Sec. 51.902. ACTION ON FRAUDULENT JUDGMENT LIEN. (a) A person against whom a purported judgment was rendered who has reason to believe that a document previously filed or recorded or submitted for filing or for filing and recording is fraudulent may complete and file with the district clerk a motion, verified by affidavit by a completed form for ordinary certificate of acknowledgment, of the same type described by Section 121.007, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, that contains, at a minimum, the information in the following suggested form:
Motion for Judicial Review of a Documentation Purporting to Create a Judgment Lien
Now Comes (name) and files this motion requesting a judicial determination of the status of a court, judicial entity, or judicial officer purporting to have taken an action that is the basis of a judgment lien filed in the office of said clerk, and in support of the motion would show the court as follows:
I.
(Name), movant herein, is the person against whom the purported judgment was rendered.
II.
On (date), in the exercise of the county clerk's official duties as County Clerk of (county name) County, Texas, the county clerk received and filed or filed and recorded the documentation attached hereto and containing (number) pages. Said documentation purports to have been rendered on the basis of a judgment, act, order, directive, or process of a court, judicial entity, or judicial officer called therein "(name of purported court, judicial entity, or judicial officer)" against one (name of purported debtor).
III.
Movant alleges that the purported court, judicial entity, or judicial officer referred to in the attached documentation is one described in Section 51.901(c)(1), Government Code, as not legally created or established under the constitution or laws of this state or of the United States, and that the documentation should therefore not be accorded lien status.
IV.
Movant further attests that the assertions contained herein are true and correct.
PRAYER
Movant requests the court to review the attached documentation and enter an order determining whether it should be accorded lien status, together with such other orders as the court deems appropriate.
Respectfully submitted,
_________________________
(Signature and typed name and address)
(b) The completed form for ordinary certificate of acknowledgment, of the same type described by Section 121.007, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, must be as follows:
AFFIDAVIT
THE STATE OF TEXAS
COUNTY OF ______________
BEFORE ME, the undersigned authority, personally appeared ____________, who, being by me duly sworn, deposed as follows:
"My name is __________________. I am over 21 years of age, of sound mind, with personal knowledge of the following facts, and fully competent to testify.
I further attest that the assertions contained in the accompanying motion are true and correct."
Further affiant sayeth not.
____________________________
SUBSCRIBED and SWORN TO before
me, this _______ day of _____,
_______.
____________________________
NOTARY PUBLIC, State of Texas
Notary's printed name:
____________________________
My commission expires:
____________________________
(c) A motion filed under this section may be ruled on by a district judge having jurisdiction over real property matters in the county where the subject documentation was filed. The court's finding may be made solely on a review of the documentation attached to the movant's motion and without hearing any testimonial evidence. The court's review may be made ex parte without delay or notice of any kind. The court's ruling on the motion, in the nature of a finding of fact and a conclusion of law, is unappealable if it is substantially similar to the form suggested in Subsection (g).
(d) The district clerk may not collect a filing fee for filing a motion under this section.
(e) After reviewing the documentation attached to a motion under this section, the district judge shall enter an appropriate finding of fact and conclusion of law, which must be filed and indexed in the same class of records in which the subject documentation or instrument was originally filed.
(f) The county clerk may not collect a filing fee for filing a district judge's finding of fact and conclusion of law under this section.
(g) A suggested form order appropriate to comply with this section is as follows:
Judicial Finding of Fact and Conclusion of Law Regarding a Documentation Purporting to Create a Judgment Lien
On the (number) day of (month), (year), in the above entitled and numbered cause, this court reviewed a motion verified by affidavit of (name) and the documentation attached thereto. No testimony was taken from any party, nor was there any notice of the court's review, the court having made the determination that a decision could be made solely on review of the documentation under the authority vested in the court under Subchapter J, Chapter 51, Government Code.
The court finds as follows (only an item checked and initialed is a valid court ruling):
______ The documentation attached to the motion herein refers to a legally constituted court, judicial entity, or judicial officer created by or established under the constitution or laws of this state or of the United States. This judicial finding and conclusion of law does not constitute a finding as to any underlying claims of the parties.
______ The documentation attached to the motion herein DOES NOT refer to a legally constituted court, judicial entity, or judicial officer created by or established under the constitution or laws of this state or of the United States. There is no valid judgment lien created by the documentation.
This court makes no finding as to any underlying claims of the parties involved and expressly limits its finding of fact and conclusion of law to a ministerial act. The county clerk shall file this finding of fact and conclusion of law in the same class of records as the subject documentation was originally filed, and the court directs the county clerk to index it using the same names that were used in indexing the subject document.
SIGNED ON THIS THE ________ DAY OF ____________________.
_______________________________
DISTRICT JUDGE
________ JUDICIAL DISTRICT
_____________ COUNTY, TEXAS
Added by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 189, Sec. 14, eff. May 21, 1997.