1-1     By:  Thompson (Senate Sponsor - Ellis)                 H.B. No. 243

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 4, 1997;

 1-3     April 8, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Jurisprudence; April 23, 1997, reported favorably by the following

 1-5     vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0; April 23, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to identification of individuals executing certain

 1-9     documents.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Sections 121.005 and 121.007, Civil Practice and

1-12     Remedies Code, are amended to read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 121.005.  PROOF OF IDENTITY OF ACKNOWLEDGING PERSON.

1-14     (a)  An officer may not take the acknowledgment of a written

1-15     instrument unless the officer knows or has satisfactory evidence

1-16     that the acknowledging person is the person who executed the

1-17     instrument and is described in it.  An officer may accept, as

1-18     satisfactory evidence of the identity of an acknowledging person,

1-19     only:

1-20                 (1)  [on] the oath of a credible witness personally

1-21     known to the officer; or

1-22                 (2)  a current identification card or other document

1-23     issued by the federal government or any state government that

1-24     contains the photograph and signature of the acknowledging person

1-25     [that the acknowledging person is the person who executed the

1-26     instrument and is described in it].

1-27           (b)  Except in a short form certificate of acknowledgment

1-28     authorized by Section 121.008, the officer must note in the

1-29     certificate of acknowledgment that:

1-30                 (1)  he personally knows the acknowledging person; or

1-31                 (2)  evidence of a witness or an identification card or

1-32     other document was used to identify the acknowledging person.

1-33           Sec. 121.007.  FORM FOR ORDINARY CERTIFICATE OF

1-34     ACKNOWLEDGMENT.  The form of an ordinary certificate of

1-35     acknowledgment must be substantially as follows:

1-36           "The State of ____________,

1-37           "County of ____________,

1-38           "Before me ____________ (here insert the name and character

1-39     of the officer) on this day personally appeared ________________,

1-40     known to me (or proved to me on the oath of ________________ or

1-41     through __________________ (description of identity card or other

1-42     document)) to be the person whose name is subscribed to the

1-43     foregoing instrument and acknowledged to me that he executed the

1-44     same for the purposes and consideration therein expressed.

1-45           (Seal)  "Given under my hand and seal of office this ________

1-46     day of ____________, A.D., ________."

1-47           SECTION 2.  Notwithstanding Section 121.007, Civil Practice

1-48     and Remedies Code, as amended by this Act, before January 1, 1998,

1-49     an officer may use an ordinary certificate of acknowledgment in the

1-50     form required by Section 121.007, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,

1-51     immediately before the effective date of this Act.

1-52           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-53     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-54     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-55     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-56     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-57     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-58     passage, and it is so enacted.

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