United States Statutes at Large/Volume 2/8th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 56
Chap. LVI.—An Act supplementary to the act intituled “An act to prescribe the mode in which the public acts, records and judicial proceedings in each State shall be authenticated so as to take effect in every other State.”[1]
Act of May 26, 1790, ch. 11.
The attestation of the keeper of the records which may be kept in any public office of a state not appertaining to a court, under his seal of office, with a certificate of the presiding judge, or of the governor, chancellor, &c., that the attestation is in due form, shall have full force and credit in every court of the U. S. as in the courts of the state.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this act, all records and exemplifications of office books, which are or may be kept in any public office of any state, not appertaining to a court, shall be proved or admitted in any other court or office in any other state, by the attestation of the keeper of the said records or books, and the seal of his office thereto annexed, if there be a seal, together with a certificate of the presiding justice of the court of the county or district, as the case may be, in which such office is or may be kept; or of the governor, the secretary of state, the chancellor or the keeper of the great seal of the state, that the said attestation is in due form, and by the proper officer; and the said certificate, if given by the presiding justice of a court, shall be farther authenticated by the clerk or prothonotary of the said court, who shall certify under his hand and seal of his office, that the said presiding justice is duly commissioned and qualified; or if the said certificate be given by the governor, the secretary of state, the chancellor or keeper of the great seal, it shall be under the great seal of the state in which the said certificate is made. And the said records and exemplifications, authenticated as aforesaid, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court and office within the United States, as they have by law or usage in the courts or offices of the state from whence the same are, or shall be taken.
To what acts the provisions of this law shall apply.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all the provisions of this act, and the act to which this is a supplement, shall apply as well to the public acts, records, office books, judicial proceedings, courts and offices of the respective territories of the United States, and countries subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, as to the public acts, records, office books, judicial proceedings, courts and offices of the several states.
Approved, March 27, 1804.
- ↑ See notes to act of May 26, 1790, chap. 11, vol. i. p. 122.