Court Opinion

ID: 9581917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:20:29.978763+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:20.380135
License: Public Domain

ZIMMERMAN, Justice
(concurring):
I join the majority in departing from our decisions in Colman v. Schwendiman, 680 P.2d 29 (Utah 1984), and Spangler v. District Court of Salt Lake County, 104 Utah 584, 140 P.2d 755 (1943), although not without some reluctance. I would have been *565content to reaffirm Colman and Spangler on principles of stare decisis, affirm the decision below, and suggest that the legislature clear up this area of the law. However, because a majority of the Court is willing to reject Colman and Spangler, I join it, but add a comment about the state of the law in this area.
The question of the formalities required in the execution of documents is one upon which the legislature has spoken repeatedly, albeit with no apparently coherent overarching principles in mind.1 Different statutes use different terminology in describing the formalities they require. While our decision today indicates that we will not be as literal in demanding compliance with these formalities as we were in Colman and Spangler, we cannot eliminate those antiquated and apparently unnecessary statutory formalities and bring consistency and clarity to this area by judicial fiat. As a consequence, and despite our opinion today, it is possible, as Justice Oaks stated in dissent in Colman, that many routine real estate and other transactions completed in the state of Utah on a day-to-day basis may fail to comply with the technical mandates of the statutes that govern them and, as a result, may be subject to attack.
I agree with the policy judgment that underlies the majority opinion: there is little reason to require these technicalities in this day of simplified practice and procedure. However, a complete remedy for the problems created by these statutes would be the legislature’s enactment of a law repealing technical swearing requirements in all statutes and substituting the simple requirement that the documents or statements in question be signed or made under penalty of perjury.2 It is a common procedure that has long been employed elsewhere. See, e.g., 28 U.S.C. § 1746 (1982). Such legislation, if made retroactive, would remedy any latent defects in existing documents.
It is to be hoped that by adopting the position taken today and obviating some of the most unsettling consequences of the Colman and Spangler approach, we have not induced the Bar and the legislature to believe that the problem has been finally laid to rest. It would be most unfortunate *566if our action today served only to postpone a truly effective and thoroughgoing legislative remedy.
DURHAM, J., concurs in the concurring opinion of ZIMMERMAN, J.

. See, e.g., Utah Code Ann. § 38-1-7 (1974) (mechanic’s lien claims were required to “be verified by the oath of [the claimant] or some other person” prior to amendment); id. § 38-l-7(2)(e) (1988) (mechanic’s lien claims must now simply be signed by the claimant or an authorized agent); id. § 40-3-2 (1988) (person authorized to weigh coal must “take and subscribe an oath to keep the scales correctly balanced, to accurately weigh, and to correctly record the gross or screened weight, to the nearest ten pounds, of each miner’s car of coal delivered”); id. § 40-3-3 (1988) (miners’ agent appointed to double-check coal weighing must "take and subscribe an oath that he [or she] is duly qualified and will faithfully discharge the duties of check-weigh[er]”); id. § 41-6-44.10(b) (1982) (prior to amendment, peace officers were required to submit sworn reports concerning drivers arrested for driving under the influence who refused to submit to chemical tests); id. § 41-6-44.10(2)(a)(iii) (1988) (today, officers need only sign DUI reports); id. § 53B-5-107(l) (Supp.1987) (proprietary school registration statements "shall be verified by the oath or affirmation of the owner or a responsible officer”); id. §§ 57-2a-2, -7 (Supp.1988), 57-2-7 (1986) (any written instrument affecting title to real property and any other document that requires notarization must bear a certificate showing that the signer acknowledged executing it; if the instrument was executed by an agent for an entity or an individual, the agent must make a sworn statement or provide other proof of agency authority); id. § 77-23-3(1) (1982) ("A search warrant shall not issue except upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation. ..."); id. § 77-35-4(a) (1982) (Utah R.Crim.P. 4(a)) ("[Ojffenses shall be prosecuted by indictment or information sworn to by a person having reason to believe the offense has been committed.").

. The legislature has repealed the technical swearing requirements construed in Colman, Spangler, and this case. See Utah Code Ann. §§ 41-6-44.10(2)(a)(iii), 38-l-7(2)(e) (1988). In light of the statutes cited previously, see supra note 1, statute-by-statute repeal is not only needlessly complex and confusing, but it is also inadequate for three reasons. First, many hy-pertechnical requirements have not been repealed. Second, the repeals that have occurred do not appear to be retroactive. Third, the requirement of signing subject to the penalties for perjury does not appear to have been substituted for the repealed provisions.
The legislature has adopted the approach that I am advocating in the limited context of the Utah Uniform Probate Code. See Utah Code Ann. § 75-1-309 (1978). Thus, the approach appears to be acceptable to the legislature.