Release - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition release

Definition :

Release [fr. relaxtio, Lat.], a gift, discharge, or renunciation of a right of action (see SURETY CON-SIDERATION); also a Common Law conveyance of a larger estate, or a remainder, or reversion to one already in possession, the operative verb in which is 'release'; hence the name. It operates or inures in five modes:-

(a) By passing an estate to one or more already in possession (mitter l'estate), as where a coparcener conveys his estate to his coparcener, or where one of more than two joint tenants conveys his interest to one or more but not all of the others so as to sever that share. It also operates without mitter l'estate where one joint tenant releases his estate to the other, or all the other joint tenants so as not to create a severance. See Halsbury, L. of E., tit. 'Release.' In consequence of the privity between such parties, a fee-simple will pass without any words of limitation. Tenants in common, however, could not thus release to one another, since they had distinct interests in the property. They now are equitably interested only in proceeds of sale. See UNDIVIDED SHARES, and the question of the release of a legal estate does not arise, but the interest can be released.

(b) By transferring a right (mitter le droit), as in the case of a disseisee discharging his right to a disseisor, his heir, or grantee. Words of limitation are not necessary, since the subject of transfer is a simple right, which once discharged is for ever extinguished, and not an estate which may be qualified or restricted.

The difference between this and the previous mode is, that the former passes an estate, where a privity exists between the parties; this passes only a right in the absence of privity.

(c) By extinguishment, as the lord releasing his seigniorial rights to his tenant, or a life tenant having conveyed a greater estate than he owns, the expectant releasing his right to the tenant's grantee. A release of all demands extinguishes all actions and titles, and is the amplest discharge that can be given.

(d) By enlarging a particular estate into an estate commensurate with that of the person releasing; but a privity of estate must at the time exist between the releasor and the releasee, who must have an estate actually vested in him susceptible of enlargement.

(e) By entry and feoffment, as a disseisee releasing to one of two disseisors, who then becomes as solely seised as if the disseisee had entered upon the property, put an end to the disseisin, and then enfeoffed such disseisor. Consult Jac. Law Dict.; Shep. Touch. C. xix.

In modern practice a release generally means a discharge under seal of a right of action, or of some claim or demand upon another person--most commonly, perhaps, the formal discharge given by beneficiaries to trustees on the winding-up of a trust. A trustee cannot ordinarily insist on a release under seal; he is only entitled (in the absence of special circumstances) to a simple receipt for the funds he hands over, but in practice a release is often given him. A release, however wide its terms, does not extend beyond the matters expressly in the contemplation of the parties, and every claim intended to be released should therefore be mentioned in the recitals.

A release in general terms upon surrender of a lease does not impliedly release from past breaches of covenant, only the future, Richmond v. Savill, (1926) 2 KB 530. Consult Dav. Prec. in Con., vol. v., pt. ii.