An unrecorded instrument is valid as between the parties thereto and those who have notice thereof.
Cal. Civ. Code § 1217
Effect of Recording, or the Want Thereof
Applied in 27 court decisions — leading case 81 Cal. App. 4th 816 - Bartold v. Glendale Federal Bank (2000)
Most recently applied in McKinney v. Bank of America, N.A. (February 2018)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.