Exception - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition exception

Definition :

Exception, exclusion of anything or person; a stop or stay to an action; also the particular point of law stated in the margin of a demurrer. In Chancery, exceptions might be taken to pleadings if scandalous, and if a defendant's answer were insufficient, the plaintiff might file exceptions to it, Sm. Ch. Pr. 344, 786.

An exception, in a conveyance, must be of part of the thing granted and of a thing in esse at the time of the grant; whereas a reservation must be of some new thing issuing out of the thing granted; see Co. Litt. 47 a; Shep. Touch. 80; Savill Bros., Ltd. v. Bethell, (1902) 2 Ch 523, and see RESERVATION.

Under s. 162(1)(d) of the (English) Law of Properties Act, 1925, the rule of law relating to perpetuities does not apply to any exception of any right of entry or user of the surface of land, or to easements, rights and privileges in relation to mines and minerals as set out in the section.

In summary proceedings upon an Act of Parliament, an exception in the Act 'may by proved by the defendant, but need not be negatived or specified in the information or complaint'; and if so specified or negatived need not be proved by the informant or complainant: Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, s. 39 (2), extending the proviso of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848, s. 14.

In the Scots Law, as in the Roman, exception is synonymous with defence.

A formal objection to a courts ruling by a party who wants to preserve the objection for appeal, Black Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 583.