Legal Term Dictionary

The king's messenger; a royal or state messenger. In the heralds* college, a functionary of lower rank than a herald, but discharging similar duties, called also "poursuivant at arms."

The king's messenger; a royal or state messenger. In the heralds* college, a functionary of lower rank than a herald, but discharging similar duties, called also "poursuivant at arms." Less...

In old English law. The providing corn, fuel, victuals, and other necessaries for the king's house. Cowell.

In old English law. The providing corn, fuel, victuals, and other necessaries for the king's house. Cowell. Less...

A buyer; one who provided for the royal household.

A buyer; one who provided for the royal household. Less...

In Scotch law. Power. See LIEGE POUSTIE. A word formed from the Latin "potestas"

In Scotch law. Power. See LIEGE POUSTIE. A word formed from the Latin "potestas" Less...

An affidavit, made and filed by one of the parties to a suit, that he is not able to furnish security for the final costs. The use of the term la confined to a few states. Cole v. Hoeburg, 36 Kan. 263, 13 Pac. 275.

An affidavit, made and filed by one of the parties to a suit, that he is not able to furnish security for the final costs. The use of the term la confined to a few states. Cole v. Hoeburg, 36 Kan. 263, 13 Pac. 275. Less...

In real property law. A power is an authority to do some act in relation to real property, or to the creation or revocation of an estate therein, or a charge thereon, which the owner granting or reserving such power might himself perform for any purpose. Civ. Code Dak. | More...

In real property law. A power is an authority to do some act in relation to real property, or to the creation or revocation of an estate therein, or a charge thereon, which the owner granting or reserving such power might himself perform for any purpose. Civ. Code Dak. | 298; How. St Mich. ? 5591. "Power" is sometimes used in the same sense as "right," as when we speak of the powers of user and disposition which the owner of property has over it, but, strictly speaking, a power is that which creates a special or exceptional right, or enables a person to do something which he could not otherwise do. Sweet. Technically, an authority by which one person enables another to do some act for him. 2 Lil. Abr. 339. An authority enabling a person to dispose, through the medium of the statute of uses, of an interest, vested either in himself or in another person. Sugd. Powers, 82. An authority expressly reserved to a grantor, or expressly given to another, to be exercised over lands, etc., granted or conveyed at the time of the creation of such power. Watk. Conv. 157. A proviso, In a conveyance under the statute of uses, giving to the grantor or grantee, or a stranger, authority to revoke or alter by a subsequent act the estate first granted. 1 Steph. Comm. 505. See also Burleigh v. Clough, 52 N. H. 207, 13 Am. Rep. 23; Griffith v. Maxfield, 66 Ark. 513, 51 S. W. 832; Bouton v. Doty, 69 Conn. 531, 37 Atl. 1064; Dana v. Murray, 122 N. Y. 604, 26 N. E; 21; Carson v. Cochran, 52 Minn. 67, 53 N. W. 1130; Law Guarantee & Trust Co. v. Jones, 103 Tenn. 245, 58 S. W. 219. -General and special powers. A power is general when it authorises the alienation in fee, by means of a conveyance, will, or charge* of the lands embraced in the power to any alienee whatsoever. It is special (1) when the persons or class of persons to whom the disposition of the lands under the power is to be made are designated, or (2) when the power authorizes the alienation, by means of a conveyance, will, or charge, of a particular estate or Interest less than a fee. Coster v. Lorillard, 14 Wend. (N. Y.) 324; Thompson v. Garwood. 3 Whart. (Pa.) 305, 31 Am. Dec. 502.-Gen-oral and sneolal powers in trust. A general power is in trust when any person or class of persons other than the grantee of such power is designated as entitled to the proceeds or any portion of the proceeds or other benefits to result from the alienation. A special power is in trust (1) when the disposition or charge which it authorizes is limited to be made to any person or class of persons other than the holder of the power, or (2) when any person or class of persons other than the holder is designated as entitled to any benefit from the disposition or charge authorized by the power. Cutting v. Cutting, 20 Hun (N. Y.) 360; Dana v. Murray, 122 N. Y. 612. 26 N. E. 23; WU-son's Rev. & Ann. St Okl. 1903, 15 4107, 4108. -Ministerial powers. A phrase used in English conveyancing to denote powers given for the good, not of the donee himself exclusively, or of the donee himself necessarily at all, but for the good of several persons, including or not including the donee also. They are so called because the donee ef them is as a minister or servant in his exercise of them. Brown.-ifaked power. One which is simply collateral and without interest in the donee, which arises when, to a mere stranger, authority is given of disposing of an interest, in which he had not before, nor has by the instrument creating the power, any estate whatsoever. Bergen v. Bennett, 1 Caines Cas. (N.. YJ 15, 2 Am. Dec. 281; Atwater v. Perkins, 51 Conn. 198; Clark v. Horn thai. 47 Miss. 534; Hunt v. Ennis, 12 Fed. Cas. 915.-Powers appendant and in gross. A power appendant is where a person has an estate in land, and the estate to be created by the power is to, or may. take effect in possession during the tenancy of the estate to which the power is annexed. A power in gross is where the person to whom it is given has an estate in the land, but the estate to be created under or by virtue of the power is not to take effect until after the determination of the estate to which it relates. Wilson v. Troup, 2 Cow. (N. Y.) 236, 14 Am. Dec. 458; Garland v. Smith. 164 Mo. 1, 64 S. W. 188. For other compound terms, such as "Power of Appointment" "Power of Sale," etc., see the following titles. In constitutional law. The right to take action In respect to a particular subject-matter or class of matters, involving more or less of discretion, granted by the constitutions to the several departments or branches of the government or reserved to the people. Powers in this sense are generally classified as legislative, executive, and Judicial. See those titles. -Implied powers are such as are necessary to make available and carry into effect those powers which are expressly granted or conferred, and which must therefore be presumed to have been within the intention of the constitutional or legislative grant. Madison v. Daley (C. C.) 58 Fed. 755; People v. Pullman's Palace Car Co., 175 111. 125, 51 N. E. 664. 64 L. R. A. 366; First M. E Church v. Dixon, 178 111. 260, 52 N. E. 887. In the law of ?orporatloa*. The right or capacity to act or be acted upon in a particular manner or in respect to a particular subject; as, the power to have a corporate seal, to sue and be sued, to make by-laws, to carry on a particular business or construct a given work. See Freligh v. Saugerties, 70 Hun, 589, 24 N. Y. Supp. 182; In re Lima & H. F. Ry. Co., 68 Hun, 252, 22 N. Y. Supp. ;967; Baltimore v. Marriott, 9 Md. 160. Less...

By this phrase is meant a right or power to do some act, together with an interest in the subject-matter on which the power is to be exercised. It is distinguished from a naked power, which is a mere authority to act, not accompanied by any Inter-eat of the donee More...

By this phrase is meant a right or power to do some act, together with an interest in the subject-matter on which the power is to be exercised. It is distinguished from a naked power, which is a mere authority to act, not accompanied by any Inter-eat of the donee in the subject-matter of the power. Is it an interest in the subject on which the power is to be exercised, or is it an interest in that which is produced by the exercise of the power? We hold it to be clear that the interest which can protect a power after the death of a person who creates it must be an interest in the thing itself. In other words, the power must be engrafted on an estate'in the thing. The words themselves would seem to import this meaning. "A power coupled with an interest" is a power which accompanies or Is connected with an interest. The power and the interest are united in the same person. But, if we are to understand by the word interest" an interest in that which is to be produced by the exercise of the power, then they are never united. Tbe power to produce the interest must be exercised, and by its exercise is extinguished. The power ceases when the interest commences, and therefore cannot, in. accurate law language, be said to be ""pW with it Hunt v. Rousmanier, 8 Wheat. 20B. 5 L. Ed. 589. And see Missouri v. Walker, 125 U S. 339?8 Sup. Ct. 929, 31 L. Ed. 769; Griffith v. Maxfield, 66 Ark. 513. 51 S. W. 832 J Johnson v. Johnson. 27 S. C 309. 3 S. E. 606, IB Am. St Rep. 636; Yeates v. Pryor, 11Ark^ 78; Alworth v. Seymour. 42 Minn. 526,, 44 N. W. 1030; Hunt v. Ennis, 12 Fed. Cas, 915. Less...

A power or authority conferred by one person by deed or will upon another (called the "donee") to appoint that is, to select and nominate, the person or persons who are to receive and enjoy an estate or an income therefrom or from a fund, after the testator's death, or More...

A power or authority conferred by one person by deed or will upon another (called the "donee") to appoint that is, to select and nominate, the person or persons who are to receive and enjoy an estate or an income therefrom or from a fund, after the testator's death, or the donee's death, or after the termination of an existing right or interest. See Heinemann v. De Wolf, 25 R. I. 243, 55 Atl. 707. Powers are either: Collateral, which are given to strangers; ". e., to persons who have neither a present nor future estate or interest in the land. These are also called simply collateral," or powers not coupled with an interest or powers not being interests. These terms have been adopted to obviate the confusion arising from the circumstance that powers in gross have been by many called powers collateral. Or they are powers relating to the land. These are called "appendant" or "appurtenant because they strictly depend upon the estate limited to the person to whom they are given. Thus, where an estate for life is limited to a man, with a power to grant leases in possession, a lease granted under the power may operate wholly out of the life-estate of the party executing it, and must in every case have its operation out of his estate during his life. Such an estate must be created, which will attach on an interest actually vested in himself. Or they are called "in gross," if given to a person who had an interest in the estate at the execution of the deed creating the power, or to whom an estate is given by the deed, but which enabled him to create such estates only as will not attach on the interest limited to him. Of necessity, therefore, where a man seised in fee settles his estate on others, reserving to himself only a particular power, the power is in eross. A power to a tenant for life to appoint the estate after bis death among his children, a power to jointure a wife after his death, a power to raise a term of years to commence from his death, for securing younger children's portions, are all powers^^gross. An important distinction is established between general and particular powers. By a general Sower we understand a right to appoint to whomsoever the donee pleases. By a particuar Dower it is meant that the donee is restncted to^ome objects designated in the deed^atmg the power, as to his own children. Wharton. We have seen that a general power isbesa-ficial when no person other than the grantee hTs b^the termJof its creation, any mtwestin its'execution. A general power isit* trust when any person or class of P?"?,n8t J?:neI San the grantee of such power, is desi^ated as entitled to the proceeds, or any Portion of the proceeds, or other benefits to result from the alienation. Cutting v. Cutting, 20 Viewer of appointment among a class i^ouires that each shall have a share, it is called5 a "distributive" or "non-exclusive" powe? When it authorizes, but does not direct, a selection of one or more to the exclusion of the others it is called an "exclusive" power, and to aft dislrimttive; when it give the power of appointine to a certain, number of the class, but not to all, it is exclusive only, and not^distributive Leake, 389. A power authorizing the Slither to givette whole toomM>.a.class or to give it equally among such of them as he Say select (but not to give one> a larger share than the others) is called a mixed pow er. Sugd. Powers, 44S. Sweet. Less...

An instrument authorizing a person to act as the agent or attorney of the person granting it See LETTER OF ATTORNEY.

An instrument authorizing a person to act as the agent or attorney of the person granting it See LETTER OF ATTORNEY. Less...

Every power of. disposition Is deemed absolute, by means of which the donee of such power is enabled in his life-time to dispose of the entire fee for his own benefit; and, where a general and beneficial power to devise the inheritance is given to a tenant for life or More...

Every power of. disposition Is deemed absolute, by means of which the donee of such power is enabled in his life-time to dispose of the entire fee for his own benefit; and, where a general and beneficial power to devise the inheritance is given to a tenant for life or years, it Is absolute, within the meaning of the statutes of some of the states. Code Ala. 1886, ? 1853. See POWER or APPOINTMENT. . Less...