Sec. 8. Deeds executed within this state of lands, or any interest in lands, shall be acknowledged before any judge, clerk of a court of record, or notary public within this state. The officer taking the acknowledgment shall endorse on the deed a certificate of the acknowledgment, and the true date of taking the acknowledgment, under his or her hand. Any deed that was acknowledged before any county clerk or clerk of any circuit court, before September 18, 1903, and the acknowledgment of the deed, and, if recorded, the record of the deed, shall be as valid for all purposes so far as the acknowledgment and record are concerned, as if the deed had been acknowledged before any other officer named in this section, and the legality of the acknowledgment and record shall not be questioned in any court or place. If a deed has been recorded that lacks 1 or more witnesses and the deed has been of record for a period of 10 years or more, and is otherwise eligible to record, the record of the deed shall be effectual for all purposes of a legal record and the record of the deed or a transcript of the record may be given in evidence in all cases and the deed shall be as valid and effectual as if it had been duly executed in compliance with this section.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 565.8
Deeds; execution; witnesses; acknowledgment; endorsement; validity and legality of certain acknowledgments and recordations of deeds; recorded deed lacking 1 or more witnesses
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 71 Mich. App. 322 - Caywood v. Department of Natural Resources (1976)
Most recently applied in In Re DUKE ESTATE (October 2015)
R.S. 1846, Ch. 65; CL 1857, 2727; CL 1871, 4210; How. 5658; CL 1897, 8962; Am. 1903, Act 117, Eff
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Michigan Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Michigan statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.