By Thompson                                            H.B. No. 817
       74R4348 DLF-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to identification of individuals executing certain
    1-3  documents.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Sections 121.005 and 121.007, Civil Practice and
    1-6  Remedies Code, are amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 121.005.  PROOF OF IDENTITY OF ACKNOWLEDGING PERSON.
    1-8  (a)  An officer may not take the acknowledgment of a written
    1-9  instrument unless the officer knows or has satisfactory evidence
   1-10  that the acknowledging person is the person who executed the
   1-11  instrument and is described in it.  An officer may accept, as
   1-12  satisfactory evidence of the identity of an acknowledging person,
   1-13  only:
   1-14              (1)  <on> the oath of a credible witness personally
   1-15  known to the officer; or
   1-16              (2)  a current identification card or other document
   1-17  issued by the federal government or any state government that
   1-18  contains the photograph and signature of the acknowledging person
   1-19  <that the acknowledging person is the person who executed the
   1-20  instrument and is described in it>.
   1-21        (b)  Except in a short form certificate of acknowledgment
   1-22  authorized by Section 121.008, the officer must note in the
   1-23  certificate of acknowledgment that:
   1-24              (1)  he personally knows the acknowledging person; or
    2-1              (2)  evidence of a witness or an identification card or
    2-2  other document was used to identify the acknowledging person.
    2-3        Sec. 121.007.  FORM FOR ORDINARY CERTIFICATE OF
    2-4  ACKNOWLEDGMENT.  The form of an ordinary certificate of
    2-5  acknowledgment must be substantially as follows:
    2-6        "The State of ____________,
    2-7        "County of ____________,
    2-8        "Before me ____________ (here insert the name and character
    2-9  of the officer) on this day personally appeared ________________,
   2-10  known to me (or proved to me on the oath of ________________ or
   2-11  through __________________ (description of identity card or other
   2-12  document)) to be the person whose name is subscribed to the
   2-13  foregoing instrument and acknowledged to me that he executed the
   2-14  same for the purposes and consideration therein expressed.
   2-15        (Seal)  "Given under my hand and seal of office this ________
   2-16  day of ____________, A.D., ________."
   2-17        SECTION 2.  Notwithstanding Section 121.007, Civil Practice
   2-18  and Remedies Code, as amended by this Act, before January 1, 1996,
   2-19  an officer may use an ordinary certificate of acknowledgment in the
   2-20  form required by Section 121.007, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
   2-21  immediately before the effective date of this Act.
   2-22        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-26  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-27  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-1  passage, and it is so enacted.