Common Seal
Defined in 5 dictionaries — Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Bouvier (1914), Black's (1910), Burrill (1850)
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The seal of a corporation. It was an ancient and technical rule of the common law that a corporation could not manifest its intentions by any personal act or oral discourse, and that it spoke and acted only by its common seal. 4 Kent, Comm. 288. This is said to be no longer law in the United States. 7 Cranch (U. S.) 299; 9 Paige, Ch. (N. Y.) 188; 21 Vt. 343; 21 Miss. 408; 1 Smith (Ind.) 98; 6 Ga. 166; 2 Kent, Comm. 289.
Ballentine's Law Dictionary
James A. Ballentine · 1916
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
The seal of a corporation. See Seal.
Black's Law Dictionary
Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
A seal adopted and used by a corporation for authenticating its corporate acts and executing legal instrumento.
—-Corporate seal. The official or common seal of an incorporated company or association.
Defined under Seal in Black's Law Dictionary.
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
The seal of a corporation, by which alone, at common law, it could speak and act. Davies* B. 121. Dger, 81 a. The rule requiring a seal to bind a corporation has, however, been considerably relaxed in England, and is, in a freat degree, done away in the jurispruence of the United States. 2 Kent's Com. 288 — 291, and notes.