Date

The designation or indication in an instrument of writing of the time and place when and where it was made. In the Anglo-Saxon land charters dates were given by the year of the Indiction (q. v.). Dating by the year of our Lord was invented in 532. At a council in 816 it was adopted for the acts of the synod and became general in documents from that date; 2 Holdsw.

Hist. E. L. 19.

Some early charters were not dated; some referred to the regnal year, or a church festival, or a remarkable event; 3 id.

196.

When the place is mentioned in the date of a deed, the law intends, unless the contrary appear, that it was executed at the place of the date; Plowd. 7 6. The word is derived from the Latin datum (given); because when the instruments were in Latin the form ran datum, etc. (given the day of, etc.). A date is necessary to the validity of a policy of insurance; but where there are separate underwriters, each sets down the date of his own signing, as this constitutes a separate contract; Marsh. Ins. 336; 2 Pars. Marit. Law 27. Written instruments generally take effect from the day of their date, but the actual date of execution may be shown, though different from that which the instrument bears; and it is said that the date is not of the essence of a contract, but is essential to the identity of the writing by which it is to be proved; 2 Greenl.

Ev. §§ 12, 489, n.; Cloyes v. Sweetser, 4 Cush. (Mass.) 403; Jackson v. Mc Kenny, 3 Wend. (N. Y.) 233, 20 Am. Dec. 690; Gammon v. Freeman, 31 Me. 243; Bement v. Mfg. Co., 32 N. J. L. 513; Mc Sparran v. Neeley, 91 Pa. 17; 17 E. L. & Eq. 548. See Knisely v. Sampson, 100 111. 573; 19 L. J. Q. B. 435.

And if the written date is an impossible one, the time of delivery must be shown; Shepp. Touchst.

72; Cruise, Dig. c. 2, s. 61.

An indictment charging the commission of a crime on an impossible date (in the year 18903) was held fatally defective; Terrell v. State, 165 Ind. 443, 75 N. E. 884, 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 251, 112 Am. St. Rep. 244, 6 Ann. Cas. 851; see also State v. Sexton, 10 N. C. 184, 14 Am. Dec. 584; State v. Litch, 33 Vt. 67; even when the mistaken date appears to have been merely a clerical error; Robles v. State, 5 Tex. App. 347; and one charging the commission of an offense upon a date not yet arrived was held to allege no offense as having been already committed; Com. v. Doyle, 110 Mass. 103. Where the date alleged for the commission of a statutory ofber of the Union, it was held an impossibla date; State v. O'Donnell, 81 Me. 271, 17 AtL 06. See Indictment; Time. A date in a note or bill is required only for the purpose of fixing the time of payment. If the time of payment is otherwise indicated, no date is necessary; 1 Ames, Bills and Notes 145, citing Brewster v. Mc- Cardell, 8 Wend. (N. Y.) 478; Walker v. Geisse, 4 Whart. (Pa.) 252, 33 Am. Dec. 60. When a note payable at a fixed period after date has no date, a holder may fill the date with the day of issue; ibid. It is usually presumed that a deed was delivered on the day of its date; but proof of the date of delivery must be given if the circumstances were such that collusion might be practised; Steph. Dig. Ev. 138; Raines v. Walker, 77 Va. 92; Harman v. Oberdorfer, 33 Gratt. (Va.) 497; Saunders v. Blythe, 112 Mo. 1, 20 S. W. 319.

See 6 Bing. 296; Ellsworth v. R. Co., 34 N. J. L. 93; Cutts v. Mfg. Co., 18 Me. 190.

But this presumption does not hold in respect to deeds in fee, unattested and unacknowledged; Genter v. Morrison, 31 Barb. (N. Y.) 155. Parol evidence is admissible to show that the date stated in the in testimonium clause of a mortgage deed of personal property is not its true date; Shaughnessey v. Lewis, 130 Mass. 355; Orcutt v. Moore, 134 Mass. 52, 45 Am. Rep. 278. There is a presumption as to a note that it was delivered on the day of its date; Cranson v. Goss, 107 Mass. 439, 9 Am. Rep. 45. Where a date is given, both as a day of the week and a day of the month, and the two are inconsistent, the day of the month governs; Minor v. Michie, Walker (Miss.) 27.