The recorded instrument occupies a peculiar place in litigation: it is both the substantive operative document and the principal item of evidence. The note distinguishes those two functions and argues that confusion between them is a frequent source of error.
Part I treats the deed as evidence. The instrument's operative words are read against the recording statute and the practice of the recorder's office that received it.
Part II treats the mortgage and its companions — the assignment, the substitution, the satisfaction — as records of a transaction whose force depends on what the public record shows at the moment of the search.
The note concludes with a checklist for the litigator who must read a chain of title and explain it to a court.