Legal Term: ABANDONMENT

Definition: lights. The relinquishment of a right, the giving up of something to which we are entitled.

2. - Legal rights, when once vested, must be divested according to law, but equitable rights may be abandoned. 2 Wash. R. 106. See 1 H. & M. 429, a mill site, once occupied, may be abandoned. 17 Mass. 297, an application for land, which is an inception of title, 5 S. & R. 215, 2 S. & R. 378, 1 Yeates, 193, 289, 2 Yeates, 81, 88, 318, an improvement, 1 Yeates, 515 ,

3. - The abandonment must be made by the owner without being pressed by any duty, necessity or utility to himself, but simply because he wishes no longer to possess the thing, and further it must be made without any desire that any other person shall acquire the same, for if it were made for a consideration, it would be a sale or barter, and if without consideration, but with an intention that some other person should become the possessor, it would be a gift: and it would still be a gift though the owner might be indifferent as to whom the right should be transferred, for example, he threw money among a crowd with intent that some one should acquire the title to it.

Return to the Legalnut.com Law Dictionary