§ 19.002.Parol Proof

The provision that makes the whole chapter possible.

A person may supply a lost, destroyed, or removed record by parol proof of the record’s contents, as provided by this chapter.

Parol proof is oral testimony — evidence outside the document itself. Allowing it here is a departure from the ordinary rule that the contents of a writing are proved by producing the writing, and the departure is necessary: the writing is exactly what has been lost.

The three losses named are different events. Lost is mislaid; destroyed covers the courthouse fire, which is the historical reason this chapter exists; and removed covers the record taken away, whether wrongfully or otherwise.

Texas has lost a great many county records to fire, and a county whose deed records burned would otherwise have every title in it unprovable. The chapter is a response to that, and it is why the procedure runs through a court order rather than through the clerk.

"As provided by this chapter" is a real condition. Parol proof is not admitted at large — the chapter requires an application, citation to interested parties, and an order, and the sections that follow set out each step.

The safeguards matter because the risk is obvious. A procedure allowing someone to establish the contents of a missing deed by testimony is a procedure that could be used to manufacture a title, which is why the parties who would be affected must be cited and heard.

The method is not exclusive, and rerecording an original document within four years is a simpler route where the original still exists.