1. C.J.S. Contracts § 76; Seals §§ 2–3.]
“At common law, the seal served to render documents indisputable as to the terms of the underlying obligation, thereby dispensing with the necessity of witnesses; the sealed instrument was considered such reliable evidence that it actually became the contract itself — called a ‘specialty’ — the loss of which meant loss of all rights of the obligee against the obligor. The seal also had many other consequences at common law, some of which have been retained in jurisdictions which still recognize the seal …. In states where the seal is still recognized, its primary legal significance is often the application of a longer statute of limitations to actions on sealed instruments.” 69 Am. Jur. 2d Seals § 2, at 617–18 (1993).
“In medieval England a wax seal may have performed [the functions of a formality] tolerably well. But in the United States few people owned or used a seal and the ritual deteriorated to the point that wax was dispensed with and printing houses decorated the signature lines of their standard forms with the printed letters ‘L.S.’ for locus sigilli (place of the seal). Perfunctory invocation of the rules for sealed documents called into question the seal’s utility in making promises enforceable.” E. Allan Farnsworth, Changing Your Mind: The Law of Regretted Decisions 46 (1998).
