CHAPTER 129.
OF CONVEYANCES.
AN ACT to render valid the acknowledgment of certain deeds, and for other purposes.
Preamble. WHEREAS by an act of the General Assembly entitled "An act relating to the seals of Notaries Public and Commissioners of Deeds," passed at Dover, March 13, 1873, it is provided that every Notary Public and Commissioner of Deeds should, after the first day of July, 1873, use in the transaction of official business a seal so engraved as to make an impression that will show "distinctly the name, official title, date of appointment, and term of office of such officer;"
AND WHEREAS many of the said officers, being ignorant of the requirements of the act aforesaid, have not in all respects complied with its provisions respecting their official seals, and the impressions of the official seals of said officers on the certificates of acknowledgment, of the deeds, mortgages, and other papers proper to be acknowledged, and on certificates of protest and evidence of other notarial acts in many cases do not conform to the requirements of the said act;
AND WHEREAS it is intended to correct any such errors and to obviate any difficulty which might arise hereafter; therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met, as follows:
SECTION 1. That no official certificate of any Commissioner Certificates of Deeds or Notary Public shall be held to be invalid or defective because the impression of the official seal of such officer upon the said certificate does not strictly comport with the requirements of the act of Assembly recited in the preamble to this act ; but all such certificates shall be held to be, and are hereby declared to be, and are hereby made good and valid in all respects; and in all cases where such certificates are annexed to papers proper to Recorders be recorded, it is hereby made the duty of the several Recorders of Deeds in the several counties of this State to admit such papers to record, and the record of the same, or a duly certified COPY thereof, shall be competent evidence ; and every such paper What shall be as good and effectual in law as though the seal used by the officer certifying the acknowledgment of the same had been engraved in exact conformity with the provisions of the net aforesaid.
SECTION 2. That all the official certificates of Commissioners of Deeds or Notaries Public made since the first day of July, A. D. 1873, shall be competent evidence in all courts of law and equity in this State notwithstanding the impression of the official seal of such officer appearing on such certificate shall not strictly comply with the requirements of said act of March 13, 1873.
Passed at Dover, February 5, 1879.