## Facts

- Cleo Alexander owned real property in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado.
- On December 2, 1958, Alexander executed a warranty deed conveying the property as a gift to Ola Eastwood.
- Eastwood did not record her deed until October 16, 1964.
- On October 15, 1963, Alexander executed a second warranty deed conveying the same property as a gift to her daughter, Nell (Mrs. Walter) Shedd.
- Shedd recorded her deed on October 23, 1963.
- When Shedd accepted and recorded her deed, she had no actual or constructive notice of Eastwood’s earlier, unrecorded deed.
- Shedd filed a quiet title action and obtained a decree quieting title in Shedd and extinguishing Eastwood’s claim.
- Eastwood sought review in the Colorado Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether Colorado’s recording statute, C.R.S. 1963, 118-6-9, protects a subsequent donee who records first without notice of a prior unrecorded deed.
2. Whether the statutory phrase making unrecorded instruments invalid against “any class of persons with any kind of rights” includes gratuitous grantees.

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the decree quieting title in Shedd.
- The court held that Shedd, though a donee, was within the class protected by C.R.S. 1963, 118-6-9 because she recorded first and lacked notice of the earlier deed.
- Eastwood’s earlier deed, unrecorded at the time Shedd recorded, was ineffective against Shedd under the statute.

## Legal Principles

- Under C.R.S. 1963, 118-6-9, an instrument affecting title to real property is not valid against persons other than the parties and those with notice until it is deposited for recording.
- Colorado’s statutory language protecting “any class of persons with any kind of rights” is broader than statutes limited to subsequent purchasers for value and must be given effect as written.
- In a priority dispute between successive grantees from a common grantor, a later grantee who takes without notice and records first prevails over a prior unrecorded grantee, even when both conveyances are gifts.

## Conclusion

Because Shedd accepted a later gift deed without notice of Eastwood’s prior unrecorded deed and recorded first, Colorado’s recording statute gave Shedd priority, and the decree quieting title in Shedd was affirmed.


Eastwood v. Shedd, 442 P.2d 423 (Colo. 1968)