ACKNOWLEDGMENT. ( 1.) An admission by a person that lie is owing a debt or is subject to a liability. which, lint for such acknowledg ment, wonbl be Nu red by the statute of limita tions. It need not he in any set form of words, but it must be a clear admission of an identified liability, and modern statutes often re quire it to he in writing. (2.) The term is also applied to the formal act of declaring, before a notary public or other proper officer, that a writ ten instrument executed by the declarant is his net and deed. It is applied also to the certificate of the officer setting forth the facts connected with such declaration. An acknowledgment is not essential to the validity of an instrument. un less made so by statute, although by recording :lets (q. v.) it is generally required in order that the instrument may he lawfully recorded. In England and in many of our States, a deed of con veyance or release of dower by a married woman is declared invalid by statute, unless, upon an examination apart from her husband. she ac knowledges that she executed the deed of her own free will. Such a conveyance has taken the place of the conveyance by fietit ions suit, known as a fine (q.v.). The object of this legislation
has been declared by the United States Supreme Court to he twofold: not only to protect the wife by making it the duty of the officer taking the acknowledgment to certify that she has not acted under compulsion of her husband. or in ignorance of the contents of the deed, Inn also to facilitate the conveyance of the estates of married women, and to secure and perpetuate evidence upon which innocent grantees as well as subsequent purellasers may rely that the re quirements of the statute necessary to give validity to the deed have been complied with. Such an examination and certificate is a quasi judicial act, and can be impeached and invalided only for fraud. Judges, clerks of courts, mayors, notaries public, commissioners of deeds, and jus tices of the peace are authorized in most States to take acknowledgments. The laws of the State in which the acknowledgment is to be used de termine its sufficiency. For forms of acknowl edgments consult Hubbell, Legal Directory for Lawyers and Business Men (New York, revised annually). See the authorities referred to under DEED.