Proof of Instruments Registered Before 1839

  1. Law
  2. Tennessee Code
  3. Property
  4. Effect of Authentication and Registration
  5. Proof of Instruments Registered Before 1839

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Every instrument authorized by law to be registered and proved or acknowledged, and registered prior to October 16, 1839, may be read in evidence:

  1. Although the certificate only states that the deed was duly proved, without naming the subscribing witnesses by whom it was so proved; and in such case, the court shall presume that it was duly proved by all the subscribing witnesses, and the probate and registration shall be good, leaving it to the adverse party to disprove the fact;
  2. Although the certificate is not and does not purport to be a transcript from the court minutes, if the certificate states enough to authorize the instrument to be registered; and in this case it shall be presumed that the entry on the minutes authorized the certificate by the clerk, unless the contrary be shown;
  3. Although the certificate does not mention the term or style of the court at or in which the instrument was proved or acknowledged; and in this case, it shall be presumed that the instrument was proved or acknowledged in the court of which the person giving the certificate was clerk, and the certificate and registration shall be good, unless the contrary be shown;
  4. Although the clerk, in the clerk's entry on the minutes and in the clerk's certificate on the document, has omitted to describe or mention the property; and in such case, the probate or acknowledgment and the registration shall be good;
  5. Although the certificate only states that the deed was duly acknowledged, but not by whom; in which case, the instrument shall be presumed to have been acknowledged by the maker, and the acknowledgment and registration shall be good; and
  6. No such probate or acknowledgment shall be void for want of sufficient certainty therein, if enough is contained on the face of it to identify the instrument to which it applies.

Code 1858, § 2086 (deriv. Acts 1839-1840, ch. 26, § 9); Shan., § 3763; Code 1932, § 7674; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 64-2611.

Textbooks. Tennessee Jurisprudence, 1 Tenn. Juris., Acknowledgments, § 17.

Law Reviews.

The Tennessee Recording System (Toxey H. Sewell), 50 Tenn. L. Rev. 1 (1982).


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