Cressona Ass'n v. Sowers

Citations

• 134 Pa. 354
• 19 A. 686
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 712

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. A certificate of acknowledgment of a deed or mortgage, executed by a husband and wife prior to the passage of the act of May 25, 1878, P. L. 149, and which is defective in omitting the venue, in failing to show that the justice was of the proper county, and in omitting to state an acknowledgment by the husband, may be reformed under said act on proof of the requisite facts.</p> <p>2. An answer which avers, by way of defence to a bill praying for such reformation, that the part of the certificate setting out a separate examination by the wife, (which is in due form and needs no reformation,) is untrue in point of fact, is not responsive to the bill, and, if regarded at all, must be treated as a cross-bill to have that portion of the certificate set aside.</p> <p>3. But, if the instrument was in fact executed by the wife voluntarily and without coercion, with a full knowledge of its contents, and for a valuable consideration actually received, and the transaction was free from all fraud, equity will not set aside the certificate of the wife’s separate examination, though the same may be untrue.</p> <p>4. A certificate of acknowledgment is a judicial act, which, in favor of bona fide purchasers without notice, is conclusive of the facts therein stated, and, as to other persons, in the absence of proof of fraud or duress connected with the acknowledgment, it is also conclusive; and this rule is applicable to mortgages as well as to deeds.</p>