How Do You Sign Letters on Behalf of Someone Else?
An individual can sign a letter on behalf of someone else by putting the letters “p.p.,” which stands for per procurationem, before his or her signature, notes The Law Dictionary.
Procuration is the act of one person designating responsibility to another person of an action that he or she could take, notes The ‘Lectric Law Library. This designation is also called a letter of attorney. Procuration can either be express or implied. An implied procuration means that a person sees another individual managing his or her affairs but does not take any action to stop that interference. Express procuration, on the other hand, means that an individual gives specific consent to another person to officially sign letters on his or her behalf. Procuration can be divided into several categories, which are limited power, absolute power and general authority. There are three ways to end a procuration, including by revocation of the authority, by the death of one of the parties involved and by renunciation of the mandatory.
Procuration in Business
People are sometimes required to sign letters on behalf of someone else in certain situations, such as in business. In the business world, a staff member may be required to sign a letter on behalf of a company manager or a president. This usually happens when the individual is too busy to sign the letter by himself or herself. In that case, an authorized individual is appointed to sign the letter. That individual must then sign the letter by putting the initials “p.p.” in front of his or her name. In addition to this signature line, the individual must put the name of the person on whose behalf he or she is signing the letter above or below the line with the “p.p.” designation. There are no laws that dictate where the individual’s name must appear in relation to the name of the person who he or she is signing for. However, individual companies and company presidents may have a personal preference, so authorized individuals should check with them before signing the letter. Procuration can also take place in the field of real estate, such as when a realtor, a broker or a lender has permission to sign a letter on another individual’s behalf.
Power of Attorney
Another instance where procuration frequently appears is in medical situations when people become too injured or sick to sign documents for themselves. If people are suffering from a long-term or chronic illness, they often appoint a designated individual ahead of time to be their power of attorney, notes FindLaw. With this designation, people have the legal capacity to act on a requesting individual’s behalf to sign important documents in the event that the individual making the request becomes incapacitated. As power of attorney, a person can also sign on behalf of the individual if he or she dies and has not yet taken care of outstanding business obligations. When the power of attorney signs on behalf of another individual, that signature has the same effect as the individual signing the document himself or herself. Before this can take place, however, an attorney must prepare the documents that allow the designated individual to sign his or her name on behalf of the incapacitated individual. In doing this, the attorney makes the selected individual’s signature legally binding.
