PRINTER'S NO. 721
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
621
Session of
2015
INTRODUCED BY MAJOR, BAKER, BOBACK, COHEN, EVERETT, GIBBONS,
GREINER, HARPER, A. HARRIS, JAMES, KILLION, KIRKLAND,
MARSHALL, MASSER, MILLARD, MURT, PICKETT, REED AND WHEELAND,
FEBRUARY 26, 2015
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
AN ACT
Amending the act of March 18, 1875 (P.L.32, No.36), entitled "An
act requiring recorders of deeds to prepare and keep in their
respective offices general, direct and ad sectum indexes of
deeds and mortgages recorded therein, prescribing the duty of
said recorders and declaring that the entries in said general
indexes shall be notice to all persons," providing for
requirements of certain instruments as a condition of
recordation and for a fee for reprocessing; and making
editorial changes.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. The title of the act of March 18, 1875 (P.L.32,
No.36), entitled "Requiring recorders of deeds to prepare and
keep in their respective offices general, direct and ad sectum
indexes of deeds and mortgages recorded therein, prescribing the
duty of said recorders and declaring that the entries in said
general indexes shall be notice to all persons," is amended to
read:
AN ACT
Requiring recorders of deeds to prepare and keep in their
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respective offices general, direct and ad [sectum] sectam
indexes of deeds and mortgages recorded therein, prescribing
the duty of said recorders and declaring that the entries in
said general indexes shall be notice to all persons.
Section 2. Section 1 of the act, amended October 16, 1980
(P.L.986, No.170), is amended to read:
Section 1. Be it enacted, &c., That in the addition to the
indexes which the recorder of deeds in each county of this
commonwealth is required to keep, the said recorder shall
carefully and accurately prepare and keep in his office two
general indexes of all deeds recorded therein, in one of which,
to be known as the direct index, he shall enter in their order
the name of the grantor, the name of the grantee, the volume and
page wherein the deed is recorded, and in the other, to be known
as the ad [sectum] sectam index, he shall enter in their order
the name of the grantee, the name of the grantor, the volume and
page wherein the deed is recorded. He shall in like manner also
prepare and keep two general indexes, one direct and the other
ad [sectum] sectam, of all mortgages recorded in his office. In
counties of the second class, he shall hereafter enter in both
said indexes of deeds and in both the indexes of mortgages, the
date of recording and the name of the city or borough or
township and the number of the ward thereof, if any, in which
the property affected is stated in the recorded instrument to be
located, and the primary as well as the permanent indexes shall
contain the foregoing entries as to date of recording and
locality of each property affected: Provided, That where an
instrument affects property in more than one ward, city,
borough, town or township and the space on the index is
insufficient to permit the writing of the locality of each
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property affected, the name of the county alone shall be full
compliance with this act. Said indexes shall be arranged
alphabetically and in such a way as to afford an easy and ready
reference to said deeds and mortgages respectively, and shall be
written in a plain and legible hand: Provided however, That in
any county where such indexes have already been prepared and in
use, or where any special law relating to any of said indexes is
now in force, they shall be adopted and kept as if made in
pursuance of this act. Nothing herein contained shall prohibit
the recorder of deeds from combining the general indexes for
deeds with the general indexes for mortgages into one general
index.
Section 3. The act is amended by adding a section to read:
Section 1.1. (a) In addition to any other provision of law,
the recorder of deeds shall index in the direct and ad sectam
indexes all oil or gas documents presented for recording
according to:
(1) The name of each party to the oil or gas document.
(2) The name of each lessor listed in the addendum required
by subsection (c).
(b) A recorder of deeds, at his sole discretion, may refuse
to accept an oil or gas document containing or incorporating by
reference or by exhibit or by other means more than fifty
leases.
(c) An oil or gas document containing, or referring to by
incorporation, multiple leases shall include an addendum for the
purposes of the indexing required by subsection (a). The
addendum shall list each lease contained in the document or
incorporated by reference or exhibit or by other means by and
shall clearly identify for each lease:
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(1) The names of the lessor or lessors.
(2) The prior recording information for the leasehold
interest.
(3) The property with which each lease is associated,
identified by:
(i) the name of any ward, city, borough, town or township in
which all or part of the property is located, in a county that
has not adopted a uniform parcel identifier system under the act
of January 15, 1988 (P.L.1, No.1), known as the "Uniform Parcel
Identifier Law"; or
(ii) the uniform parcel identifier number of the property,
in a county that has adopted a uniform parcel identifier system
under the "Uniform Parcel Identifier Law."
(d) (1) In addition to any other fee authorized by law, for
an oil or gas document, the recorder of deeds in a county that
has not adopted a uniform parcel identifier system under the
"Uniform Parcel Identifier Law," may assess a fee of six dollars
for each lease described, for which the lessor must be indexed
in accordance with subsection (a).
(2) If an oil or gas document contains, or refers to by
incorporation, multiple leases, the recorder of deeds, in a
county that has adopted the uniform parcel identifier system
under the "Uniform Parcel Identifier Law," must index the lessor
in accordance with subsection (a), but may not assess the fee
under paragraph (1). The recorder may assess such other fees as
authorized under law, including a fee, if adopted, to certify
each uniform parcel number.
(e) The purpose of this section is to provide greater access
to the public to information regarding oil and gas documents.
The following shall apply:
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(1) This section shall apply to oil or gas documents
presented for recording after the effective date of this
section.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or
alter any requirement of law regarding the recording of
documents other than oil or gas documents.
(3) If an oil or gas document meets the requirements of this
section and all other statutes providing recording requirements,
the document shall be recorded. Nothing in this section shall be
construed to confer upon a recorder of deeds additional
authority to reject the oil or gas document, provided that it is
accompanied by an amount at least equal to the required
recording fees.
(4) Nothing in this section shall affect in any manner the
validity and enforceability of liens, mortgages or deeds of
trust in oil and gas property.
(5) This section shall not apply to or affect in any manner
the provisions of 13 Pa.C.S. Division 9 (relating to secured
transactions), including the provisions of Division 9 relating
to as-extracted collateral, the proceeds of as-extracted
collateral or fixtures used in oil and gas exploration,
extraction or production.
(6) Subsection (c) shall not be construed to confer a
recorder of deeds with the responsibility or the authority to
verify the accuracy of the information required in the addendum
required by that subsection.
(f) The following words and phrases when used in this
section shall have the meanings given to them in this subsection
unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Lessor." The owner of record from whom mineral rights were
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leased at the time the lease was originally executed, regardless
of whether a subsequent lease amended, restated or replaced the
original lease, and regardless of whether the original lessor
conveyed its reserved royalty interests to another person.
"Oil or gas document." A document which transfers all or
part of the interests of one party to another party in multiple
oil or gas leases.
"Party." The term shall include the grantor and grantee or
assignor and assignee or transferor and transferee.
"Person." Any natural person, association, fiduciary
partnership, corporation or other entity, including a
governmental entity.
Section 4. Nothing in this act shall affect any deed, other
transfers of real estate or an interest in real estate, fully
executed, acknowledged or recorded prior to the effective date
of this act.
Section 5. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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