Sign

To sign and signature are commonly used in modern law as substantially interchangeable with the terms to subscribe and subscription. There is, however, a shade of difference between them, in that "signing" less distinctly imports a writing underneath the body of the instrument than does " subscribing. ' ' Ety mologically, subscribe imports a writing underneath, while sign is satisindeed, it is probable that the word came into the language of the common law as importing affixing the seal, which anciently was the chief sign of executing a paper, and did not, in its earliest use, imply writing at all. However this may be, a requirement that a paper should be signed has been held, in some of the cases, to be satisfied by the party's writing his name in the body of the insti-ument; while, if the requirement were that it should be "subscribed," this would not suffice. See Subscribe. To sign is merely to write one's name on paper, or declare assent or attestation by some sign or mark; and does not, like subscribe, require that one should write at the bottom of the instrument signed.

James V. Patten, 6 N. Y. 9, 13; Miller v. Pe Uetier, 4 Edw. 102.

A statute requiring a document to be " signed " is satisfied by a document with the name of the person whose signature is required, in his own handwriting, at the beginning thereof.

Clason v. Bailey, 14 Johns. 484; People v. Murray, 5 Hill, 468.

A will is not signed, within the meaning of the law, unless the testator's name is affixed at the bottom, or otherwise outside the body, either in his own handwriting or in that of some one else by his direction.

Catlett V. Catlett, 55 Mo. 330.

Where a city charter required certain documents to be signed by certain officers, the word " countersigned," prefixed to one of the signatures, was held not to prevent its being a compliance with the requirements of the charter.

Gurnee v. Chicago, 40 III. 165. Sign-manual.

The signature or subscription of the king (or queen) is termed the sign-manual. There is this difference between what the sovereign does under the sign-manual and what he or she does under the great seal; viz., that the former is done as a personal act of the sovereign, the latter as an act of state.

Broum

Signing judgment. The formal act of entering a judgment, which either the plaintiff or defendant has obtained in an action. Judgments, like the pleadings, were formerly pronounced in open court, and are still always considered to be so, in theory. But by a relaxation of practice, there is now, in general, except in the case of an issue in law, no actual delivery of judgment, either in court or elsewhere. The plaintifi or defendant, when the cause is in such a state that by the course of practice he is entitled to judgment, obtains the signature or allowance of the proper officer of the court, expressing generally that judgment is given in his favor, and this is called signing judgment, and stands in the place of the actual delivery thereof by the judges been stated that the signing of the judgment is but the leave of the master of the office for the attorney to enter the judgment for his client. Brown. The expression signing judgment, in section 420 of the Indiana code, — providing that a stay of execution shall commence " from the time of signing the judgment," — relates to the signature of the judge to the proceedings of the court of the day on which the judgment is rendered.

Galbraith V. Sidener, 28 Ind. 142.