Deliver

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Deliver /dɪˈlɪvə/ (v.)

1. Of a thing, such as a letter, to take it to an appointed address.

2. (Law): Of a deed, having signed it, to give a signed copy, bodily, to the other parties to it. Delivery is part of the formal execution process, without which the deed is not yet a “thing”. Hence, in the words of that great chancery lawyer Stevie Wonder, “signed, sealed, delivered — I’m yours.” Question; Does a deed poll also have to be delivered to be valid?

3. (Management speak) A voguish way of saying “give” or “do”.

4. (Tiresome) To bowl a cricket ball at a wicket.

5. (Thought leadership) of legal services, to present them to a client. (see: legal services delivery)

Delivery of notices in a time of cholera

The Cambridge Dictionary says that to “deliver” is “to take goods, letters, parcels, etc. to people’s houses or places of work”.

Merriam Webster says it means “to take and hand over to or leave for another”.

The Collins Dictionary of British English, in a rather modishly modern English format, tells us “If you deliver something somewhere, you take it there”.

A bit more challengingly, the Lexico Oxford Dictionary says it means “bring and hand over (a letter, parcel, or goods) to the proper recipient or address”. Oxford’s language suggests a “handing” from sender to recipient, though a commonsense application of delivery through a letterbox to an address says the only “hands” involved are the sender’s.

An agent for the recipient does not need to be there; just that the notice is conveyed to the appointed place. It is no good refusing to answer the door, hiding behind the sofa or blocking up your letterbox with Araldite: if the sender’s agent brings a notice to your designated address, even by regular post, the sender has “delivered” it.

If it is, literally, impossible to arrange even an agent to hand-deliver a package, what then? Before the spring of 2020, most learned commentators would have regarded such a scenario as so absurd as to not dignify an answer. By April, ISDA was seeking advice about it.

See also

• Process agent
• Notices under the ISDA Master Agreement
• Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) — Stevie Wonder
• Pop songs which use legal concepts