Specialty

A contract under seal.

A specialty is a written document that has been sealed and delivered and is given as security for the payment of a specifically indicated debt. The term specialty debt is used in reference to a debt that is acknowledged to be due by an instrument under seal.

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SPECIALTY, contracts. A writing sealed and delivered, containing some agreement. 2 Serg. & Rawle, 503; 1 Binn. Rep. 261; Willes, 189; 1 P. Wms. 130. In a more confined meaning, it signifies a writing sealed and delivered, which is given as a security for the payment of a debt, in which such debt is particularly specified. Bac. Ab. Obligation, A.
     2. Although in the body of the writing it is not said, that the parties have set their hands and seals, yet if the instrument be really sealed it is a specialty, and if it be not sealed, it is not a specialty, although the parties in the body of the writing make mention of a seal. 2 Serg. & Rawle, 504; 2 Rep. 5 a; Perk. Sec. 129. Vide Bond; Debt; Obligation.