GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

1997 SESSION

 

 

S.L. 1997-19

SENATE BILL 95

 

 

 

AN ACT TO VALIDATE NOTARIAL ACTS PERFORMED BY CERTAIN NOTARIES BEFORE DECEMBER 31, 1996.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 10A-16 reads as rewritten:

"§ 10A-16.  Acts of notaries public in certain instances validated.

(a)       Any acknowledgment taken and any instrument notarized by a person prior to qualification as a notary public but after commissioning or recommissioning as a notary public, or by a person whose notary commission has expired, is hereby validated.  The acknowledgment and instrument shall have the same legal effect as if the person qualified as a notary public at the time the person performed the act.

(b)       All documents bearing a notarial seal in which the date of the expiration of the notary's commission is erroneously stated, or having a notarial seal that does not contain a readable impression of the notary's name, or contains an incorrect spelling of the notary's name, fails to contain the words 'North Carolina' or the abbreviation 'N. C.', or contains correct information except that instead of the abbreviation for North Carolina contains the abbreviation for Georgia, are validated and given the same legal effect as if the errors had not occurred.

(c)       All deeds of trust in which the notary was named in the document as a trustee only are validated.

(d)       This section applies to notarial acts performed before October 1, 1991. December 31, 1996."

Section 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 1st day of April, 1997.

s/   Dennis A. Wicker

President of the Senate

 

s/   Harold J. Brubaker

Speaker of the House of Representatives

 

s/   James B. Hunt, Jr.

Governor

Approved 2:45 p.m. this 11th day of April, 1997