THE A NEY GENEIRAL, 

F TEXAS 

GERALD C. MANN 

-X A-ORNm:Y G.KNERXL 

Honorable Melvin Combs 

Criminal District Attorney 

Beaumont, Texas 

Dear Sir: Opinion No. 0-4622 

Re: Should the County Clerk 

refuse to accept for record any 

affidavit that does not carry 

both a jurat and an acknowledgment. 

Your letter of May 27, 1942 submitting the above question has 

been given our careful consideration. 

As you state, Article 6626, Revised Civil Statutes reads: 

"The following instruments of writing, which shall have 

been acknowledged or proved acoording to law, are 

authorized to be recorded." 

It then names the various instruments. 

Article 6591 of the Revised Civil Statutes reads: 

"County Clerks shall be recorders for their respective 

counties; * * + * shall record all instruments of writing 

authorized or required to be recorded." 

Article 1941 of the Revised Civil Statutes relates to the duties 

of County Clerks and states: 

"They shall be ex-officio recorders for their several 

counties, and as such shall record in suitable books to 

be procured for that purpose all deeds, mortgages and 

other instruments required or permitted by law to be 

recorded." 

In the case of Farmers Mutual Royalty Syndicate vs. Isaacks, 

138 S.W. (2) 228, the Court after discussing the effect of a 

recorded affidavit duly sworn to but not acknowledged which 

related to the sale of certain lands states: 
Honorable Melvin Combs, Page 2, O-4622 

"(l-3) The affidavit was not such an instrument 

as is authorized by Article 6626, Revised Civil Statutes 

to be placed of record in the clerk's office and, therefore, 

its record did not constitute constructive notice to 

defendant in error of the facts revealed by it." 

The court then held in said case that since the purchaser of the 

land had notice of said affidavit being on record he was charged 

with actual notice of its contents, and that although the recording of the affidavit was not constructive notice it did effectively give the purchaser of the land actual notice of its contents. 

36 Tex.Jur. 439 reads: "An instrument which is not acknowledged 

or proved for record as required by law is not entitled to be 

recorded." 

Under the above statement of the law a long list of authorities 

are cited. 

Article 6612, 6613, 6614 and 6615 of the Revised Civil Statutes 

provide the methods of how instruments may be proved in order to 

entitle same to be recorded when said instruments have not been 

acknowledged. 

There is no provision in the statute which authorizes an 

unacknowledged affidavit to be recorded and as above stated the 

recording of such an affidavit is not constructive notice of its 

contents, although it would have the effect of giving actual 

notice if the parties at interest saw the recorded affidavit. 

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. 

You ask whether an affidavit, in order to be recorded should have 

a jurat and also an acknowledgment. It takes then jurat to make 

the instrument an affidavit. Before the County Clerk can be 

required to record an affidavit it must be acknowledged. 

Yours very truly 

GWG:WBP/cge 

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS 

APPROVED JUNE 16, 1942 

s/ Grover Sellers s/ George W. Barcus 

FIRST ASSISTANT 

ATTORNEY GENERAL BY George W. Barcus 

Assistant 

APPROVED OPINION COMMITTEE 

BY BWB, Chairman