property, and deprive the owner of his security, simply because he had failed to comply with the law. He has not been led to do or to omit doing anything upon the strength of such noncompliance with the statute. And herein lies the difference between his case and the innocent purchaser or incumbrancer under the recording laws. These protect subsequent purchasers and incumbrancers in good faith, who have been led to rely upon the record title. To my mind the reason why the word ‘subsequent’ was not inserted in the statute before the word ‘creditors’ was to meet just that contingency where an existing creditor might suffer an injury by relying upon the apparent situation, and so be damnified by postponing action, or extending time of credit already given, or possibly in some other manner.” In Thompson v. Van Vechten, 27 N. Y. 568, the court say: “But, when they [creditors] present themselves with their process, they may, I think, go back to the origin of their debt, and show, if they can, that, when it was contracted, the incumbrance with which they are now confronted existed, and was kept secret by being withheld from the proper office.” In Kitchen v. Lowery, (N. Y. App.) 27 N. E. Rep. 357, the court say of certain unfiled chattel mortgages: “They may be void as to creditors, for the reason that they were not filed at the time the credit was given.”
To sum up our views as to the proper construction to be given the word “creditors” in this statute, we say that the word must have some restriction placed upon its broad meaning to prevent the most absurd consequences; that there is nothing in the language or spirit of the law which will warrant the view that the right to assail an unfiled mortgage depends entirely upon the fact whether the seizure of the mortgaged property does or does not antedate the filing of the mortgage. Such a construction would result in extending protection when it ought not to be extended, and in withholding it when the creditor has a moral right to claim it. As the word must have some limitation placed upon its meaning, the only sound limitation is one which makes the statute harmonious in all its provisions, which does not unreasonably
