Sec.42a-9-3. Acceptance and refusal of documents

(a) Policy Statement. The duties and responsibilities of the filing office with respect to the administration of article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code are ministerial. In accepting for filing or refusing to file a UCC document pursuant to sections 42a-9-1 to 42a-9-6, inclusive, of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, the filing office does none of the following:

(1) Determine the legal sufficiency or insufficiency of a UCC document;

(2) Determine that a security interest in collateral exists or does not exist;

(3) Determine that information in the UCC document is correct or incorrect, in whole or in part;

(4) Create a presumption that information in the UCC document is correct or incorrect, in whole or in part.

(b) Duty to file. Provided that there is no ground to refuse acceptance of the UCC document under section 87(b) of public act 01-132, a UCC document is filed upon its receipt by the filing office with the filing fee. The filing office shall assign a file number to the accepted UCC document not later than five business days after it is received and index it in the UCC information management system.

(c) Procedure upon refusal. If the filing office finds grounds to refuse acceptance of a UCC document, the filing office shall return the document to the remitter. The filing office shall credit any fee received to the remitter's account. The filing office shall send a notice that contains the reason for refusal and the date and time the UCC document would have been filed had the UCC document been accepted. The notice shall be sent to the remitter via United States Postal Service, unless the remitter requests in-person pick-up, courier service or facsimile delivery, no later than the fifth business day after the filing office receives the UCC document. Upon resubmission the UCC document shall be given a new filing date and time.

(d) Procedure upon acceptance. The filing office shall send to the remitter an acknowledgement letter containing the file number assigned to the UCC document, the date and time of filing, and the names and addresses of debtors and secured parties that have been indexed. Such acknowledgement letter shall be sent to the remitter via United States Postal Service, unless the remitter requests in-person pickup, courier service or facsimile delivery, no later than the fifth business day after the filing office receives the UCC document.

(e) Refusal errors. If a secured party or a remitter demonstrates to the satisfaction of the filing office that a UCC document that was refused for filing should not have been refused, the filing office shall file the UCC document as provided in sections 42a-9-1 to 42a-9-6, inclusive, of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, with the filing date and time when the UCC document was originally tendered for filing. The filing office shall also file a filing office statement that shall identify the filing by number and indicate the effective date and time of filing.

(f) Errors of the filing office. The filing office may correct the errors of filing office personnel in the UCC information management system at any time. If the correction is made after the filing office has issued a through date that includes the filing date of a corrected UCC document, the filing office shall place a filing office statement relating to the relevant financing statement in the UCC information management system stating the date of the correction and explaining the nature of the corrective action taken. The record shall be preserved for so long as the record of the initial financing statement is preserved in the UCC information management system.

(Adopted effective December 11, 2002)