Specialty
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
A contract, engagement, or obligation manifested by an instrument under seal. The tendency in modern books to use specialty as including obligations appearing by matter of record is not to be encouraged. That specialty means an obligation under seal, and does not include obligations by record, see Bac. Abr. Obligation, A.; Chitt. Contr.S; 2 Bl. Com. 465; Tomlins; Wharton; Burrill. The word specialty does not embrace a judgment.
Kimball v. Whitney, 16 Ind. 280.
The word specialty originally imported a writing actually under seal; though it has sometimes been extended to include judgments. But a note is not a specialty because it is secured by a mortgage.
Seymour V. Street, 6 Neb. 85.
A promissory note, in writing, and without seal, is not a specialty, within the meaning of that phrase, at common law; nor is it made a specialty by a statute that the same remedy may be had upon such an instrument as upon a bond or sealed instrument.
Bank of the United States v. Donnally, 8 Pet..361.