Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Breaking unsigned lease

Here are some general contract rules concerning signatures. I won't try to apply them to your situation without seeing the document.

Poag v. Winston (1987) 195 C.A.3d 1161, 1179, 241 C.R. 330: "The name of the party to be charged with execution of a written document satisfies the statutory requirement of 'subscription' if it is intended as a signature, i.e., authentication of the document, regardless of where in the writing it appears. (Marks v. Walter G. McCarty Corp. (1949) 83 Cal.2d 8144,820, 205 P.2d 1025; Rader Co. v. Stone (1986) 178 Cal.App.3d 10, 23, 223 Cal.Rptr. 806.)

The essential element is an intent to appropriate the name as a signature; it need not be the full handwritten name to qualify. (Marks, supra, 33 Cal.2d at p. 820, 205 P.2d 1025..) Hence, even initials may qualify. (See, e.g. Berdan v. Berdan (1940) 30 Cal.App.2d 478, 483, 103 P.2d 622)."

In Skirball v. RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. (1955) 134 C.A.2d 843, 863 a typewritten name at the end of the document was adopted by initialling the memorandum.

Kadota Fig Assn v. Case-Swayne Co. (19 ) 73 C.A.2d 815, 819 ruled that a signature: "...may be written, printed, stamped, typewritten, engraved or photographed."

Cf. Commercial Code � 1201 (39): "Signed" includes any symbol executed or adopted by a party with present intention to authenticate a writing.