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.
1-59 * * * * *