H.B. No. 242

SIGNATURE BY NOTARY FOR DISABLED PERSON

Effective Date: September 1, 1997

AN ACT

relating to the signature of a notary public on behalf of an individual with a disability.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 406, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 406.0165 to read as follows:

Sec. 406.0165.  SIGNING DOCUMENT FOR INDIVIDUAL WITH DISABILITY. (a)  A notary may sign the name of an individual who is physically unable to sign or make a mark on a document presented for notarization if directed to do so by that individual, in the presence of a witness who has no legal or equitable interest in any real or personal property that is the subject of, or is affected by, the document being signed. The notary shall require identification of the witness in the same manner as from an acknowledging person under Section 121.005, Civil Practice and Remedies Code.

(b)  A notary who signs a document under this section shall write, beneath the signature, the following or a substantially similar sentence:

"Signature affixed by notary in the presence of (name of witness), a disinterested witness, under Section 406.0165, Government Code."

(c)  A signature made under this section is effective as the signature of the individual on whose behalf the signature was made for any purpose. A subsequent bona fide purchaser for value may rely on the signature of the notary as evidence of the individual's consent to execution of the document.

(d)  In this section, "disability" means a physical impairment that impedes the ability to sign or make a mark on a document.

SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, and this Act take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.


Please note: Even though this bill purports to be effective "from and after its passage," it becomes effective September 1, 1997 (90 days after the end of the 75th Legislature's regular session) because it passed by a non-record vote in the House. Section 39, Article III of the Texas constitution provides: "No law passed by the Legislature . . . shall take effect or go into force until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which it was enacted, unless . . . the Legislature shall, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each House, otherwise direct. . . ."


Courtesy of Glenn M. Karisch, Ikard & Golden, P. C., Austin, Texas. This page was last revised on June 12, 1997.