Mandate [fr. mandatum, Lat.], a judicial command, charge, commission.
Also, a bailment of goods, without reward, to be carried from place to place, or to have some act performed about them. The person employing is called in the Civil Law mandans or mandator, and the person employed mandatarius or mandatory. The distinction between a mandate and a deposit is that in the latter the principal object of the parties is the custody of the thing; and the service and labour are merely accessorial. In the former, the labour and service are the principal objects of the parties, and the thing is merely accessorial. Three things are necessary to create a mandate: (1) that there should exist something which should be the subject of the contract, or some act or business to be done; (2) that it should be done gratuitously; (3) that the parties should voluntarily intend to enter into the contract. A mandatary incurs three obligations: (1) to do the act which is the object of the mandate, and with which he is charged; (2) to bring to it all the care and diligence that it requires; (3) to render an account of his doings to the mandator. A mandator contracts to reimburse a mandatary for all expenses and charges reasonably incurred in the execution of the mandate, and also to indemnify him for his liability on all contracts which arise incidentally in the proper discharge of his duty. The contract of mandate may be dissolved either by the renunciation of the mandatary at anytime before he has entered upon its execution, or by his death; for, being founded in personal confidence, it is not presumed to pass to his representatives, unless there is some special stipulation to that effect. But if the mandate be partly executed, there may in some cases arise a personal obligation on the part of the representatives to complete it. Story on Bailments, c. iii.
The granting of royal mandates to judges for interfering in private causes constituted a branch of the royal prerogative, which was given up by Edward I. And 1 W. & M. st. 2, c. 2, declares that the pretended power of suspending or dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws, by real authority, without consent of Parliament is illegal.
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