2021 Colorado Code
Title 38 - Property - Real and Personal
Article 35 - Conveyancing and Recording
Part 1 - General Provisions
§ 38-35-104. Acknowledged Instruments as Evidence

All deeds, powers of attorney, agreements, or other instruments in writing conveying, encumbering, or affecting the title to real property, acknowledged or proved in accordance with this article or acknowledged, attested, or proved in accordance with the laws of this state or the local laws of the mining district wherein such real property is situate, in force at the date of such acknowledgment, attestation, or proof, may be read in evidence without further proof of the execution thereof. The record of any such deed, power of attorney, agreement, or other instrument in writing, whether an original record of any mining district or a copy thereof deposited in the county clerk and recorder's office of any county in accordance with the laws of this state as a part of the records of such mining district or a record of such county clerk and recorder's office when the same appears by such record to be properly acknowledged, attested, or proved in accordance with the laws of this state or of the proper mining district in force at the date of such acknowledgment, attestation, or proof, or a transcript from any such record certified by the county clerk and recorder of the proper county where such deed, power of attorney, or agreement made by law is recorded may be read in evidence with like effect as the original of such deed, agreement, power of attorney, or other instrument in writing, properly acknowledged, attested, or proved as provided in this article.

History. Source: L. 27: P. 587, § 3. CSA: C. 40, § 109. CRS 53: § 118-6-4. C.R.S. 1963: § 118-6-4. History. Source: L. 27: P. 587, § 3. CSA: C. 40, § 109. CRS 53: § 118-6-4. C.R.S. 1963: § 118-6-4.

Law reviews. For article, “Evidence in the Proof of Real Estate Titles”, see 24 Rocky Mt. L. Rev. 424 (1952). For article, “Signatures on Documents Affecting Title to Colorado Real Property -- Part I”, see 12 Colo. Law. 61 (1983).

Advantage of having a deed acknowledged and certified is that it may be read into evidence without additional proof of its execution. Knight v. Lawrence, 19 Colo. 425 , 36 P. 242 (1894).

Deed admissible despite lapse of time. Where a deed was admittedly signed by grantors and witnessed by their neighbor, on the date shown thereon and was acknowledged before a notary public the following day in statutory form, and some 10 years later, it was filed of record, the deed is therefore admissible in evidence as prima facie proof of its free, voluntary, and proper execution, acknowledgment, and delivery, irrespective of the lapse of time between the date of execution and date of recordation. Winslett v. Rozan, 279 F.2d 654 (10th Cir. 1960).

Deed inadmissible where acknowledgment certificate is nullity. Where the certificate of acknowledgment is a nullity, and thus afforded no proof of the execution of the deed, unless its execution was otherwise proved, the deed itself, if produced, would be inadmissible in evidence. Trowbridge v. Addoms, 23 Colo. 518 , 48 P. 535 (1897).

Applied in Sullivan v. Hense, 2 Colo. 424 (1874); Eagan v. Mahoney, 24 Colo. App. 285, 134 P. 156, 174 P. 1119 (1913).