[WSBAPT] If a public notary prints their name, but does not sign their name, is that notary certification valid?

Tue Jun 23 01:32:23 PDT 2026

Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

June 23, 2026

Joshua,

I love this man, too!!

It does make sense that a technical defect should not cause the 
notarized document to be unenforceable. It was my client's bad luck that 
it was probably the first notorial act by the egghead that notarized the 
revocation. I immediately recorded the defective revocation,  just in 
case the grantor happened to die before we were able to record a 
challenge proof revocation.

Should I end up with a case where the grantor dies and we WANT the 
revocation with a defective notarization to stand, now I know where to 
start my research!
Thank you Eric !

Andrekita Silva
Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 940
Seattle, Washington 98101-2509
206-224-8288
ak at seattle-silvalaw.com

On 2026/06/22 02:03 PM, Joshua McKarcher wrote:

> I cannot be the only person in Washington right now thinking, "I
> love this man." (Thank God I apologized for the extra 'k' on his
> name and only went so far as to suggest someone could TRY to
> challenge, as apparently these lease-people did in the 1980s.)
> 
> Fascinating!
> 
> Joshua McKarcher
> _Attorney, Owner_
> McKarcher Law PLLC
> o: (509) 758-3345
> josh at mckarcherlaw.com
> [1 [1]]
> 
> From: Eric Nelsen <eric at sayrelawoffices.com>
> Date: Monday, June 22, 2026 at 9:55 AM
> To: ak at seattle-silvalaw.com <ak at seattle-silvalaw.com>; WSBA Probate &
> Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>; Joshua McKarcher
> <josh at mckarcherlaw.com>
> Subject: RE: [WSBAPT] If a public notary prints their name, but does
> not sign their name, is that notary certification valid?
> 
> Andrekita has the answer for her purposes...but I went down a rabbit
> hole.
> 
> I didn't know about the additional requirement for a notary
> signature--the notary requirement is at RCW 42.45.130(1)(b) [2 [2]] and
> WAC 308-30-100 [3 [3]]. Has to be signed "in the same manner as on file
> with the department" and "using the exact name that appears on the
> notary's certificate of commission and their seal or stamp."
> 
> For practical purposes I can see that having a mismatch of the notary
> signature might cause a problem. But I question whether it could make
> the notarial act voidable. The cases tend to be strict about presence
> of the notary's seal if an instrument conveying real property is
> involved, and of course the language of the notary's certificate
> itself is critical in determining if it's a proper acknowledgment or
> an oath or whatever; but with those caveats, minor defects in the
> notary's formalities as written onto the document do not appear to
> invalidate the notarial act so long as there is proof that the notary
> did in fact perform their proper functions of verifying the identity
> of the signer and so forth.
> 
> Compare:
> 
> State v. Epstein, 138 Wash. 118 (1926), requiring dismissal of a
> criminal charge of perjury because the false instrument's notary
> block was missing its seal, and therefore it wasn't under oath under
> penalty of perjury
> 
> Melovitch v. City of Tacoma, 135 Wash. 533 (1925), upholding validity
> of claim filed with City of Tacoma statute required that the claim
> must be verified under oath), where notary seal was missing but the
> claim was otherwise properly and timely filed and parol evidence was
> provided showing that the notarial acts had otherwise been correctly
> followed
> 
> Ben Holt Industries, Inc. v. Milne, 36 Wn.App. 468 (1984), confirming
> signature of corporation landlord's president and secretary that
> were acknowledged in individual capacity instead of representative
> capacity were fatally defective BUT the lease was upheld nevertheless
> based on part performance, stating, "The parties intended to create
> a lease. There is no uncertainty inherent here. Allowing a technical
> flaw in the acknowledgment to invalidate the lease does not prevent
> fraud or uncertainty, rather, it enhances it."
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Eric
> 
> Eric C. Nelsen
> 
> Sayre Law Offices, PLLC
> 
> 1417 31st Ave South
> 
> Seattle WA 98144-3909
> 
> 206-625-0092
> 
> eric at sayrelawoffices.com
> 
> From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
> <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Andrekita Silva
> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2026 3:30 PM
> To: Joshua McKarcher <josh at mckarcherlaw.com>
> Cc: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
> Subject: Re: [WSBAPT] If a public notary prints their name, but does
> not sign their name, is that notary certification valid?
> 
> Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
> ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> 
> June 19, 2026
> 
> Thank you all for your responses.
> 
> I believe the statute clearly requires a signature.
> 
> As Eric noted, it doesn't matter how or what a person signs, as long
> as it's that person's "signature."
> 
> And as Joshua points out, it must be signed as the signature appears
> on his application which is on file with the State.
> 
> At Melody's suggestion, I looked up this guy up on the State's
> website. There is no access to his application (I assume this could be
> secured if necessary for some process.) However, it looks like this
> guy became a notary for the very first time on March 23 !!  I'm
> thinking my client may have been this guy's first client and he
> choked...
> 
> I asked my client to go get the revocation certified by someone else.
> 
> Totally out of curiousity, I might email to Dept. of Licensing and
> ask if they'll send me a copy of this guys signature.
> 
> Thanks again all!
> 
> Andrekita Silva
> Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
> 1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 940
> Seattle, Washington 98101-2509
> 206-224-8288
> ak at seattle-silvalaw.com
> 
> On 2026/06/19 08:17 AM, Joshua McKarcher wrote:
> 
>> Erick,
>> 
>> I agree with you about the common law signature, but I'm fairly
>> certain if you get into the weeds of the notary public statutes and
>> regulations and even the forms, it is a requirement (in each of
>> Idaho
>> and Washington) that a notary use the signature that they provide as
>> the document or sample on their application.
>> 
>> For example, my application recites my full legal name as Joshua
>> David McKarcher for purposes of first identifying me as a human
>> being.
>> 
>> But then my notary NAME and SIGNATURE is only Joshua McKarcher. I
>> must order my stamp to read THAT name, and I have to provide an
>> exemplar of my notary signature in a box.
>> 
>> It is the case actually that if I suddenly began signing my name,
>> _Joshua David McKarcher_, those notarial acts would become notorious
>> (by which I mean naughty even if I'm behaving loosely with the
>> meanings of words)!!!
>> 
>> The _Joshua David McKarcher _signatures would be noncompliant under
>> the rules and regulations because that's not what is on file with
>> the
>> state or represented on my stamp.
>> 
>> (Of course the stamp name is irrelevant for signatures that look
>> like
>> line drawings of a person who can't be bothered. Then only the line
>> drawing must match the signature on file with the state. )
>> 
>> There are saving regulations that say things like the instrument is
>> not automatically invalid (void) only for these technical reasons.
>> But
>> that does not mean the act is not voidable and that someone could
>> not
>> challenge the act as invalid because it is noncompliant if they
>> cared
>> enough to obtain a court order to that effect.
>> 
>> Please forgive me for this email. Happy Friday! Best, Josh
>> 
>> Joshua McKarcher
>> 
>> _Attorney, Owner_
>> McKarcher Law PLLC
>> o: (509) 758-3345
>> josh at mckarcherlaw.com
>> 
>> -------------------------
>> 
>> From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
>> <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> on behalf of Eric Nelsen
>> <eric at sayrelawoffices.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, 18 June 2026 09:11:06
>> To: ak at seattle-silvalaw.com <ak at seattle-silvalaw.com>; WSBA Probate
>> &
>> Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
>> Subject: Re: [WSBAPT] If a public notary prints their name, but does
>> not sign their name, is that notary certification valid?
>> 
>> Under common law a "signature" can be any kind of mark. It's
>> even allowable, for example, to sign "John Smith" as my
>> idiosyncratic way of signing "Eric Nelsen." The purpose of a
>> signature is both instrumental (part of the act of notarizing) and
>> evidentiary (notary was there and it was truly the notary and not
>> somebody else). Any mark can meet both purposes.
>> 
>> Marks that don't bear some relationship to what people would
>> expect
>> to see as a signature, impairs the evidentiary function. Which is my
>> longwinded and pompous way of agreeing with Melody--the problem
>> isn't that the printed signature is invalid, but that third
>> parties
>> might be inclined to distrust it.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> 
>> Eric
>> 
>> Eric C. Nelsen
>> 
>> Sayre Law Offices, PLLC
>> 
>> 1417 31st Ave South
>> 
>> Seattle WA 98144-3909
>> 
>> 206-625-0092
>> 
>> eric at sayrelawoffices.com
>> 
>> From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
>> <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Andrekita Silva
>> Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2026 12:52 AM
>> To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
>> Subject: [WSBAPT] If a public notary prints their name, but does not
>> sign their name, is that notary certification valid?
>> 
>> Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
> ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> 
>> June 18, 2026
>> 
>> Listserve,
>> 
>> If a public notary prints his name, is that notary certification
>> valid?
>> 
>> RCW 42.45.130 says the certificate must be "signed and dated" in the
>> same manner as is on file with the state.
>> 
>> A client gave me a revocation to record. But, his name looks 100%
>> printed. Some people tell me that my signature looks like I've
>> printed, but it really is my cursive signature. I could not find a
>> phone number for the notary to ask him if that is his signature or
>> if
>> he actually only printed his name and forgot to provide his
>> signature.
>> I've emailed to my client to ask for this guy's phone number. I'm
>> going to try to check with this guy to see if that's his signature
>> or
>> if he printed.
>> 
>> But, what do you all think?  Will this revocation need to be
>> re-executed?
>> 
>> Andrekita Silva
>> Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
>> 1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 940
>> Seattle, Washington 98101-2509
>> 206-224-8288
>> ak at seattle-silvalaw.com
> 
> Links:
> ------
> [1] https://mckarcherlaw.com/
> [2] https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=42.45.130
> [3] 
> https://app.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=308-30&full=true#308-30-100 
> [3]

Links:
------
[1] https://mckarcherlaw.com/
[2] https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=42.45.130
[3] 
https://app.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=308-30&full=true#308-30-100
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