Certificate

A writing made in any court, and properly authenticated, to give notice to another court of anything done therein. A writing by which testimony is given that a fact has or has not taken place. Certificates are either required by law, as an insolvent's certificate of discharge, an alien's certificate of naturalization, which are evidence of the facts therein mentioned; or voluntary, which are given of the mere motion of the party giving them, and are in no case evidence.

Com. Dig. Chancery (T. 5); 1 Greenl. Ev. § 498; 2 Willes 549.

There were anciently various modes of trial commenced by a certificate of various parties, which took the place of a writ in a common-law action. See Com. Dig. Certificate. Where a certificate is authorized by statute, the effect cannot be extended by including facts other than those authorized; 1 Maule & S. 599; U. S. v. Buford, 3 Pet. (U. S.) 12, 29, 7 L. Ed. 585; Arnold v. Tourtellot, 13 Pick. (Mass.) 172; Stewart v. Allison, 6 S. & R. (Pa.) 324, 9 Am. Dec. 433; Governor v. Bell, 7 N. C. 331; Exchange & Banking Co. of New Orleans v. Boyce, 3 Rob. (La.) 307. An officer who has made a defective certificate of a married woman's acknowledgment cannot correct the defect after the expiration of his term; Griffith v. Ventress, 91 Ala. 366, 8 South. 312, 11 L. R. A. 193, 24 Am. St. Rep. 918; nor can he contradict his own certificate by testifying to fraud and coercion on the part of the husband toward the wife; Hockman v. McClanahan, 87 Va. 33, 12 S. E. 230. A certificate of acknowledgment is a judicial act, and in the absence of fraud conclusive of material facts stated in it; Cover v. Manaway, 115 Pa. 338, 8 Atl. 393, 2 Am. St. Rep. 552; Citizen's Saving & Loan Ass'n v. Heiser, 150 Pa. 514, 24 Atl. 733; but only of facts required by statute to be included in it, and therefore not that the wife of the grantor was of full age; Williams v. Baker, 71 Pa. 476. See Return; Notary; Acknowledgment; Stock.