Subscribe

To write underneath. Subscription: a writing under, or underwriting; a writing of the name under or at the bottom of an instrument by way of adoption, attestation, or ratification. Subscriber: one who writes his name underneath some engagement, by way of adopting or assuming it. Subscriber is used in a very different sense from underwriter, though the two words are so analogous in etymology. Two questions as to the meaning of subscribe and its inflections are made in the cases, — whether they require a writing underneath the paper, or are satisfied by a writing of the name in the body; and whether they require a writing by the individual in person. The first question is partly presented under the word sign (j. ».); and the current of the decisions appears to favor maintaining the use of these words in their etymological meaning of a writing underneath. Thus, in New Hampshire, affidavit, a case arose in which they swore to the affidavit, having personally written their names in the body of it, filling up the blanks left for the names in the printed form; but they had not signed it underneath. The court held this insufficient, declaring that the word " subscribed," when used with reference to the authentication of a writing, ordinarily implies that the name of the party who subscribes is set by him, or by his authority, at the bottom or end of it; and this meaning must be assigned to the term, in a statute, unless there is something requiring a different construction.

Stone V. Marvel, 45 N. H. 481.

It seems impossible to reconcile the numerous cases on the question how far a requirement that a person shall subscribe demands an actual writing by his own hand, or whether it may be satisfied by an adoption of a signature written by another. These cases arise under various statutes; such as a statute of frauds, requiring a memorandum of agreement to be subscribed; procedure acts, requiring a summons to be subscribed; charters regulating subscription to stock of corporations; statutes of w Uls, directing a testator or witnesses to be subscribed. Many of the decisions depend on the context in which the word occurs in the statute; and the question can hardly be said to turn upon the meaning of the word. Two representative cases will illustrate the opposite views: In Alabama, the statute expressly allows a will to be signed by another person for the testator; but the witnesses are required to subscribe their names. Accordingly, the court held that the difference in language raised a strong presumption that the legislature meant to require actual personal writing by each witness; and, while they declined to lay down a rule as to a case of a witness unable to write, they held that, where a witness is well able to write, the subscription of his name by another witness, without his participation in the act, ought not to be deemed a subscribing by him. To satisfy the word subscribe, making his mark, or holding the pen while another guides his hand.

Kiley V. Riley, 36 Ala. 496.

But under the New York code of procedure, which requires the summons in an action to be subscribed by the plaintiff or his attorney, a summons issued by an attorney, with his name printed at the end thereof, has been held to be subscribed by him, within the law, on the ground that there is no good reason why the general rule, that a statute requiring an instrument to be in writing and subscribed is satisfied by a signature adopted by the party to be bound thereby, should not apply to a statute prescribing the form of legal process.

Barnard v. Heydi-ick, 49 Barh. 62.

To subscribe is to write the name under; to write the name at the bottom or end of a writing.

Wild Cat Branch v. Ball, 45 Ind. 213.

Subscription is the act of the hand, while attestation is the act of the senses; to subscribe a paper published as a will is only to write on the same paper the name of the witness; to attest a will is to know that it was published as such, and to certify the facts required to constitute an actual and legal publication.

Matter of Downie's Will, 42 Wis. 66, 76.

The word subscriber, in a statute imposing personal liability upon the subscribers to the capital stock of an incorporated company, was held to include stockholders of every description, in Gay v. Keys, 30 lU.

413.

Subscribing Tvitness

A person who puts his name to an instrument as attesting witness.