In its most general and literal signification, an indorsement is an incidental or subsidiary writing upon the back of a paper or document to the contents of which it relates or pertains.

"In Commercial Law an indorsement is the signuatre of the payee of a note, bill or check, or that of a third person, written on the back of the note or bill in evidence of his transfer of it, or his assuring its payment, or both.

"In its strictly technical sense the term 'indorsement' is applicable only to negotiable paper, but in common parlance it is applied indifferently to bonds, bills and promissory notes, whether negotiable or otherwise." 1

"The contract of indorsement is not an independent one, but a parasite which, like the chameleon, takes the hue of the thing with which it is connected. Attached to commercial paper, it becomes a commercial contract, operating as a contingent guaranty of payment, and a transfer of the title where the paper is negotiable; attached to any other chose in action, it becomes an equitable assignment of the beneficial interest without recourse to the assignor." 2

Bills and notes payable to order can only be transferred by indorsement.3 Bills and notes payable to bearer may be transferred by either indorsement or delivery. Strictly speaking there can be no indorsement of non-negotiable instruments.

1 American and Eng. Ency. of Law, Vol. IV, page 256.

2 Patterson vs. Paindester, 6 W. & S., 227; 40 Am. Dec, 554.

3 An equitable title, however", may pass without indorsement by mere delivery.