Section 52-179 – Seal and its equivalent

May 11, 2021 | Civil Procedure, Connecticut

All instruments in writing executed by any person or corporation not having an official or corporate seal, purporting and intended to be a specialty or under seal, and not otherwise sealed than by the addition of the word “seal” or the letters “L.S.”, or, in the case of an official or corporate seal, by an impression of such seal upon the paper or other material employed, shall be deemed in all respects sealed instruments, and received in evidence as such.

Conn. Gen. Stat. ยง 52-179

(1949 Rev., S. 7902.)

A scrawl is no seal at common law. 17 C. 343. Effect of section and of seal upon an instrument in general. 97 C. 196. Word “seal” or letters “L.S.” do not make instrument a specialty unless instrument itself purports to be a specialty and it was intended to be. 110 C. 413. Cited. 141 C. 583; 211 Conn. 555. Affixing of corporate seal on instrument renders it in all respects a sealed instrument. 2 CS 163. Whether or not a mark is a seal depends on the intent. 9 CS 393. Word “seal” does not automatically denote intention to make a sealed instrument. 30 CS 596. Whether defendants adopted seal was under pleading, a question of contested fact; consequently, intention of defendants with reference to their sealing of instrument should not, as it was, have been disposed of summarily as matter of law. 6 Conn. Cir. Ct. 78, 84.