§502-47 Acknowledgment without the United States; by members of the armed forces; recordation where no official authorized to take proof. (a) The proof or acknowledgment of any deed or other instrument required to be proved or acknowledged in order to entitle the same to be recorded or read in evidence, when made by any person without the United States may be made by:

(1) Any officer now authorized thereto by the laws of the State;

(2) Any officer of the United States diplomatic or consular service, resident in any foreign country or port, when certified by the officer under the officer's seal of office; and

(3) Any person authorized by the law of any foreign country to take such acknowledgment or proof, when such acknowledgment or proof is accompanied by a certificate to the effect that the person taking the same is duly authorized thereto and that such acknowledgment or proof is in the manner prescribed by the laws of the foreign country or by treaty or international agreement of the United States. The certificate may be made by a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States under the seal of the officer's office, or by a diplomatic or consular officer of the foreign country, resident in the State, under the seal of the officer's office with the signature or facsimile of the signature of the diplomatic or consular officer of the United States.

For the purposes of this section diplomatic or consular officer includes any minister, consul, vice-consul, charge d'affaires, consular, or commercial agent, or vice-consular or vice-commercial agent.

(b) Proof or acknowledgment may be made by any person in the armed forces of the United States, or by any person without the United States, before any officer of the armed forces authorized by Congress to exercise the powers of a notary public. The signature without seal of any officer acting as such notary public is prima facie evidence of the officer's authority.

(c) Where it is established to the satisfaction of any judge of a circuit court of the State that any instrument required to be acknowledged or proved has been executed by a person then permanently or temporarily resident at some place where acknowledgment or proof cannot be made as hereinabove provided, such instrument shall be declared acceptable for recordation by order of the judge issued upon such testimony and evidence as are sufficient in the judgment of the judge to establish the genuineness and authenticity thereof, and a certified copy of the order shall be recorded together with and attached to any instrument so ordered acceptable for recordation.

(d) Any instrument so proved, acknowledged, or ordered acceptable for recordation is entitled to be recorded in the State, and may be read in evidence in any court of the State in the same manner and with like effect as if therein duly recorded or acknowledged. [L 1909, c 69, §5; RL 1925, §3153; RL 1935, §5139; RL 1945, §12739; am L 1945, c 53, §1; am L 1947, c 86, §1; RL 1955, §343-31; HRS §502-47; gen ch 1993; am L 1995, c 22, §6]