Civil Liability Act - Law Dictionary Search Results
Law Reform (UK)
Law Reform (UK). By the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1934 (24 & 25 Geo. 5, c. 41), all causes of action shall with certain exceptions survive on the death (after the 24th July, 1934) of any person against or for the benefit of his estate. See actio personalis, and by s. 1(2) it is enacted:Where a cause of action survives as aforesaid for the benefit of the estate of a deceased person the damages recoverable for the benefit of the estate of that person:-(a) shall not include any exemplary damages;(b) in the case of a breach of promise to marry shall be limited to such damage, if any, to the estate of that person as flows from the breach of promise to marry;(c) where the death of that person has been caused by the act of omission which gives rise to the cause of action, shall be calculated without reference to any loss or gain to his estate consequent on his death, except that a sum in respect of funeral expenses may be included.See Rose v. Ford, (1937) 53 TLR 873.The right...
Husband and wife
Husband and wife. the Common Law treated them, for most purposes, as one person, giving, with exceptions comparatively unimportant, the whole of a woman's property to her husband for his absolute use, and a husband could not make a grant to his wife at the Common Law, though he might do so: (1) under the Statute of Uses, by granting an estate to another person for her use; (2) by creating a trust in her favour; (3) by the custom of particular places; (4) by surrendering copyholds to her use; and (5) by will.Equity, however, from very early times, by the doctrines of 'separate use,' 'trusts,' and 'equity to a settlement,' very largely modified the Common Law in favour of the wife; and the statute law has, by s. 1 of the Law Reform (Married Women and Tortfeasors Act), 1935 (25 & 26 Geo. 5, c. 30), almost completely abolished the property distinction between an unmarried and a married woman. See MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY.At Common Law, a gift of either realty or personal-ity to a husband a...
succession
succession 1 a : the order in which or the conditions under which one person after another succeeds to a property, dignity, position, title, or throne [the sequence of to the presidency] b : the right of a person or line of ancestry to succeed c : the line of ancestry having such a right 2 a : the act or process of following in order b : the act or process of one person's taking the place of another in the enjoyment of or liability for rights or duties or both 3 : the act or process by which a person becomes entitled to the property or property interest of a deceased person and esp. an intestate : the transmission of the estate of a decedent to his or her heirs, legatees, or devisees ;also : the estate of the deceased including assets and liabilities used chiefly in the civil law of Louisiana intestate succession 1 : the transmission of property or property interests of a decedent as provided by statute as distinguished from the transfer in accordance with the decedent's wi...
Indemnity
Indemnity, a contract, express or implied, to keep a person harmless from loss which that person may incur by reason of some act, omission or event. It differs from a guarantee which requires a writing under s. 4 of the Statute of Frauds in that the latter guarantee contemplates the primary liability of a third person. as pointed out by Anson on Contracts, a form of indemnity may be illustrated by 'If you will supply goods to A. I will see you paid.' A guarantee, if 'A. does not pay you, I will.' There is, as a rule, a right of subrogation to all the remedies available to the person indemnified under an indemnity available to a person indemnifying-a guarantor has the right of subrogation as well as a right of recourse against the person guaranteed unless otherwise agreed. A great number of indem-nities are implied at Common Law or statute, and the contract extends to all the loss suffered and is not limited in amount as a contract to pay a sum of money is limited. As to implied indemni...
force
force 1 : a cause of motion, activity, or change intervening force : a force that acts after another's negligent act or omission has occurred and that causes injury to another : intervening cause at cause irresistible force : an unforeseeable event esp. that prevents performance of an obligation under a contract : force majeure 2 : a body of persons available for a particular end [the labor ] ;specif : police force usually used with the 3 : violence, compulsion, or constraint exerted upon or against a person or thing constructive force : the use of threats or intimidation for the purpose of gaining control over or preventing resistance from another dead·ly force : force that is intended to cause or that carries a substantial risk of causing death or serious bodily injury compare nondeadly force in this entry NOTE: As a general rule, deadly force may be used without incurring criminal or tort liability when one reasonably believes that one's life or safety is in da...
Negligence
Negligence, acting carelessly, a question of law or fact or of mixed fact and law, depending entirely upon the nature of a duty, which the person charged with negligence has failed to comply with or perform in the particular circumstance of each case. A very convenient classification has been formulated corresponding to the degree of negligence entailing liability measured by the degree of care undertaken or required in each case, i.e., (1) ordinary, which is the want of ordinary diligence; (2) slight, the want of great diligence; and (3) gross, the want of slight diligence. A smaller degree of negligence will render a person liable for injury to infants than in the case of adults, see Cooke v. Midland Great Western Railway, 1909 AC 229; and Glasgow Corporation v. Taylor, (1922) 1 AC 44. There is also a peculiar duty to take precaution in the case of dangerous Articles, see Dominion Natural Gas Co. v. Collins, 1909 AC 640. This case should be distinguished from the principle in Fletche...
Married women's property
Married women's property, At Common Law, a woman, by marrying, transferred the ownership of all her property, real and personal, present and future, to her husband absolutely, so that he might sell, pay his debts out of, give away, or dispose by will of it as he pleased, with these exceptions and modifications:-1) Her freehold estate became his to manage and take the profits of during the joint lives only. After his death, leaving her surviving, it passed to her absolutely; after her death, leaving him surviving, provided that it was an estate in possession and issue who could in her it had been born during the marriage, it passed to him as 'tenant by the curtesy (q.v.) of England,' during his life, and after his death to her heir-at-law.(2) Her leasehold estate, her personal estate in expectancy, and the debts owing to her and other 'choses in action,' became his absolutely if he did some act to appropriate or reduce them into possession during the marriage, or if he survived her. If ...
Breach of trust
Breach of trust, a violation of duty by a trustee, executor, or other person in a fiduciary position.In some cases a breach of trust may be a comparatively venial offence, arising from the trustee having honestly misconstrued the deed or will creating the trust either as to the persons entitled, or as to his powers of investment of or dealing with the trust property, or having otherwise erred in the discharge of his strict duty; in other cases he may have been guilty of negligence or carelessness involving at least some degree of moral blame; or, in other cases again, he may have committed some gross fraud. But in all these cases alike the trustee is personally responsible at the suit of the beneficiaries for any loss which may have resulted, and the rules of equity on the subject were extremely strict and were enforced with great severity by the Court of Chancery. In later times, however, the Court was not quite so astute in fixing honest trustees with liability for breach of trust as...
Adoption
Adoption, an act by which a person adopts as his own the child of another. Until recently there was no law of adoption in this country though it exists in other countries, as France and Germany, where the civil law (as to which, see Sand. Just.) prevails to any great extent. In 1889 and 1890, Lord Meath introduced Bills in the House of Lords to legalize adoption.By the (English) Adoption of Children Act, 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. 5, c. 29), after the 31st December, 1925, the Court (usually in the Chancery Division) may authorize the adoption of an infant who is under twenty-one years of age, a British subject, and resident in England and Wales, by an applicant who is more than twenty-five years of age, and also twenty-one years older than the infant, unless closely related, and a British subject, resident and domiciled in England or Wales, but a single adopter, only, will be authorized unless two spouses jointly apply. A male may not adopt a female infant unless the court finds special reason...
trust
trust 1 a : a fiduciary relationship in which one party holds legal title to another's property for the benefit of a party who holds equitable title to the property b : an entity resulting from the establishment of such a relationship see also beneficiary, cestui que trust, corpus declaration of trust at declaration, principal, settlor NOTE: Trusts developed out of the old English use. The traditional requirements of a trust are a named beneficiary and trustee (who may be the settlor), an identified res, or property, to be transferred to the trustee and constitute the principal of the trust, and delivery of the res to the trustee with the intent to create a trust. Not all relationships labeled as trusts have all of these characteristics, however. Trusts are often created for their advantageous tax treatment. accumulation trust : a trust in which principal and income are allowed to accumulate rather than being paid out NOTE: Accumulation trusts are disfavored and often restricted...
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