Belcher v. Weaver

Citations

• 46 Tex. 293

Syllabus

<p>1. Married women—Authentication—Separate acknowledgment.—The certificate of an officer to the privy examination of a married woman who, with her husband, signs a deed, which certificate recites that the wife acknowledged in her privy examination that she signed the deed “without any bribe, threat, or compulsion ” from her husband, is sufficient, if good in other respects. The words used are construed as equivalent to a declaration by the wife that she signed the deed freely and willingly, and negative the exercise of any improper influence or duress by the husband.</p> <p>2. Same—Mistake.—The unintentional use of one word for another by an officer in his certificate of the acknowledgment by a married woman to a deed will not affect the certificate, where the mistake obviously appears from an examination of the entire instrument.</p> <p>3. Same.—There must be a substantial, though there need not to be a literal, compliance with the terms of the- statute; and although words not in the statute are used in.the place of others that are, or words in the statute are omitted, yet, if the meaning of the words used is the same, or they represent the same fact, or if the omission of a word or words is immaterial, or can be supplied by a reasonable and fair construction of the whole instrument, the certificate will be held sufficient.</p> <p>4. Approved: Monroe v. Arledge, 23 Tex., 478.</p>