2.
Contracts are express or implied. The express are manifested viva voce,
or by writing; the implied are shown by silence, by acts, or by signs.
3.
Among all nations find and at all times, certain signs have been
considered as proof of assent or dissent; for example, the nodding of
the head, and the shaking of hands; 2 Bl. Com. 448; 6 Toull. D. 33;
Heinnec., Antiq. lib. 3, t. 23, n. 19; silence and inaction, facts and
signs are sometimes very strong evidence of cool reflection, when
following a question. I ask you to lend me one hundred dollars, without
saying a word you put your hand in your pocket, and deliver me the
money. I go into a hotel and I ask the landlord if he can accommodate me
and take care of my trunk; without speaking he takes it out of my hands
and sends it into his chamber. By this act he doubtless becomes
responsible to me as a bailee. At the expiration of a lease, the tenant
remains in possession, without any objection from the landlord; this may
be fairly interpreted as a sign of a consent that the lease shall be
renewed. 13 Serg. & Rawle, 60.
4,
The learned author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in his
44th chapter, remarks, "Among savage nations, the want of letters is
imperfectly supplied by the use of visible signs, which awaken
attention, and perpetuate the remembrance of any public or private
transaction. The jurisprudence of the first Romans exhibited the scenes
of a pantomime; the words were adapted to the gestures, and the
slightest error or neglect in the forms of proceeding was sufficient to
annul the substance of the fairest claim. The communion of the
marriage-life was denoted by the necessary elements of fire and water:
and the divorced wife resigned, the bunch of keys, by the delivery of
which she had been invested with the government of the family. The
manumission of a son, or a slave, was performed by turning him round
with a gentle blow on the cheek: a work was prohibited by the casting of
a stone; prescription was interrupted by the breaking of a branch; the
clenched fist was the symbol of a pledge or deposits; the right hand was
the gift of faith and confidence. The indenture of covenants was a
broken straw; weights and, scales were introduced into every payment,
and the heir who accepted a testament, was sometimes obliged to snap his
fingers, to cast away his garments, and to leap and dance with real or
affected transport. If a citizen pursued any stolen goods into a
neighbor's house, he concealed his nakedness with a linen towel, and hid
his. face with a mask or basin, lest he should encounter the eyes of a
virgin or a matron. In a civil action, the plaintiff touched the ear of
his witness seized his reluctant adversary by the neck and implored, in
solemn lamentation, the aid of his fellow-citizens. The two competitors
grasped each other's hand, as if they stood prepared for combat before
the tribunal of the praetor: he commanded them to produce the object of
the dispute; they went, they returned with measured steps, and a clod of
earth was cast at his feet to represent the field for which they
contended. This occult science of the words and actions of law, was the
inheritance of the pontiffs and patricians. Like the Chaldean
astrologers, they announced to their clients the days of business and
repose; these important trifles wore interwoven with the religion of
Numa; and, after the publication of the Twelve Tables, the Roman people
were still enslaved by the ignorance of judicial proceedings. The
treachery of some plebeian officers at length revealed the profitable
mystery: in a more enlightened age, the legal actions were derided and
observed; and the same antiquity which sanctified the practice,
obliterated the use and meaning, of this primitive language."
SIGN, measures. In angular measures, a sign is equal to thirty degrees. Vide Measure.
SIGN, mer. law. A board, tin or other substance, on which is painted the name and business of a merchant or tradesman.
2.
Every man has a right to adopt such a sign as he may please to select,
but he has no right to use another's name, without his consent. See
Dall. Dict. mot Propriete Industrielle, and the article Trade marks.
To SIGN.
To write one's name to an instrument of writing in order to give the
effect intended; the name thus written is called a signature.
2.
The signature is usually made at the bottom of the instrument but in
wills it has been held that when a testator commenced his will With
these words;, "I, A B, make this my will," it was a sufficient signing. 3
Lev. 1; and vide Rob. on Wills, 122 1 Will. on Wills, 49, 50; Chit.
Cont. 212 Newl. Contr. 173; Sugd. Vend. 71; 2 Stark. Ev. 605, 613; Rob.
on Fr. 121; but this decision is said to be absurd. 1 Bro. Civ. Law,
278, n. 16. Vide Merl. Repert. mot Signature, for a history of the
origin, of signatures; and also 4 Cruise, Dig. h. t. 32, c. 2, s. 73, et
seq.; see, generally, 8 Toull. n. 94-96; 1 Dall. 64; 5 Whart. R. 386; 2
B. & P 238; 2 M. & S. 286.
3.
To sign a judgment, is to enter a judgment for want of something which
was required to be done; as, for example, in the English practice, if he
who is bound to give oyer does not give it within the time required, in
such cases, the adverse party may sign judgment against him. 2 T. R.
40; Com. Dig. Pleader, P 1; Barnes, 245.
SIGNA, civil
law. Those species of indicia (q. v.) which come more immediately under
the cognizance of the senses, such as stains of blood on the person of
one accused of murder, indications of terror at being charged with the
offence, and the like.
2.
Signa, although not to be rejected as instruments of evidence, cannot
always be relied upon as conclusive evidence, for they are frequently
explained away; in the instance mentioned the blood may have been that
of a beast, and expressions of terror have been frequently manifested by
innocent persons who did not possess much firmness. See Best on Pres.
13, n. f.; Denisart, h. v.
SIGNATURE,
eccl. law. The name of a sort of rescript, without seal, containing the
supplication, the signature of the pope or his delegate, and the grant
of a pardon Dict. Dr. Can. h. v.
SIGNATURE, pract.
contr. By signature is understood the act of putting down a man's name,
at the end of an instrument, to attest its validity. The name thus
written is also called a signature.
2.
It is not necessary that a party should write his name himself, to
constitute a signature; his mark is now beld sufficient though he was
able to write. 8 Ad. & El. 94; 3 N. & Per. 228; 3 Curt. 752; 5
John. 144, A signature made by a party, another person guiding his band
with his consent, is sufficient. 4 Wash. C. C. 262, 269. Vide to Sign.
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