Keelah Jackson and register of deeds Marc Gravitt talk about the effort of Miss Jackson to see the entry of transportation administrative notice into the registry of deeds so she can offer it as an exhibit on a court case. At left is Kim Spruiell, a deputy register of deeds.
Marc Gravitt is the register of deeds in Hamilton County, a former state legislator who has a ministerial duty under the law to record deeds and other instruments of people wishing to file them.
By David Tulis / 92.7 NoogaRadio
That duty is to record documents of legal effect. Mr. Gravitt, in two meetings, declines to record my two transportation administrative notice documents totaling 21 pages. The proposed filing includes a one-page affidavit of its having been served personally upon several municipal corporations, starting with Chattanooga city government and Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond.
A review of Mr. Gravitt’s database shows he keeps a huge variety of documents, thousands of them of petty concern, and a few of great ones such as subdivision development.
Traffic stop reform no, yes to deeds of trust
Under the lein category are child support, decree leans, decree property, employment security, judgement liens, judgement property, lien lis pendens, tax enforcement liens.
Mr. Gravitt records corporate charters.
Probably most of the documents he records pertain to real estate. Deed of trust, deed of trust scriveners affidavit, fixture deed of trust, grants and others.
Affidavits figure among the instruments he records under Tenn. Code Ann. 8-13-101 to 117. One trust, for example, Jeffrey D. Carmichael, establishes a trust call the Carmichael Investment Services Trust u/a/d 12/29/2017, launched by a F$5,000 check and recorded Jan. 1.
In another affidavit, a man named Robert J. Williams Jr. swears he is not the same Robert J Williams Jr. as targeted by a tax lien to the amount of $6,382.18, pointing out a difference in social security numbers.
There are affidavits of estoppel, affidavits of indemnity, of identity heirship, inheritance, lost assignment power of attorney.
There are recorded notices of joint venture agreements, copies of court filings for absolute divorce, notice of default in foreclosure sale. A high school diploma is in the record book for a woman named Goodman who graduated Nov. 1, 1948, from John Ellen Agee Memorial School in Mobile. Mr. Gravitt’s office recorded that single page in 1970.
In one indemnity affidavit a man Sarath Babu Gangavarapu indemnifies title Guaranty and Trust Co. of Chattanooga and a second title insurance company for claims that might arise from an oil and gas lease recorded elsewhere the register’s office. The affidavit is recorded Jan. 19.
Not an attorney, does not judge any document
Mr. Gravitt is not an attorney. He’ll say it once. He’ll say it twice. So as register of deeds he does not guarantee accuracy of information he records, according to the register of deed’s online search portal.
All records since the late 1960s are in digital, nonpaper format. “All information and data provided in the site are for informational purposes only,” he says on the website. All material in this site is provided “as it is” and without any warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied. Hamilton County and the register of deeds do not warrant the record, and does not investigate the content of filings. The accuracy of any following is a responsibility of the one making the record.
The office says filings may contain errors they contain uncorrected defects.
But Mr. Gravitt, aware of the import of transportation administrative notice, is putting his foot down. That document, sir, will not be recorded.
