Stratio

Descriptio personae. Description of the person; an addition to a name or signature: as, " chairman," " president," "agent," "assignee," "executor." An appellation thus used may not so much serve to show the capacity in which a person acts as to indentify him as an individual; but circumstances may iudicate an intention to qualify or limit liabi Uty." The rule is that if a person merely adds to the signature of his name the word "agent," "trustee," "treasurer," etc., without disclosing his principal, he 1 Williams, B. P. 93, 95, 96-106. 2 Donnelly v. Turner, 60 Md. 83 (1882), Eobinson, J. s See4Kent, 412, 406, n. • Bates V. Brown, ante; 3 Bl. Com. 515; Mc Dowell V. Addams, 45 Pa. 431 (1863). Virginia law, 9 Va. Law J. 199-203 (1885). » See Eeznor v. Webb, 36 How. Pr. 364 (1866); De Witt 9 N. Y. 572 (1854); Eathbon v. Budlong, 15 is personally bound. The appendix is regarded as » mere deacriptio personal. It does not of itself make third persona chargeable with notice of any representative relation of the signer. But if he is in tact a mere agent, trustee, or officer of some principal, and is in the habit of expressing in that way his representative character in his dealings with a particular party who recognizes him in that character, it would be contrary to justice and truth to construe documents thus made and used as his personal obligations, contrary to the intent of the parties.' DESCRIPTION". See Desceiptio. Enumeration of characteristic qualities; designation; recital. Whence descripti-ve. Opposed, misdescription: an erroneous description. 1. A description of land is good if it identifies the land." Where the description in a deed is true in part, that which is false may be rejected. The instrument will take effect if a sufficient description remains to ascertain its application.^ i Words clearly inconsistent with the rest of a description may be ignored.* ^ Specification of quantity, after a particular description by courses, distances, boundaries, etc., will be held subject to the controlling part of the description. If the purchaser gets the distinct thing contracted for, he cannot complain' on account of a deficiency in quantity, unless deception has been practiced.* A misdescription in a deed will not affect the conveyance, if the property is otherwise so described that it can be identified; especially, where the mistake is in a statement regarding the title.'' See At, 3; Dem- ONSTRATio, Falsa, etc.; More or Less; On; Thence. 2. As to description of a patent, see Invention; Process, %. • 3. Where there is a misdescription in a will, either of a person or of the subject-matter, extraneous evidence is always admissible to show who, or what property, was meant. ^ See Ambiguity. 4. Where words in a declaration are descriptive of the instrument sued on, the instrument, when offered in evidence, must conform strictly to that description. One bearing a different date will not be admitted. But as the same contract may be made on one day and take effect another, and as a bond may be dated ' Metoalf V. Williams, 104 U. S. 98 (1881), Bradley, J,; Taylor u Davis, 110 id. 336 (1884); Wall v. Bissell, 135 id. 393(1888); 24Law Eeg. 781-88 (1885), cases; 103 Ind. 445. = Litchfield v. County of Webster, 101 U. S. 776 (1879). 3 White V. Luning, 93 V. S. 624 (1876); Coleman v. Manhattan Beach Improv. Co., 94 N. Y. 239 (1883); Brookman u Kurzman, ib. 376 (1883); 10 Oreg. 88-89; 1 Greenl. Ev. § 301. * Sampson v. Security Ins. Co., 133 Mass. 54-55 (1882). "See 4 Kent, 466; 1 Story, Eq. § 141; 3 Washb. E. P. 630; 102 U. S. 312. Compensation for misdescription, 3 Law Quar. Rev. 54-63 (1887), Eng. cases. one day to become obligatory on another, either instrument may be counted on as bearing the first datel' An allegation of a matter of substance may be substantially proved; an allegation of a matter of ertsential description must be proved, in cases, with literal precision... Allegations of time, place, quantity, quality, and allegations in aggravation of damages, are not to be strictly proved, unless descriptive. In local actions place Is material, and so of the kind and boundaries of land.'' The strict rule of pleading which formerly required exact accuracy in the description of premises sought to be recovered, has. in modei'n practice, been related, and a general description held to be good. The provisions of statutes as tO/descriptions by metes and bounds have been held to be directory only; a description by name, where the property is well known, is often sufficient, as, to enable a sheriff to execute a writ of possession, or a surveyor to ascertain the precise limits of the location of a mining claim. » See Allegation; Indictment.