(a) For each record filed in a filing office, the filing office shall:

(1) assign a unique number to the filed record;

(2) create a record that bears the number assigned to the filed record and the date and time of filing; and

(3) maintain the filed record for public inspection.

(b) The filing office shall maintain a capability to retrieve a record by the name of the debtor and by the file number assigned to the initial financing statement to which the record relates. The secretary of state shall also maintain a capability to associate and retrieve with one another an initial financing statement and each filed record relating to the initial financing statement.

(c) The filing office may not remove a debtor's name from the index until one year after the effectiveness of a financing statement naming the debtor lapses under Section 55-9-515 NMSA 1978 with respect to all secured parties of record.

(d) The secretary of state shall perform the acts required by Subsections (a) through (c) of this section at the time and in the manner prescribed by filing-office rule, but not later than three business days after the filing office receives the record in question.

History: 1978 Comp., § 55-9-519, enacted by Laws 2001, ch. 139, § 90.

OFFICIAL COMMENTS

UCC Official Comments by ALI & the NCCUSL. Reproduced with permission of the PEB for the UCC. All rights reserved.

1. Source. Former sections 9-403(4) and (7), and section 9-405(2).

2. Filing Office's Duties. Subsections (a) through (e) set forth the duties of the filing office with respect to filed records. Subsection (h), which is new, imposes a minimum standard of performance for those duties. Prompt indexing is crucial to the effectiveness of any filing system. An accepted but unindexed record affords no public notice. Subsection (f) requires the filing office to maintain appropriate storage and retrieval facilities, and subsection (g) contains minimum requirements for the retention of records.

3. File Number. Subsection (a)(1) requires the filing office to assign a unique number to each filed record. That number is the "file number" only if the record is an initial financing statement. See section 9-102.

4. Time of Filing. Subsection (a)(2) and section 9-523 refer to the "date and time" of filing. The statutory text does not contain any instructions to a filing office as to how the time of filing is to be determined. The method of determining or assigning a time of filing is an appropriate matter for filing-office rules to address.

5. Related Records. Subsections (c) and (f) are designed to ensure that an initial financing statement and all filed records relating to it are associated with one another, indexed under the name of the debtor, and retrieved together. To comply with subsection (f), a filing office (other than a real property recording office in a state that enacts subsection (f), Alternative B) must be capable of retrieving records in each of two ways: By the name of the debtor and by the file number of the initial financing statement to which the record relates.

6. Prohibition on Deleting Names from Index. This article contemplates that the filing office will not delete the name of a debtor from the index until at least one year passes after the effectiveness of the financing statement lapses as to all secured parties of record. See subsection (g). This rule applies even if the filing office accepts an amendment purporting to delete or modify the name of a debtor or terminate the effectiveness of the financing statement. If an amendment provides a modified name for a debtor, the amended name should be added to the index, see subsection (c)(2), but the preamendment name should remain in the index.

Compared to former article 9, the rule in subsection (g) increases the amount of information available to those who search the public records. The rule also contemplates that searchers - not the filing office - will determine the significance and effectiveness of filed records.

Effective dates. — Laws 2001, ch. 139, § 155 makes the act effective July 1, 2001.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — Effect of officer's failure properly to file contract, 70 A.L.R. 595.