“ Acknowledgment ” - Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Miscellaneous Provisions provides in part the following:
_________________ Notary Public, State of Texas
§ 121.004. Method of Acknowledgment. (a) To acknowledge a written instrument for recording, the grantor or person who executed the instrument must appear before an officer and must state that he executed the instrument for the purposes and consideration expressed in it. (b) The officer shall: (1) make a certificate of the acknowledgment; (2) sign the certificate; and (3) seal the certificate with the seal of office.
(ACKNOWLEDGMENT) The State of Texas § § County of Harris §
This instrument was acknowledged before me by ___on the ___day of May, 2008.
_________________ Notary Public, State of Texas
B. Case Law Interpretation The author could find no “law of affidavits” which stands alone and defines the proper form and substance of an affidavit. Rather, appeals of the granting/denial of summary judgments and the admissibility of affidavits as evidence in various causes of action constitute the framework and legal background for the following conclusions regarding the drafting of and resultant admissibility/ non-admissibility of affidavits. So that it will be clear to the reader, the context of each case will follow the citation in italics. For example, if the case originated as an appeal of the granting/denial of a summary judgment, the context will appear as Summary Judgment. There is one statute that is utilized in more recent decisions when the issue of the validity of an affidavit is presented. It is set forth in full above (The Texas Government Code, § 312.011) and is part of the definition provision for words which appear in statutes promulgated in Texas. Texas courts routinely refer to this definition as a starting place for determining the validity of affidavits. Trimble v. Gulf Paint & Battery Inc., 728 S.W.2d 887 (Tex. App. —Houston [1 Dist.] 1987) Summary Judgment and Goggin v. Grimes, 969 S.W.2d 135, 138 (Tex.App. — Houston [14 Dist.] 1998) Summary Judgment
2. Form of Affidavit The following is the form of affidavit which will be referred to throughout this article with the terms “jurat” and “acknowledgment” identified in bold, capital letters.
AFFIDAVIT
The State of Texas § § County of Harris §
BEFORE ME, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared ___, known to me to be the person whose name is subscribed hereto, who after having been first duly sworn, deposed and under oath stated:
“Statements of fact and conclusions based on those facts personally within knowledge of affiant.”
Further affiant saith not.
_______________ AFFIANT:
(JURAT) Subscribed and sworn to before me, the undersigned authority, by ___on this the day of May, 2008.
1. Jurat/Acknowledgment
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N a t i o n a l A s s o c i a t i o n o f D i v i s i o n O r d e r A n a l y s t s
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