Deans v. . Pate

Citations

• 19 S.E. 146
• 114 N.C. 194

Syllabus

<p>Deed — Probate by Cleric — Notary’s Seal — Contingent Right of Dower and Homestead.</p> <p>1. Where ail acknowledgment of a deed was made before an officer authorized to take it and was, in fact, in ■ due form, the adjudication by the Clerk of the Superior Court of the county where the land lies that “the foregoing instrument has been duly proved, as appears from the foregoing seal and certificate,” is sufficient although not following the words of the statute (The Code, $124(5 [3]) that it is in “due form.”</p> <p>2. The statute authorizing a notary public to take acknowledgment of deeds does not require that his name or any name shall be used in the notarial seal, and the seal appended to the certificate is 23resumably his in the absence of evidence to the contrary; hence, where the fact of the execution of a deed by a notary public is adjudged to have been proved by such seal and certificate, it is not rebutted by the mere fact that the notary signs his name “Geo. Theo. Sommer” and the seal has on it the name of “Theo. Sommer.”</p> <p>3. Where the only interest that a feme defendant in an action by the grantee of her husband and herself to recover the land is her contingent right of dower, her failure to sign the deed or to be privily examined will not affect the right of the plaintiff to recover.</p>