Legal Term Dictionary

The reduction of property of lands or tenements to mortmain, in the feudal customs.

The reduction of property of lands or tenements to mortmain, in the feudal customs. Less...

This abbreviation will be judicially presumed to mean "administrator.'' Moseley v. Mastin, 37 Ala. 21C, 221.

This abbreviation will be judicially presumed to mean "administrator.'' Moseley v. Mastin, 37 Ala. 21C, 221. Less...

The son of a great-great-grandson. Calvin.

The son of a great-great-grandson. Calvin. Less...

The daughter of a great-great-granddaughter. Calvin

The daughter of a great-great-granddaughter. Calvin Less...

Annulled, cancelled, made void. 28 Hen. VIII.

Annulled, cancelled, made void. 28 Hen. VIII. Less...

In old English law. To annul to make void; to reduce to nothing ; to treat as nothing; to hold as or for nought.

In old English law. To annul to make void; to reduce to nothing ; to treat as nothing; to hold as or for nought. Less...

In the civil law. The subscription of a name or signature to an instrument. Cod. 4, 19, 5, 7. A rescript of the prince or emperor, signed with his own hand, or sign-manual. Cod. 1, 19, 1. "In the imperial law, casual homicide was excused by the indulgence of the More...

In the civil law. The subscription of a name or signature to an instrument. Cod. 4, 19, 5, 7. A rescript of the prince or emperor, signed with his own hand, or sign-manual. Cod. 1, 19, 1. "In the imperial law, casual homicide was excused by the indulgence of the emperor,. signed, with his own sign-manual, annotatione principis" 4 Bl. Comm. 187 Less...

That age which follows puberty and precedes the age of majority. It commences for males at 14, and for females at 12 years completed, and continues till 21 years complete.

That age which follows puberty and precedes the age of majority. It commences for males at 14, and for females at 12 years completed, and continues till 21 years complete. Less...

To accept, appropriate, choose, or select; to make that one's own (property or act) which was not so originally. To adopt a route for the transportation of the mail means to take the steps necessary to cause the mail to be transported over that route. Rhodes v. U. S., Dev. More...

To accept, appropriate, choose, or select; to make that one's own (property or act) which was not so originally. To adopt a route for the transportation of the mail means to take the steps necessary to cause the mail to be transported over that route. Rhodes v. U. S., Dev. Ct. CI. 47. To adopt a contract is to accept it as binding, notwithstanding some defect which entitles the party to repudiate it. Thus, when a person affirms a voidable contract, or ratifies a contract made by his agent beyond his authority, he is said to adopt it. Sweet. To accept, consent to, and put into effective operation; as in the case of a constitution, constitutional amendment, ordinance, or by-law. ReaL v. People, 42 N. Y. 282; People v.. Norton, 59 Barb. (N. Y.) 191. To take into one's family the child of another and give him or her the rights, privileges, and duties of a child and heir. State v. Thompson,. 13 La. Ann. 515; Abney v, De Loach, 84 Ala. 393. 4 South. 757; In re Session^ Estate, 70 Mich. 297, 38 N. W. 249, 14 Am. St. Rep. 500; Smith v. Allen, 32 App. Div. 374, 53 NJ Y. Supp. 114. Adoption of children was a thing unknown to the common law, but was a familiar practice under the Roman law and in those countries where the civil law prevails, as France and Spain. Modern statutes authorizing adoption are taken from the civil law, and to that extent modify the rules of the common law as to the succession of property. Butterfield v. Sawyer, 187 111. 508, 58 NV E. 602, 52 L. R. A. 75. 79 Am. St. Rep. 246; Vidal v. Commagere, 13 La. Ann. 516; Eckford v. Knox, 67 Tex. 200, 2 S. W. 372. —Adoption and legitimation. Adoption, properly speaking, refers only to persons who are strangers in blood, and is not synonymous with "legitimation," which refers to persons of the same blood. Where one acknowledges his illegitimate child and takes it into his family and treats it as if it were legitimate, it is not properly an "adoption" but a "legitimation." Blythe v. Ayres, 90 Cal. 532, 31 Pac. 915, 19 L. R. A. 40. To accept an alien as a citizen or member of a community or state and invest him with corresponding rights and privileges, either (in general and untechnical parlance) by naturalization, or by an act equivalent to naturalization, as where a white man is "adopted" by an Indian tribe. Hampton v. Mays, 4 Ind. T. 503, 69 S. W. 1115. Less...

The act of one who takes another's child into his own family, treating him as his own, and giving him all the rights and duties of his own child. A juridical act creating between two persons certain relations, purely civil, of paternity and filiation. 6 Demol. § 1.

The act of one who takes another's child into his own family, treating him as his own, and giving him all the rights and duties of his own child. A juridical act creating between two persons certain relations, purely civil, of paternity and filiation. 6 Demol. § 1. Less...