Could a Texas recorded document combine a jurat and acknowledgment in one notary paragraph, and did the county clerk have to review the jurat?

Texas AG Opinion JM-883: A Jurat May Appear Inside an Acknowledgment

Plain-English summary

Lubbock County asked whether a notary paragraph could combine a jurat and an acknowledgment. A jurat certified that the signer swore to the writing; an acknowledgment recorded the signer's declaration that the instrument was executed for its stated purpose.

The Attorney General said the two did not have to appear separately. The submitted form recited that the signer had sworn to the truth of the statements, included the required acknowledgment recitals, and was signed and sealed by a notary.

The county clerk's role was narrow. Property Code section 11.004 required the clerk to record an authorized instrument that was proved or acknowledged according to law, and section 12.001 supplied the recording requirements. The clerk did not decide whether an affidavit was correct or whether its jurat was substantively sufficient.

A clerk who violated section 11.004 could face a civil penalty of up to $500, reinforcing the ministerial duty to record qualifying instruments rather than evaluate their legal effect.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1988. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Could the jurat and acknowledgment be in one paragraph?

Yes. The opinion found no reason they had to appear separately.

What was a jurat?

A certificate by an authorized officer that the signer swore to the writing.

What was an acknowledgment?

A declaration establishing execution of an instrument for legal validity. Exact words were not required if the language conveyed the necessary facts.

Did the county clerk decide whether the jurat was legally sufficient?

No. The clerk's function was ministerial and focused on whether the instrument met the statutory recording requirements.

Could the rest of the instrument help show a sufficient acknowledgment?

Yes. The opinion cited authority allowing the attached instrument to be considered when evaluating the acknowledgment.

Background and statutory framework

Property Code section 12.001 allowed recording of an instrument concerning property if it was acknowledged or proved according to law and imposed additional execution requirements for conveyances of real property. Section 11.004 directed the county clerk to record qualifying instruments and imposed a civil penalty for violation.

Attorney General Opinion O-4622 (1942) had said a jurat made a writing an affidavit and that an affidavit had to be acknowledged before the clerk was required to record it. JM-883 clarified that this did not require separate certificates or make the clerk responsible for reviewing the jurat's correctness.

Hill v. Floating Decks of America, Inc., 590 S.W.2d 723, 729 (Tex. Civ. App. - San Antonio 1979, no writ), defined a jurat. Williams v. Cruse, 130 S.W.2d 908 (Tex. Civ. App. - Beaumont 1939, writ ref'd), allowed acknowledgment language that conveyed the required meaning without exact words. Sheldon v. Farinacci, 535 S.W.2d 938 (Tex. Civ. App. - San Antonio 1976, no writ), allowed consideration of the attached instrument.

Citations

Statutory authority:

• Property Code sections 11.004 and 12.001
• Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 121.004
• Business & Commerce Code provisions on financing statements and security agreements

Cases:

• Hill v. Floating Decks of America, Inc., 590 S.W.2d 723, 729 (Tex. Civ. App. - San Antonio 1979, no writ)
• Benge v. Foster, 47 S.W.2d 862 (Tex. Civ. App. - Amarillo 1932, writ ref'd)
• Williams v. Cruse, 130 S.W.2d 908 (Tex. Civ. App. - Beaumont 1939, writ ref'd)
• Sheldon v. Farinacci, 535 S.W.2d 938 (Tex. Civ. App. - San Antonio 1976, no writ)

Prior Attorney General materials referenced: O-4622 (1942), JM-727 (1987), JM-694 (1987), JM-166 (1984), and JM-533 (1986).

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/jim-mattox/jm-883
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1988/jm0883.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Obvious character-level OCR errors have been corrected, but minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

April 5, 1988

Honorable Travis S. Ware
Opinion No. JM-883
Criminal District Attorney
Civil Division
Re: Requirements of acknow-
P. O. Box 10536
ledgment and jurat in
Lubbock, Texas 79408
instruments recorded by a
county clerk (RQ-1339)

Dear Mr. Ware:

  You ask whether      a jurat     may be    included within       an

acknowledgment. A jurat is a certificate added to an affidavit stating when, before whom, and where it was made, while an acknowledgment is a declaration of a fact to give it legal validity. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. *
Hill v. Floating Decks of America, Inc., 590 S.W.2d 723, 729 (Tex. Civ. App. - San Antonio, 1979,
no writ). You have submitted a document in which the substance of the jurat and the acknowledgment are combined in a single paragraph over the notary's signature and seal. Your concern is that an instrument which contains a combination of the two places a greater burden on the county clerk in examining the instrument to determine if there is compliance with the requisites of both affidavits and acknowledgments.

Section 12.001 of the Property Code provides:

(a) An instrument concerning real personal property may be recorded if it has been acknowledged or proved according to law.

(b) An instrument conveying real property may not be recorded unless it is signed and acknowledged by the grantor in the presence of two or more credible subscribing witness- es or acknowledged before and certified by an officer authorized to take acknowledg- ments.

p. 4313

Honorable Travis S. Ware - Page 2 (JM-883)

(c) This section does not require the acknowledgment or prohibit the recording of a financing statement, a security agreement filed as a financing statement, or a continuation statement filed for record under the Business & Commerce Code.

You cite Attorney General Opinion O-4622 (1942) as
authority for the proposition that before certain instruments can be recorded, they must be both sworn to and acknowledged.

In Attorney General Opinion O-4622 it was stated:

Under Article 6626 of Revised Civil Statutes the only instruments which are
entitled to be recorded are those that
have
been either acknowledged as provided by Article 6603 of the Revised Civil Statutes or those proved under the provisions of
Article 6612, 6613 and 6614 of the Revised
Civil Statutes [these requirements now
appear in section 12.001 of the Property Code].

You ask whether an affidavit, in order to be recorded should have a jurat and also an acknowledgment. It takes the jurat to make the instrument an affidavit. Before the County Clerk can be required to record an affidavit it must be acknowledged.

In addressing the responsibilities
of the district
and county clerk in filing instruments, Attorney General Opinion JM-727, (1987) stated:

The courts and this office have repeatedly characterized the powers and duties of the district clerk and county clerk as ministerial functions. See Benge v. Foster 47 S.W.2d 862 (Tex. Civ. App. - Amarillo 1932, writ ref'd): Attorney General
Opinion Nos. JM-694 (1987); JM-166 (1984);
a Attorney General Opinion JM-533 (1986). 7

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Honorable Travis S. Ware - Page 3 (JM-883)

Section 11.004 of the Property Code provides in relevant part:

(a) A county clerk shall:

(1) correctly record, as required by law, within a reasonable time after delivery, any instrument authorized or required to be recorded in that clerk's office that is proved or acknowledged according to law;

Neither Attorney General Opinion O-4622 nor the statutes place any responsibility upon the county clerk to determine the correctness of an affidavit or its jurat
contained in an instrument presented to the county clerk
for recording. Section 11.004 requires the clerk to record "any instrument authorized or required to be recorded in that clerk's office that is proved or acknow- ledged according to law." Subsection' (b) of section 11.004 provides that a county clerk who violates any
provision of this section is subject to civil penalty of
P not more than $500.00. It is not the responsibility of the county clerk to determine if an affidavit contained in an acknowledgment has the required jurat.

A jurat has been defined as "a certificate by a competent officer that the writing was sworn to by the person who signed it." Hill v. Floating Decks of America, Inc., 590 S.W. at 729. An acknowledgment does not require the exact words as long as it contains language which possesses the requisite meaning or represents the same facts. Williams v. Cruse 130 S.W.2d 908 (Tex. Civ. App.

• Beaumont 1939, writ ref'd). The instrument to which the acknowledgment is attached may be considered in determin- ing the sufficiency of the acknowledgment. Sheldon v.
  Farinacci, 535 S.W.2d 938 (Tex. Civ. App. - San Antonio
  1976, no writ). The specimen acknowledgment you have
  submitted contains the recitation "who after swearing to
  the truth of the statements contained herein" preceding the requisite acknowledgment recitations and reflects that it is duly signed under the hand and seal of a notary public. See section 121.004 Texas Civ. Prac. & Rem.

p. 4315

Honorable Travis S. Ware - Page 4 JM-883)

Code.1 No reason is perceived why a jurat may not appear in an acknowledgment. It is unnecessary to answer your second question since it is predicated on an answer to your first inquiry that a jurat and acknowledgment must appear separately on an instrument.

A jurat may be included within an acknowledgment. It is not the function of the county clerk to determine the sufficiency of a jurat appearing in an instrument that meets the requirements for recording set forth in section 12.001 of the Property Code.

SUMMARY

A jurat may be included within an
acknowledgment. It is not the function of
the county clerk to determine the sufficien- cy of a jurat appearing in an instrument that meets the requirements for recording set forth in section 12.001 of the Property Code.

JIM MATTOX
Attorney General of Texas

1. Section 121.004 sets forth the method of acknowledgment, as follows:
(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.

p. 4316

Honorable Travis S. Ware - Page 5 (JM-883)

MARY KELLER
First Assistant Attorney General

LOU MCCREARY
Executive Assistant Attorney General

JUDGE ZOLLIE STEAKLEY
Special Assistant Attorney General

RICK GILPIN
Chairman, Opinion Committee

Prepared by Tom G. Davis
Assistant Attorney General

p. 4317