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Common Seal

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary

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.