of their priorities as established by their recording dates in the public land records office. Those whose interests are prior to the plaintiff's are included for informational purposes because their interests are not being foreclosed. Those whose interests are subsequent in priority to the plaintiff's are named as defendants in the case. At the conclusion of a strict foreclosure redemption (law) dates are assigned to each of the defendants in the reverse order of their priority with the property owner receiving the earliest date and the most junior lien/mortgage holder receiving the next date. As the law dates come and go without redemption the debt owed  to each defendant who fails to redeem is transformed from a secured debt to an unsecured debt. The defendant who redeems on his law date takes title subject to the prior liens/mortgages. Those defendants that fail to redeem still have the option of suing as an unsecured creditor under the promissory note, and they can transform the debt again to a secured debt by attaching alternate property through a prejudgment remedy. The recording date of the attachment preserves the plaintiff's priority for a later judgment lien.