(1) In addition to the manner, form and proof of acknowledgment of instruments as now provided by law, any person serving in or with the Armed Forces of the United States, including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or any component or any arm or service of any thereof, including any female auxiliary of any thereof, and any person whose duties require his or her presence with the Armed Forces of the United States, as herein designated, or otherwise designated by law or military or naval command, may acknowledge any instrument, wherever located, either within or without the state, or without the United States, before any commissioned officer in active service of the Armed Forces of the United States, as herein designated, or otherwise designated by law, or military or naval command, or order, with the rank of second lieutenant or higher in the Army or Marine Corps, or of any component or any arm or service of either thereof, including any female auxiliary of any thereof, or ensign or higher in the Navy or United States Coast Guard, or of any component or any arm or service of either thereof, including any female auxiliary of any thereof.

(2) The instrument shall not be rendered invalid by the failure to state therein the place of execution or acknowledgment. No authentication of the officer’s certificate of acknowledgment or otherwise shall be required, and no seal shall be necessary, but the officer taking the acknowledgment shall endorse thereon or attach thereto a certificate substantially in the following form:

On this   day of  ,   (year)  , before me  , the undersigned officer, personally appeared  , known to me (or satisfactorily proven) to be serving in or with, or whose duties require her or his presence with the Armed Forces of the United States, and to be the person whose name is subscribed to the within instrument, and acknowledged that she or he executed the same for the purposes therein contained, and the undersigned does further certify that she or he is at the date of this certificate a commissioned officer of the rank stated below and is in the active service of the Armed Forces of the United States.

(Signature of commissioned officer.)

(Rank of commissioned officer and command or branch of service to which officer is attached.)

(3) Such acknowledgments by a married woman, who is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, shall be sufficient in all respects to bar the dower, homestead rights or separate property rights of such married woman in any real estate described in the instrument thus acknowledged by her, as fully and completely as though such married woman had acknowledged such instrument as now required by other statutes.

(4) An acknowledgment by the spouse of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States shall be sufficient in all respects if it is acknowledged in the manner and form herein provided and shall have the same force and effect as though the instrument had been acknowledged as now required by other statutes and such acknowledgment by a married woman who is a spouse of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States shall be sufficient in all respects to bar the dower, homestead rights or separate property rights of such married woman in any real estate described in the instrument thus acknowledged by her as fully and completely as though such married woman had acknowledged such instrument as now required by other statutes.

(5) Any instrument or document acknowledged in the manner and form herein provided shall be entitled to be recorded and shall be recorded as in the case of other instruments or documents properly acknowledged.

(6) This section is to be liberally construed in favor of the validity of any such acknowledgments by any such member of the Armed Forces of the United States and any acknowledgments heretofore taken, containing words of similar import, are hereby confirmed and declared to be valid and binding. This section shall be construed as an enabling act and as an exception to existing laws rather than, inferentially or otherwise, as a repeal of the same or any part of the same.

History.—s. 7, ch. 22858, 1945; s. 1, ch. 57-40; s. 764, ch. 97-102; s. 28, ch. 99-6.

Note.—Former s. 120.08.