A shorthanded Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that state law does not impose a mandatory duty to record mortgages or mortgage assignments in a county office for the recorder of deeds.

With Justices Max Baer, Debra Todd and Sallie Updyke Mundy all recused from the matter, the remaining members of the high court ruled 3-1 in Merscorp v. Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Recorder of Deeds to affirm a ruling by the Commonwealth Court en banc in favor of Merscorp, a private electronic registry of real estate transfers. The ruling tossed out a lawsuit filed by Delaware, Chester, Bucks and Berks counties and their respective recorders of deeds (referred to collectively by the Supreme Court as “the recorders”).

The Commonwealth Court's May 2017 ruling actually adopted a 2015 holding by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in a case brought in Montgomery County, that said Merscorp's recording system did not violate Pennsylvania law.