In Hubert v Treherne ((1842) 3 Man & G 743, 133 ER 1338) the parties entered into a contract that had to comply with the Statute of Frauds (and so had to be signed by them or on their behalf). The parties were identified by name at the beginning of the written contract. The contract ended with the words, ‘As witness the hands’ but no signature followed.
The court held that there was no signature. The problem was that the closing words (‘as witness the hands’) indicated that the parties intended to add hand-written signatures. The lack of such signatures was therefore fatal.
There was a difference of opinion as to whether the outcome would have been the same had those words (‘as witness..’) not appeared. Would it be enough that the names of the parties appeared in the body of the contract? At least two of the judges thought that this would be enough if it was clear that the written contract was a proper and authorised version of a concluded agreement. Another thought that this would not be enough since this degree of tolerance would effectively write the signature requirement out of existence.
Michael Lower
