Taylor v. Mckee

• Citation: 118 Ga. 874,45 S.E. 672
• Parties: TAYLOR. v. McKEE.
• Decision Date: 03 November 1903
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

45 S.E. 672

118 Ga. 874

TAYLOR.

v.McKEE.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Nov. 3, 1903.

RECORDS—AUTHENTICATION—CERTIFICATE OF JUDGE.

1. Under the act of Congress relating to the authentication of records not pertaining to courts, the clerk is required to certify that the judge is duly commissioned and qualified.

2. But under the act relating to the authentication of judicial records, the certificate of the judge must affirmatively show that he preside* in the court from which the record comes, and his omission so to do cannot be supplied by an additional certificate to that effect from the clerk.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from Superior Court, Bibb County; W. H. Felton, Jr., Judge.

Action by J. C. Taylor, administratrix, against M. J. McKee, administratrix. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error. Reversed.

Hardeman, Davis, Turner & Jones, for plaintiff in error.

John R. Cooper and Clyde L. Brooks, for defendant in error.

LAMAR, J. The plaintiff, as a foreign administratrix, was required, under Civ. Code 1895, § 3522, to file properly authenticated copies of her letters of administration. Those offered were certified by "A. G. Arch-ey, register of wills and ex officio clerk of the orphans' court" of Center county, Pa.

Following this was a certificate, without caption, in which "Jno. G. Love, president judge of the Forty-Ninth Judicial District, composed of the courts of common pleas, orphans' court, and court of quarter sessions of the peace, " certified that Archey, by whom the foregoing attestation was made, was register of Center county, and that the attestation and certificate were in due form. There is nothing in the judge's certificate to indicate what counties compose the "Forty-Ninth Judicial District, " and nothing to show that he was "president judge" of the "orphans' court" of Center county. This fact was made to appear, however, in an additional certificate signed by Archey under the seal of the court.

Section 906 of the Revised Statutes of the United States [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 677], and Civ. Code Ga. 1895, § 5238, as to how public books and records "not pertaining to a court" may be authenticated, provides that they shall be attested by the keeper of the records, with a certificate of the presiding justice of the court of the county that the attestation is in due form, and then requires an additional certificate by the clerk of such court that such judge is duly commissioned and qualified. But section 905 of the Revised Statutes...