DERATION.] Ancient deeds were short, and suited to the simplicity of the times. When trans actions became more complicated, it was customary to divide deeds into several formal parts ; but it is not necessary that a deed should be so divided : it may be a good deed, if there are sufficient words to show the meaning and intention of the parties to it.
Previous to its execution, the deed should be read, if any of the parties to the deed require it. The modern mode of executing deeds is by signing, sealing, and delivery. Signing is not essential to the validity of a deed, though it is required as to less formal instruments by the Statute of Frauds, 29 Ch. II. c. 3 ; but sealing is absolutely necessary, which is the most ancient mode of authentication, and has been in use from the earliest times. At present the seal is no real security against fraud, for any impression upon wax or other substance employed is sufficient ; indeed it is generally affixed by the stationer who engrosses the deed, and it is not even necessary that there should be a seal for each party ; one is sufficient fbr all. In some of the Ameri can States the impression upon wax has been disused, and a flourish with the pen at the end of the name, or a circle of ink, or a scroll, is allowed to be a valid substi tute for a seal. The last essential to the due execution of a deed is delivery, ex cept in the case of a corporation, where sealing by the common seal has the effect of delivery. The usual manner of deliver ing a deed is for the executing party to say, " I deliver this as my act and deed;" but any less formal mode by which the party signifies his intention to deliver it will be effectual. The delivery means that the person whose deed (act) the instrument is to be, and who is to be bound by it, delivers it to the person who is to receive some benefit from this deed, or to some person acting for him, and thereby declares that the act is complete. All the parties whose deed (act) the in strument is to be, must deliver it as their deed. A deed may also be delivered as an escrow, i. e. to a third person to keep till something is done by the grantee : when the condition is performed, the deed becomes effectual. A deed takes effect ftom the delivery, and not from the date, and therefore if it has no date, or a date impossible, the delivery ascertains the time from which it is to take effect. Evi dence is admissible also of delivery on a day different from the date written. The execution is usually attested. Enrolment and registration are rendered necessary in some cases by statutory enactment, and the revenue laws have imposed certain stamps upon every description of deeds, the absence of which prevents them from being admissible in evidence.
After execution, a deed may become void by erasure, interlineation, or other alteration in any material part ; but, generally speaking, such alterations will be presumed to have been made before the execution, if nothing appear to the contrary, or there be no cause to suspect that it has been done in a clandestine manner. A grantee may also disclaim the grant or disagree thereto ; and a deed may be destroyed or cancelled, but such destruction or cancellation will not revest the thing granted in the grantor, though all personal engagements established by the deed between the parties will be put an end to. If the seal is broken from the deed, the covenants contained in it are void. If the deed has transferred property from one person to another, the property continues transferred, just as if the deed existed ; but if the seal is any way de stroyed, the covenants which are to be executed are destroyed, because when any legal proceeding is taken upon the deed, it must be pleaded as a deed, and it is not the deed of the party whose deed it pro fesses to be, if that mark is destroyed which is the legal evidence of its being his deed. But as long as the seal is on a deed, and the deed exists entire, so long is the party, whose deed it is, bound by the covenants. In the case of a bond, which is a deed by which a man binds himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, to pay a certain sum of money to another at a time named, length of time was formerly no legal bar to an action upon it; yet it was a ground for a jury presum ing that it had been satisfied. But by the 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 42, actions upon spe cialties, that is, founded upon instruments which are deeds, must be brought within twenty years after the cause of action has arisen.
The effect of the seal remaining is sometimes an unexpected surprise to a man. If a man has taken a lease for a term of years of premises, with covenants to repair, and at the expiration of the lease should agree with his landlord to become tenant from year to year, he should get the seal off the lease in the landlord's hands. If he does not, the landlord may still make him repair by virtue of the seal, if he brings his action within the time fixed by law, for the judges have decided that, though tenant from year to year, he is bound by the ori ginal covenants.
(Butler, n. Co. Litt. 295 b. ; Shepherd, Touchstone ; Dixon ; Co. Litt. ; Cruise's Digest.)