same policy of the law? Why should general creditors receive unreasonable protection, on the one hand, or be denied reasonable protection, on the other hand? Why should they be more favored than creditors who have taken security on the property? It is no answer to say that the words “in good faith for value” do not relate to the word “creditor.” They would be meaningless if they did. When they refer to a mortgagee, they mean the parting of value on the strength of the security without notice. But it would be idle to talk about a credit or “in good faith for value,” except to indicate that he had a bona fide claim against the debtor. These words would not mean that the creditor had extended the credit relying on the silence of the record as to the existence of a chattel mortgage. It is true that language might have been employed in the statute which would have expressly indicated what this court regards as the purpose of the statute. But the act then would not have shown more clearly what was its object. Its policy is protection, and we know that the lawmaking power had no thought of protecting those who did not need protection,—those who had not changed their position to their disadvantage because of the failure to file the security. The word “subsequent,” as applied to purchasers and incumbrancers, does not relate to creditors. But this gives no warrant to the -inference that all creditors, existing as well as subsequent, were intended to be protected. It would have defeated in part the policy of the law had only subsequent creditors been included in the statute. It would have cut off from the protection of the law those existing creditors who, while the default in filing the mortgage continued, should altar their position to their detriment, as by releasing security, or by extending the time of payment. The language of the court in Brown v. Brabb, 67 Mich. 17, 34 N. W. Rep. 403, on this point meets our approval. Said the court: “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 injury by relying upon the
