Indenture - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition indenture

Definition :

Indenture, a deed indented between two or more parties, so called because duplicates of every deed inter partes were once written on one skin. The skin was cut in half irregularly or which a jagged edge: so when the duplicates were produced in Court they were seen to belong to one another by fitting into one another. By the (English) Law of Proper-ties Act, 1925, s. 56(2), reproducing (English) Real Property Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 106), s. 5, it is provided that a deed purporting to be an indenture shall have the effect of an indenture though not indented or expressed to be an indenture. Under s. 57, (English) L.P. Act, 1925, an indenture or any other deed may be described according to the nature of the transaction intended to be effected.

Means a formal written instrument made by two or more parties with different interests, traditionally having the edges serrated, or indented, in a zig zag fashion to reduce the possibility of forgery and to distinguish it from a deed poll. A deed or elaborate contract signed by two or more parties, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 782.