Title 34 Property, Conveyances and Security Transactions

34-1-123. Admissibility of conveyance or record thereof as evidence.

All deeds, mortgages, conveyances or instruments of any character, concerning any interest in lands within this state, which shall be executed, acknowledged, attested or proved in accordance with the provisions of this act or the laws of this state, or the local laws of any mining district wherein such real estate is situate, in force at the date of such acknowledgment, attestation or proof, may be read in evidence, without in the first instance additional proof of the execution thereof, and the record of any such deed, mortgage, conveyance or instrument, whether an original record of any mining district, or a copy thereof deposited in the register's [county clerk's] office of any county, in accordance with the laws of this state (as a part of the records of such mining district) or a record of such recorder's office, when the same appears by such record to be properly acknowledged, attested or proved in accordance with the laws of this state, or of the proper mining district in force at the date of such acknowledgment, attestation or proof, or a transcript from any such record, certified by the register [county clerk] of the proper county where such deed, mortgage, conveyance or instrument ought by law to be recorded, may, upon the affidavit of the party desiring to use the same, that the original thereof is not in his possession or power to produce, be read in evidence with like effect as the original of such deed, mortgage, conveyance or instrument properly acknowledged, attested or proved as aforesaid, but the effect of such evidence may be rebutted by other competent testimony.