Title Examination Standards
Chapter 1, App.
Chapter 24. Mortgages and Other Liens
§24.3.1 Release of Corrective or Re-Recorded Instruments Evidencing Liens or Encumbrances.

Each instrument of record evidencing a lien or encumbrance must be described in the release thereof, except when an instrument acknowledging a lien or encumbrance appears followed by a similar instrument in which it is stated on the face of the instrument that the latter instrument is given to correct some defect in the former instrument, or when it appears on the face of the latter instrument that it is merely a re-recording of the former instrument. Specifically, where the latter instrument shows that it evidences the identical lien as the former instrument, a release of either the latter or former instrument, which does not specifically describe the other, is sufficient to discharge said lien or encumbrance.

History: Adopted as 12., November 16, 1946, 17 O.B.A.J. 1729 (1946), printed, id . at 1752, except that the language "in which it is stated on the face of the instruments," read "on the face of which it is stated." Further, the word "instrument" was not used following the first "latter" and the punctuation differed; became 11 on renumbering in 1948, 19 O.B.A.J. 223, 225 (1948), at which time the rewording noted above was adopted.

Standard amended, December 1964. Amended version printed as Proposal No. 10 of the 1964 Real Property Committee, 35 O.B.A.J. 2045-46 (1964); and see Exhibit G, id . at 2051. The amendment was approved, upon recommendation of the Real Property Law Section, by the House of Delegates, 36 O.B.A.J. 179, 182 (1965). The amendment substitutes the words, "a release of the corrected instrument", for the previous language, "a release of one of such instruments", in the last clause of the standard.

The 1996 Report of the Title Examination Standards Committee proposed minor amendments for purposes of clarification. 67 O.B.J. 3247, 3251 (1996). The Real Property Law Section approved the proposal on November 14, 1996 and the House of Delegates adopted it on November 15, 1996. The 2002 Report of the Title Examination Standards Committee recommended renumbering and amending to clarify that a recorded release reciting either an original recorded instrument which evidences a lien or a subsequent rerecorded correction instrument releases the lien or encumbrance. 73 O.B.J. 3004 (10/26/2002). the Real Property Law Section approved, November 21, 2002, and the House of Delegates adopted the amendment on November 22, 2002.