## Facts

- Almond Haner sued Wendall Bruce and obtained a writ of attachment on Bruce’s interest in certain St. Albans, Vermont real estate.
- Haner filed the attachment with the city clerk, who recorded it in the land records and indexed it only in an “attachment book,” not in the general land records index required by statute.
- After the attachment was recorded, Bruce acquired legal title and conveyed the property by warranty deed to David and Gloria Fosgate.
- Peoples Trust Co. financed the Fosgates’ purchase and took a mortgage on the property.
- A routine title search for the Fosgates and the bank did not reveal the attachment because it was not placed in the general index.
- Haner later obtained a final judgment against Bruce and recorded it; the Fosgates learned of the attachment thereafter.
- Haner brought an action to enforce the attachment lien against the Fosgates and Peoples Trust; the trial court dismissed, treating them as bona fide purchaser/mortgagee without notice due to the indexing error.

## Issues

1. Whether a real-estate attachment that is properly recorded but misindexed by the clerk is valid and effective against a subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee without actual notice.

## Decision

- The Vermont Supreme Court reversed the dismissal in a 3–2 decision and remanded.
- A properly recorded attachment provided constructive notice to subsequent purchasers and mortgagees even though the clerk failed to place it in the general land records index.
- The court distinguished earlier precedent involving an attachment that was never recorded, and followed precedent holding that recording is effective despite indexing omissions.

## Legal Principles

- Constructive notice arises from proper recording of an instrument in the land records; clerical indexing errors generally do not defeat the effect of recording.
- Indexing is a statutory clerical duty and a search aid, but it is not a prerequisite to the validity or priority of an interest that has been duly recorded.
- A later purchaser or mortgagee may be bound by a recorded interest even if a customary index-based title search does not reveal it, where the instrument was nonetheless recorded in the proper records.

## Conclusion

Because the attachment was recorded in the land records, it imparted constructive notice and remained enforceable against the subsequent purchasers and mortgagee despite the clerk’s failure to index it in the general index; the trial court’s dismissal was reversed and the case remanded.


Haner v. Bruce, 499 A.2d 792 (Vt. 1985)