This section is from the book "The Law Of Contracts", by William Herbert Page. Also available from Amazon: Commercial Contracts: A Practical Guide to Deals, Contracts, Agreements and Promises.
If the note is signed by the name of the principal, with the name of the agent subscribed below that of the principal, without the use of the word "by" to show agency, a question is presented on which there is a division of authority. A question of this sort usually arises on a note of a corporation which must be executed by some one of its agents, and which is signed by the name of the corporation followed by the name of one of its agents, with the addition of " President," "Secretary," or some such official designation. The weight of authority is that such a note is the note of the corporation exclusively, and that no personal liability attaches to the agent whose name is thus signed.1 There is some authority for holding that the agent who signs in such a form incurs a personal liability.2
 
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