article has multiple issues.

Please help

improve it or discuss these issues on the

talk page . ( Learn how and when to remove these template messages )

This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a
Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve
it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style .

(February 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

This article needs additional citations for

verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material
may be challenged and removed.

Find sources: "Acquiescence" – news ·

newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR

(February 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

( Learn how and when to remove this template message )

Look up acquiescence in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has quotations related to:

Acquiescence

In law, acquiescence occurs when a person knowingly stands by without raising any objection to the
infringement of his or her rights, while someone else unknowingly and without malice aforethought acts
in a manner inconsistent with their rights. [1] As a result of acquiescence, the person whose rights are
infringed may lose the ability to make a legal claim against the infringer, or may be unable to obtain an
injunction against continued infringement. The doctrine infers a form of " permission" that results from
silence or passiveness over an extended period of time.

Overview

Although not typically found in statutory law, the doctrine of acquiescence is well-supported by case
law. One common context in which acquiescence is raised is when there is a dispute or disagreement
over the location of a property line, followed by an extended period of time during which the parties
respect a property line. Even if it is later discovered that the actual property line was in a different
location, the long-term acquiescence to the incorrectly placed line may result in its becoming
enforceable as the legal property line. [2]

An example of the law of acquiescence occurred in a dispute between the State of

Georgia and the State of South Carolina , in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that
Georgia could no longer make any claim to an island in the Savannah River , despite the 1787 Treaty of
Beaufort's assignment to the contrary. [3] The court said that Georgia had knowingly allowed South
Carolina to join the island as a peninsula to its own coast by dumping sand from dredging, and to then
levy property taxes on it for decades. Georgia thereby lost the island-turned-peninsula by its own
acquiescence, even though the

treaty had given it all of the islands in the river .

Similar legal doctrines

Doctrines similar to acquiescence include:

The common law doctrine of estoppel . A claim of estoppel may arise when one party gives legal notice
to a second party of a fact or claim, and the second party fails to challenge or refute that claim within a
reasonable time. The second party may be said to have acquiesced to the claim, and thus to be
estopped from later challenging it or making a counterclaim based upon the actions of the other party.
Estoppel by acquiescence is different from estoppel by

laches as acquiescence involves an intentional act of the party who is accused of acquiescence, while
laches may result from conduct that is not voluntary.

Silence is acquiescence (aka. silent acquiescence and acquiescence by silence ). Under this related
doctrine, when confronted with a wrong or an act that can be considered a tortious act, one's silence in
the face of the transgression may result in a loss of a right to make a claim for loss or damage, on the
principle of consent inferred from accepting or permitting the wrongful acts without protest or claim .
[4]

See also

Nonacquiescence , an unrelated legal doctrine

Qui tacet consentire videtur

Adverse possession