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, 1998,
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.
_______________________________ _______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 243 was passed by the House on April
3, 1997, by a non-record vote.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 243 was passed by the Senate on May
5, 1997, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
_______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor