Satisfaction - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition satisfaction

Definition :

Satisfaction, legal compensation; the recompense for an injury done, or the payment of money due and owing. See ACCORD.

The giving of something with the intention, express or implied, that it is to extinguish some existing legal or moral obligation, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1343.

The doctrine of satisfaction of legacies, portions, and debts means the gift of a thing with the intention, either expressed or implied, that it is to be taken either wholly or partly in extinguishment of some prior claim or demand. Of course, it is open to a donor expressly to provide that his subsequent gift shall be a satisfaction of a prior demand, so as to prevent such donee from claiming both. With regard to implied or presumable satisfactions, they have been divided in to the three following classes:-

(1) The satisfaction of legacies by portions, otherwise called the ademption of legacies. Upon this subject Lord Eldon laid down in Ex parte Pye, (1811) 18 Ves. 140; 2 W. & T.L.C., that 'where a parent (or person in loco parentis) gives a legacy to a child, not stating the purpose with reference to which he gives it, the court understands him as giving a portion; and by a sort of artificial rule'upon an artificial notion, and a sort of feeling of what is called a leaning against double portions--if the father (or quasi parent) afterwards advance a portion on the marriage, or preferment in life, of that child, though of less amount, it is a satisfaction of the whole, or in part'; i.e., if the portion be equal to or greater than the legacy, it operates as a total ademption of such legacy; but if it be of a lesser amount than the legacy, such portion will then only adeem the legacy pro tanto.

(2) The satisfaction of a portion by a legacy. The rule is, that wherever a legacy given by a parent, or a person standing in loco parentis, is as great as, or greater than, a portion or provision previously secured to the legatee upon marriage or otherwise, then, from the already quoted inclination of equity against double portions, a presumption arises that the legacy was intended by the testator as a complete satisfaction. When the legacy is not so great as the portion or provision, it is then only a satisfaction pro tanto, Hinchcliffe v. Hinchcliffe, (1797) 3 Ves 516. The bequest of a whole or part of a residue will, according to its amount, be presumed either a satisfaction of a portion in full or pro tanto.

(3) The satisfaction of a debt by a legacy. Subject to any expression or indication in the will to the contrary, if a debtor bequeath to his creditor a sum of money as great as, or grater than, the debt, without taking any notice at all of the debt, this shall be deemed a satisfaction of the debt, so that the creditor cannot have the debt and also the legacy'a doctrine founded upon the maxim Debitor non pr'sumitur donare.