Colorado § 30-10-406 - County clerk and recorder - duties - filing requirements.

§ 30-10-406. County clerk and recorder - duties - filing requirements.

(1) The county clerk shall be ex officio recorder of deeds and shall have custody of and safely keep and preserve all the documents received for recording or filing in his or her office. During the hours the office is open for business, the clerk and recorder shall also record or cause to be recorded in print, or in a plain and distinct handwriting, or electronically, in suitable books or electronic records to be provided and kept in the clerk and recorder's office, all documents authorized by law to be recorded in his or her office and shall perform all other duties required by law.

(2) Upon recording any document to which a documentary fee applies, the clerk and recorder shall forward a clear, complete, and accurate copy of such document to the office of the county assessor. The clerk and recorder may forward the copy electronically to said office.

(3) (a) All documents received for recording or filing in the clerk and recorder's office, except a verification of application form as defined in section 38-29-102 (13), C.R.S., shall contain a top margin of at least one inch and a left, right, and bottom margin of at least one-half of an inch. The clerk and recorder may refuse to record or file any document that does not conform to the requirements of this paragraph (a).

(b) Repealed.

(4) The county clerk and recorder shall perform the duties prescribed in article 22 of title 15, C.R.S., with respect to the recording and processing of designated beneficiary agreements and revocations of such agreements.

Source: G.L. § 483. G.S. § 578. R.S. 08: § 1261. C.L. § 8736. CSA: C. 45, § 83. CRS 53: § 35-4-6. C.R.S. 1963: § 35-4-6. L. 76: Entire section amended, p. 753, § 1, effective June 10. L. 96: Entire section amended, p. 1557, § 4, effective July 1. L. 97: (3) added, p. 215, § 1, effective September 1. L. 2002: (1) and (2) amended, p. 789, § 2, effective August 7. L. 2009: (3)(a) amended, (SB 09-040), ch. 9, p. 62, § 1, effective July 1; (4) added, (HB 09-1260), ch. 107, p. 447, § 17, effective July 1. L. 2025: (1) amended, (SB 25-275), ch. 377, p. 2087, § 252, effective August 6.

Editor's note: Subsection (3)(b)(II) provided for the repeal of subsection (3)(b), effective September 1, 1998. (See L. 97, p. 215.)

ANNOTATION

Duties imposed by general assembly. While the office of county clerk is created by the constitution, none of his duties are therein defined, but all the duties pertaining to the office, both in his capacity as clerk and as recorder of deeds, are to be prescribed and enjoined by the general assembly, and the duties he is to perform as recorder of deeds have been specifically defined and imposed by this and the following sections, and it was clearly within the province of the general assembly to impose upon the clerk in his capacity of recorder of deeds the duties enjoined upon him by this and the following sections. People ex rel. Smith v. Crissman, 41 Colo. 450, 92 P. 949 (1907).

The duty of the county clerk and recorder extends only to instruments "authorized by law to be recorded in his office". Laughlin v. Hawley, 9 Colo. 170, 11 P. 45 (1886).

Making the county recorder registrar of titles does not constitute him a new county officer, but simply changes his duties in this, that instead of recording the evidence of titles, as heretofore provided, he registers the ultimate fact, or conclusion, that a certain party named has title to a particular tract of land as adjudged by the court. People ex rel. Smith v. Crissman, 41 Colo. 450, 92 P. 949 (1907).

Public record defined. It is said that a public record is one required by law to be kept, or necessary to be kept, in the discharge of a duty imposed by law, or directed by law to serve as a memorial and evidence of something written, said, or done. Treat v. McDonough, 148 Colo. 603, 367 P.2d 587 (1961).

Tract indices kept by the county clerk and recorder for the purpose of preparing abstracts of title, even though not within the terms of the statute, constitute an appropriate mode of discharging the clerk's duties, hence, it was not only his right but his duty to keep them and having done so they became public property subject to public use as provided by statute. Treat v. McDonough, 148 Colo. 603, 367 P.2d 587 (1961).

What is a public record is a question of law. Treat v. McDonough, 148 Colo. 603, 367 P.2d 587 (1961).

General public right to inspect or copy public records. At common law, due to land ownership by a very limited number of people, there was no general public right to inspect or copy public records; however, this concept later gave way, particularly in the United States, to a recognition of such a right due to our belief in widespread ownership of real property. Treat v. McDonough, 148 Colo. 603, 367 P.2d 587 (1961).

But a wide discretion was necessarily vested in the county clerk with reference to permitting the examination of the records of his office by those other than employees thereof, because the liability of having the records mutilated, changed, or obliterated was always present when strangers were about the office; and while it was necessary, perhaps, that abstracters had to be allowed to examine and make copies from these records they were in so doing subjected to such reasonable regulations as the county clerk prescribed. Upton v. Catlin, 17 Colo. 546, 31 P. 172 (1892).

The right of an abstractor to inspect and make memoranda of the contents of the records, etc., in the county clerk's office, is subordinate to the right of the clerk and recorder so to regulate his office as to maintain the sanctity of the records, etc., pertaining thereto. Upton v. Catlin, 17 Colo. 546, 31 P. 172 (1892).

Reasonable regulation of access. A rule established by the county clerk and recorder provided that parties desiring to examine the records of the office for the purpose of making abstracts would be permitted to do so upon any day, when the office was required to be kept open under the law, between the hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon, and one and four in the afternoon; provided, that on the days when the county commissioners are in session in the office, said memoranda and copies may be made between the hours of nine and ten in the forenoon and four and five in the afternoon, and at no other times during said days, was held a reasonable regulation. Upton v. Catlin, 17 Colo. 546, 31 P. 172, (1892).

Mandamus proper. Mandamus is a proper remedy where, upon demand, a county clerk and recorder refuses to permit an abstracter to inspect and make memoranda of the contents of the records of his office. Upton v. Catlin, 17 Colo. 546, 31 P. 172 (1892).

Judgment of justice of the peace not required to be recorded. The court found no law requiring or authorizing the transcript of a judgment from a justice of the peace to be recorded or indexed, and if the clerk and recorder should keep any index or record of such judgments, it would be entirely voluntary. Laughlin v. Hawley, 9 Colo. 170, 11 P. 45 (1886).