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Say someone received a contract (job offer) through email to sign. They print it. Of all pages in the contract, only one page (say page 9) has signature space. They print a couple of extra copies of the page 9 which has the signature space.

They sign in the extra couple of copies of the signature page (page 9) by keeping it accidentally over the actual next page (page 10) in the contract, aligned perfectly over it. They also sign the actual final attached signature page (page 9). They scan and send the all pages of the contract to the other party, discarding the extra couple of copies of the signature page (page 9).

By effect of this, the next page (page 10) of the signature page has a couple of additional impressions/debossings (with no ink) of the signature, overlapping and offset from each other by few millimeters due to natural variations in each signatures. Whereas there is only one signature present on the previous page. Is this acceptable or does this have any legal significance? Is there a necessity that impressions/debossings should match the previous page signatures/writings if they are present?

user70241
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2 Answers2

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The only significance I have ever seen given to impressions left by a signature on a separate page is as evidence of how the document was signed, or of what pages were present when the document was signed.

See e.g. Lagani v. Lagani, 2012 ONSC 2614, at para 49.

None of this is "proof" of anything; it is merely evidence that one sheet was under another while the latter was being signed. Whether this is actually relevant will depend on the facts in dispute in a case.

Jen
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It has no "legal" significance. It could be pertinent to the proof that the signature is authentic.

If the signing individual is available to explain the situation, it is no big deal. If the person who signed it and any other available witnesses to the signing are unavailable, this could be offered up as evidence of a forgery and might be persuasive.

I had a similar situation come up once when the validity of a notarized document was questioned because of a discrepancy where a driver's license from one state with an address in a different state was used to confirm the identity of the person signing the document. (The person signing it was dead and couldn't testify.) But, when the actual driver's license of the signing person with this weird address was actually produced as evidence, this concern dissolved into nothing and made the authenticity of the signature actually more credible.

ohwilleke
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