Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 76A.djvu/501

–405– -405of the state department of the United States, certified by the heads of those agencies, respectively. They may also be proved by public documents printed by order of the executive or Congress, or either house thereof. (2) The proceedings of Congress, by the journals of that body, or either house thereof, or by published statutes or resolutions, or by copies certified by the clerk or printed by their order. (3) The acts of the executive, or the proceedings of the legislature, of a State, in the same manner. (4) The acts of the executive, or the proceedings of the legislature of a foreign country, by journals published by their authority, or commonly received in that country as such, or by a copy certified under the seal of the country or sovereign, or by a recognition thereof in a public act of the executive of the United States. (5) Documents of any other class in the Canal Zone, by the original, or by a copy, certified by the legal keeper thereof. (6) Documents of any other class in a State, by the original, or by a copy, certified by the legal keeper thereof, together with the certificate of the secretary of state, judge of the supreme, superior, or county court, or mayor of a city of the State, that the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original. (7) Documents of any other class in a foreign country, by the original, or by a copy, certified by the legal keeper thereof, with a certificate, under seal, of the country or sovereign, that the document is a valid and subsisting document of the country, and the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original. (8) Documents in the departments or agencies of the United States Government, by the certificates of the legal custodian thereof. § 3132. Public record of private writing A public record of a private writing may be proved by the original record, or by a copy thereof, certified by the legal keeper of the record. § 3133. Officer's deed as evidence of transfer A deed of conveyance of real property, purporting to have been executed by a proper officer in pursuance of legal process of the district court, or the record of the deed, or a certified copy of the record is prima facie evidence that the property or interest therein described was thereby conveyed to the grantee named in the deed. Subchapter IV—Private Writings § 3161. Private writings classified; seals (a) Private writings are either: (1) sealed; or (2) unsealed. (b) A scroll or other sign, made in a State or foreign country, and there recognized as a seal, shall be so regarded in the Canal Zone. (c) There is no difference in the Canal Zone between sealed and unsealed writings. A writing under seal may therefore be changed or altogether discharged by a writing not under seal. § 3162. Execution of instrument defined The execution of an instrument is the subscribing and delivering it, with or without affixing a seal. § 3163. CompromLse of debt without seal An agreement, in writing, without a seal, for the compromise or settlement of a debt, is as obligatory as if a seal were affixed.

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