More on Foreign Language Documents

Perhaps it’s appropriate on Cinco de Mayo to revisit the issue of documents written in a foreign language. I wrote about our general policy a few days ago but the theoretical very quickly became the practical – a practical problem - when such a document was presented for recording earlier today. Concluding that the document, as presented, could not be recorded was the easy part. When the customer inevitably (and justifiably) asked “What else must be done to get this on record?” we were faced with a case of first impression, at least as far as this office is concerned. Here’s what happened, more or less: A parcel of land in Lowell is owned by a man who lives in Germany. A lawyer in the US drafts a deed in English and mails it to the man in Germany. The German takes it to a notary public in Germany who translates the English language deed into German, has his non-English speaking client sign the German language deed and then notarizes that deed. The German notary also has the client sign the English language deed, but the notary does not execute the acknowledgement section of that deed. The German notary then mails the original English language deed signed by the landowner but not notarized and the signed and notarized German translation of that English language deed to the lawyer in Massachusetts who then tries to record either or both here at the registry. Well, the English language deed could not be recorded because it was not notarized and the German language deed could not be recorded because it wasn’t in English. One option would be to send the English language version back to the German notary and have him complete the acknowledgement clause. To avoid sending it back to Germany, however, I suggested a different approach. Find someone locally who could translate the signed and acknowledged German language deed into English. The translator would then sign a certification attesting to the accuracy of his translation. The German language deed with the original signature and acknowledgement would then be attached to the English language translation and the translator’s certification. Since I have not found anything to serve as a model for the translator’s certification, I composed one myself, but we’ll discuss that tomorrow.