Abeyance, Or Abbayance

Abeyance, or Abbayance [fr. abayer, Fr., to expect, to look at anything with open mouth], in expectation, remembrance, and contemplation of law. The word abeyance has been compared to what the civilians call hereditas jacens; for, as the civilians say land and goods jacent, so the common lawyers say that things in a similar condition are in abeyance, as the logicians term it in posse or in understanding. Thus in the case of a parson, who has an estate for life only, the fee simple of his glebe is in abeyance; and when the parsonage is void, the freehold, until a successor be appointed, is in abeyance, 2. Bl. Com. 107. Commonly used as meaning having no present owner, e.g., a peerage is said to be 'in abeyance' when there is no holder thereof.