Glossary for claims and notices

Immigrant. An alien in a country except, in United States, one within a specified class within the
Immigration and Nationality Act. 8 U.S.C.A. § 1101(a)(15). One who leaves a country to permanently
settle in another.

United States. This term has several meanings. It may be merely the name of a sovereign occupying
the position analogous to that of other sovereigns in family of nations, it may designate territory over
which sovereignty of United States extends, or it may be collective name of the states which are united
by and under the Constitution. Hooven & Allison Co. v. Evatt, U.S.Ohio, 324 U.S. 652, 65 S.Ct. 870,
880, 89 L.Ed. 1252.

Involuntary servitude. The condition of one who is compelled by force, coercion, or imprisonment,
and against his will, to labor for another, whether he is paid or not. Ex parte Wilson, 114 U.S. 417, 5
S.Ct. 935, 29 L.Ed. 89; In re Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 69, 21 L.Ed. 394; Robertson v.
Baldwin, 165 U.S. 275, 17 S.Ct. 326, 41 L.Ed. 715. Slavery, peonage, or compulsory labor for debts;
all of which are prohibited by the 13th Amendment, U.S.Const.

Involuntary trust. An implied trust which arises because the law imposes trust-like consequences on
certain transactions where, for example, an agent breaches his fiduciary duty and buys property in his
own name which rightfully should have been purchased for the benefit of his principal (constructive
trust) or A supplies the funds for purchase of property by B with the understanding that A will own it
but title will be taken in the name of B (resulting trust).

Credit card. Any card, plate, or other like credit device existing for the purpose of obtaining money,
property, labor or services on credit. The term does not include a note, check, draft, money order pr
other like negotiable instrument. Federal (e.g. Consumer Credit Protection Act) and often state statutes
regulate the issuance and use of credit cards.

Coercion Ikow;)rsh;}n/. Compulsion; constraint; compelling by force or arms or threat. It may be

actual, direct, or positive, as where physical force is used to compel act against one's will, or implied,
legal or constructive, as where one party is constrained by subjugation to other to do what his free will
would refuse. As used in testamentary law, any pressure by which testator's action is restrained against
his free will in the execution of his testament. "Coercion" that vitiates confession can be mental as well
as physical, and question is whether accused was deprived of his free choice to admit, deny, or refuse to
answer. A person is guilty of criminal coercion if, with purpose to unlawfully restrict another's freedom
of action to his detriment, he threatens to: (a) commit any criminal offense; or (b) accuse anyone of a
criminal offense; or (c) expose any secret tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt or ridicule,
or to impair his credit or business repute; or (d) take or withhold action as an official, or cause an
official to take or withhold action. Model Penal Code, § 212.5

Ownership. Collection of rights to use and enjoy property, including right to transmit it to others.
Trustees of
Phillips Exeter Academy v. Exeter, 92 N.H. 473, 33 A.2d
665, 673. The complete dominion, title, or proprietary
right in a thing or claim. The entirety of the powers of
use and disposal allowed by law.
The right of one or more persons to possess and use a
thing to the exclusion of others. The right by which a
thing belongs to some one in particular, to the exclusion
of all other persons. The exclusive right of possession,
enjoyment, and disposal; involving as an essential attribute the right to control, handle, and dispose.
Ownership of property is either absolute or qualified.
The ownership of property is absolute when a single
person has the absolute dominion over it, and may use it
or dispose of it according to his pleasure, subject only to
general laws. The ownership is qualified when it is
shared with one or more persons, when the time of
enjoyment is deferred or limited, or when the use is
restricted. Calif.Civil Code, §§ 67S-680.
There may be ownership of all inanimate things
which are capable of appropriation or of manual delivery; of all domestic animals; of all obligations; of
such
products of labor or skill as the composition of an
author, the goodwill of a business, trademarks and signs,
and of rights created or granted by statute. Calif.Civil
Code, § 655.
In connection with burglary, "ownership" means any
possession which is rightful as against the burglar.
See also Equitable ownership; Exclusive ownership;
Hold; Incident of ownership; Interest; Interval ownership;
Ostensible ownership; Owner; Possession; Title

Allodarii /rel�deriyay/. Owners of allodial lands. Owners of estates as large as a subject may have

Allodial /�16wdiy;}1/. Free; not holden of any lord or

superior; owned without obligation of vassalage or fealty; the opposite of feudaL See also Ownership

Right. As a noun, and taken in an abstract sense, means

justice, ethical correctness, or consonance with the rules
of law or the principles of morals. In this signification
it answers to one meaning of the Latin "jus," and serves
to indicate law in the abstract, considered as the foundation of all rights, or the complex of underlying
moral
principles which impart the character of justice to all
positive law, or give it an ethical content. As a noun,
and taken in a concrete sense, a power, privilege, faculty,
or demand, inherent in one person and incident upon
another. Rights are defined generally as "powers of
free action." And the primal rights pertaining to men
are enjoyed by human beings purely as such, being
grounded in personality, and existing antecedently to
their recognition by positive law. But leaving the abstract moral sphere, and giving to the term a juristic
content, a "right" is well defined as "a capacity residing
in one man of controlling, with the assent and assistance
of the state, the actions of others."
As an adjective, the term "right" means just, morally
correct, consonant with ethical principles or rules of
positive law. It is the opposite of wrong, unjust, illegal.
A power, privilege, or immunity guaranteed under a
constitution, statutes or decisional laws, or claimed as a
result of long usage. See Bill of rights; Civil liberties; Civil
Rights Acts; Natural rights.
In a narrower signification, an interest or title in an
object of property; a just and legal claim to hold, use, or
enjoy it, or to convey or donate it, as he may please.
A legally enforceable claim of one person against
another, that the other shall do a given act, or shall not
do a given act. Restatement of the Law of Property, § l.
That which one person ought to have or receive from
another, it being withheld from him, or not in his
possession. In this sense "right" has the force of
"claim," and is properly expressed by the Latin "jus. "
See also Conditional right; Correlative rights; Droit; Jus;
Justice; Natural rights; Power; Recht; Vested rights.
General Classification
Rights may be described as perfect or imperfect, according as their action or scope is clear, settled, and
determinate, or is vague and unfixed.
Rights are also either in personam or in rem. A right
in personam is one which imposes an obligation on a
definite person. A right in rem is one which imposes an
obligation on persons generally; i.e., either on all the
world or on all the world except certain determinate
persons. Thus, if I am entitled to exclude all persons
from a given piece of land, I have a right in rem in
respect of that land; and, if there are one or more
persons, A., B., and C., whom I am not entitled to
exclude from it, my right is still a right in rem.
Rights may also be described as either primary or
secondary. Primary rights are those which can be created without reference to rights already existing.
Secondary rights can only arise for the purpose of protecting or enforcing primary rights. They are
either preventive (protective) or remedial (reparative).
Preventive or protective secondary rights exist in order
to prevent the infringement or loss of primary rights.
They are judicial when they require the assistance of a
court of law for their enforcement, and extrajudicial
when they are capable of being exercised by the party
himself. Remedial or reparative secondary rights are
also either judicial or extrajudicial. They may further
be divided into (1) rights of restitution or restoration,
which entitle the person injured to be replaced in his
original position; (2) rights of enforcement, which entitle the person injured to the performance of an
act by
the person bound; and (3) rights of satisfaction or compensation.
With respect to the ownership of external objects of
property, rights may be classed as absolute and qualified. An absolute right gives to the person in whom
it
inheres the uncontrolled dominion over the object at all
times and for all purposes. A qualified right gives the
possessor a right to the object for certain purposes or
under certain circumstances only. Such is the right of a
bailee to recover the article bailed when it has been
unlawfully taken from him by a stranger.
Rights are also either legal or equitable. The former
is the case where the person seeking to enforce the right
for his own benefit has the legal title and a remedy at
law. The latter are such as are enforceable only in
equity; as, at the suit of cestui que trust. Procedurally,
under Rules of Civil Procedure, both legal and equitable
rights are enforced in the same court under a single
cause of action.
Constitutional Rights
There is also a classification of rights, with respect to
the constitution of civil society. Thus, according to
Blackstone, "the rights of persons, considered in their
natural capacities, are of two sorts,-absolute and relative; absolute, which are such as appertain and
belong
to particular men, merely as individuals or single persons; relative, which are incident to them as
members
of society, and standing in various relations to each
other." 1 Bl.Comm. 123.
Rights are also classified in constitutional law as
natural, civil, and political, to which there is sometimes
added the class of "personal rights."
Natural rights are those which grow out of the nature
of man and depend upon personality, as distinguished
from such as are created by law and depend upon
civilized society; or they are those which are plainly
assured by natural law; or those which, by fair deduction from the present physical, moral, social, and
religious characteristics of man, he must be invested with,
and which he ought to have realized for him in a jural
society, in order to fulfill the ends to which his nature
calls him. Such are the rights of life, liberty, privacy,
and good reputation.
Civil rights are such as belong to every citizen of the
state or country, or, in a wider sense, to all its inhabitants, and are not connected with the organization
or
administration of government. They include the rights
of property, marriage, equal protection of the laws,
freedom of contract, trial by jury, etc. Or, as otherwise
defined, civil rights are rights appertaining to a person
by virtue of his citizenship in a state or community.
Such term may also refer, in its very general sense, to
rights capable of being enforced or redressed in a civil
action. Also, a term applied to certain rights secured to
citizens of the United States by the Thirteenth and
Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution, and by
various acts of Congress (e.g. Civil Rights Acts) made in
pursuance thereof. See Bill of Rights; Civil liberties; Civil
Rights Acts.
Political rights consist in the power to participate,
directly or indirectly, in the establishment or administration of government, such as the right of
citizenship,
that of suffrage, the right to hold public office, and the
right of petition.
Personal rights is a term of rather vague import, but
generally it may be said to mean the right of personal
security, comprising those of life, limb, body, health,
reputation, and the right of pesonal liberty.
Other Compound and Descriptive Terms
Bill of rights. See that title.
Common right. See Common.
Declaration of rights. See Bill of Rights.
Exclusive right. See that title.
Marital rights. See Marital.
Mere right. In the law of real estate, the mere right of
property in land; the right of a proprietor, but without
possession or even the right of possession; the abstract
right of property.
Patent right. See Patent.
Petition of right. See Petition.
Private rights. Those rights which appertain to a particular individual or individuals, and relate either to
the
person, or to personal or real property.
Right heir. See Heir.
Riparian rights. See Riparian.
Stock rights. See Stock.
Vested rights. See Vested.
Right and wrong test. Under this test of criminal
responsibility, if, at the time of committing an act, the
party was laboring under such a defect of reason from
disease of the mind as not to know the nature and
quality thereof, that he did not know that he was doing
what was wrong, he should not be held criminally responsible for his act. State v. Wallace, 170 Or. 60,
131
P.2d 222, 229, 230. See Insanity with respect to other
criminal responsibility defenses. See also M'Naghte

legal 1. Conforming to the law; according to law;

required or permitted by law; not forbidden or discountenanced by law; good and effectual in law; of or
pertaining to the law; lawful. Freeman v. Fowler Packing Co., 135 Kan. 378, 11 P.2d 276, 277. See
Lawful; Valid.
2. Proper or sufficient to be recognized by the law; recognizable in the courts; competent or
adequate to fulfill the requirements of the law.
3. Cognizable in courts of law, as distinguished from courts of equity; construed or governed by
the rules and principles of law, in contradistinction to rules of equity. With the merger in most states of
law and equity courts, this distinction generally no longer exists. Fed.R.Civil Proc. 2.
4. Posited by the courts as the inference or imputation of the law, as a matter of construction,
rather than established by actual proof; e.g., legal malice.
5. Created by law. As to legal Consideration; Damages; Day; Debt; Defense; Demand;
Disability; Discretion; Estate; Incapacity; Irregularity; Memory; Mortgage; Process; Relevancy;
Remedy; Reversion, and Tender, see those titles

Law That which is laid down, ordained, or established.

A rule or method according to which phenomena or
actions co-exist or follow each other. Law, in its generic
sense, is a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed
by controlling authority, and having binding legal force.
United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. v. Guenther,
281 U.S. 34, 50 S.Ct. 165, 74 L.Ed. 683. That which
must be obeyed and followed by citizens subject to sanctions or legal consequences is a law. Law is a
solemn
expression of the will of the supreme power of the State.
Calif.Civil Code, § 22.
The "law" of a state is to be found in its statutory and
constitutional enactments, as interpreted by its courts,
and, in absence of statute law, in rulings of its courts.
Dauer's Estate v. Zabel, 9 Mich.App. 176, 156 N.W.2d 34,
37.
Word "law" generally contemplates both statutory
and case law. Matter of Estate of Perlberg, Tenn.App.,
694 S.W.2d 304, 308.
In old English jurisprudence, "law" is used to signify
an oath, or the privilege of being sworn; as in the
phrases "to wage one's law," "to lose one's law."
The term is also used in opposition to "fact." Thus
questions of law are to be decided by the court, while it
is the province of the jury to resolve questions of fact.
The word may mean or embrace: body of principles,
standards and rules promulgated by government, State
ex reI. Conway v. Superior Court within and for Greenlee County, 60 Ariz. 69, 131 P.2d 983, 986;
command
which obliges a person or persons and obliges generally
to acts or forbearances of a class; constitution or constitutional provision. Wickham v. Grand River
Dam Authority, 189 OkL 540, 118 P.2d 640, 643; county ordinance, People v. Ziady, 8 CaL2d 149, 64
P.2d 425, 430;
distinct and complete act of positive law; doctrine or
procedure of the common law, from which equity is a
departure; enrolled bill attested by presiding officers of
two branches of General Assembly, Shannon v. Dean,
279 Ky. 279, 130 S.W.2d 812, 815; general rule of
human action, taking cognizance only of external acts,
enforced by a determinate authority, which authority is
human, and among human authorities is that which is
paramount in a political society; grant by Legislature,
City of Los Angeles v. Pacific Land Corporation, 41
CaLApp.2d 223, 106 P.2d 242, 244; administrative agency rules and regulations, Columbia
Broadcasting System
v. United States, 316 U.S. 407, 62 S.Ct. 1194, 1200, 86
L.Ed. 1563; judicial decisions, judgments or decrees,
West v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 311 U.S.
223, 61 S.Ct. 179, 183, 85 L.Ed. 139; law of the state;
legislation by initiative method, Opinion of the Justices,
309 Mass. 676, 35 N.E.2d 676, 680; local rules of deci
885
sion, National Fruit Product Co. v. Dwinell-Wright Co.,
D.C.Mass., 47 F.Supp. 499, 502; long-established local
custom which has the force of law, Dubois v. Hepburn,
35 U.S. (10 Pet.) 1, 9 L.Ed. 325; Bush v. Brenner,
D.C.Minn., 29 F.2d 844, 845; municipal ordinance; prescribed rules of action or conduct, U. S. Fidelity
&
Guaranty Co. v. Guenther, 281 U.S. 34, 50 S.Ct. 165, 166,
74 L.Ed. 683; proclamation of Governor, Williams v.
State, 146 Tex.Cr.R. 430, 176 S.W.2d 177, 184; resolution
passed by Legislature and approved by Governor, City of
Bangor v. Inhabitants of Etna, 140 Me. 85, 34 A.2d 205,
208; revised statutes, W. R. McCullough Life Ins. Co. v.
Armstrong, Tex.Civ.App., 158 S.W.2d 585, 586; rule of
civil conduct commanding what is right and prohibiting
what is wrong, City of Bangor v. Inhabitants of Etna,
140 Me. 85, 34 A.2d 205, 208; rule of civil conduct
prescribed by the supreme power in a state, City of
Bangor v. Inhabitants of Etna, 140 Me. 85, 34 A.2d 205,
208; rule of conduct prescribed by lawmaking power of
state, Board of Education of Union Free School Dist. No.
Six of Town of Greenburgh v. Town of Greenburgh, 277
N.Y. 193, 13 N.E.2d 768, 770; rules of court, State ex rel.
Conway v. Superior Court within and for Greenlee County, 60 Ariz. 69, 131 P.2d 983, 986; rules of
decision
commonly accepted and acted upon by bar and inferior
courts, West v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.,
Ohio, 311 U.S. 223, 61 S.Ct. 179, 183, 85 L.Ed. 139; rules
promulgated by government, State ex rel. Conway v.
Superior Court within and for Greenlee County, 60 Ariz.
69, 131 P.2d 983, 986; science or system of principles or
rules of human conduct, Secretary of the Treasury regulations, In re Deyo's Estate, 180 Misc. 32, 42
N.Y.S.2d
379, 386; statute laws as construed by highest courts of
state, National City Bank v. National Sec. Co., C.C.A.
Tenn., 58 F.2d 7, 9; statute or enactment of legislative
body, State ex rel. McKittrick v. Missouri Public Service
Commission, 252 Mo. 29, 175 S.W.2d 857, 861; United
States law, U. S. v. Wagner, C.C.A.Cal., 93 F.2d 77, 79;
War Department regulations, Standard Oil Co. of California v. Johnson, Cal., 316 U.S. 481, 62 S.Ct.
1168, 1169,
86 L.Ed. 1611.
A concurrent or joint resolution of legislature is not
"a law", Koenig v. Flynn, 258 N.Y. 292, 179 N.E. 705,
707; Ward v. State, 176 Okl. 368, 56 P.2d 136, 137; a
resolution of the house of representatives is not a "law",
State ex rel. Todd v. Yelle, 7 Wash.2d 443, 110 P.2d 162,
165; an unconstitutional statute is not a "law", Flournoy v. First Nat. Bank of Shreveport, 197 La. 1067,
3
So.2d 244, 248.
With reference to its origin, "law" is derived either
from judicial precedents, from legislation, or from custom.
As to the different kinds of law, or law regarded in its
different aspects, see Absolute law; Adjective law; Administrative law; Arms, law of; Bankruptcy
Code; Canon (Canon law); Case law; Citations, law of; Civil law;
Commercial law; Common law; Conclusion of law; Conflicts of laws; Constitutional law; Criminal
law; Custom
and usage; Ecclesiastical law; Edict; Enabling statute;
Equity; Evidence, law of; Flag, law of; Foreign laws;
Forest law; General law; International law; Local law;
LAWFUL
Maritime; Maritime law; Marque, law of; Martial law; Mercantile law; Military law; Moral law;
Municipal law; Natural
law; Oleron, laws of; Ordinance; Organic law; Parliamentary law; Penal laws; Positive law; Private
law; Probate;
Procedural law; Prospective law; Public law; Remedial
laws and statutes; Retrospective law; Revenue law or
measure; Road (Law of the road ); Roman law; Special
law; Staple (Law of the staple); Statute; Substantive law;
Unwritten law; War; Wisby, laws of; Written law.
For "facts" and "law" as distinguishable, see Fact.
For practice of law, see Practice.
Lawful. Legal; warranted or authorized by the law;
having the qualifications prescribed by law; not contrary to nor forbidden by the law; not illegal.
The principal distinction between the terms "lawful"
and "legal" is that the former contemplates the substance of law, the latter the form of law. To say of an
act that it is "lawful" implies that it is authorized,
sanctioned, or at any rate not forbidden, by law. To say
that it is "legal" implies that it is done or performed in
accordance with the forms and usages of law, or in a
technical manner. In this sense "illegal" approaches
the meaning of "invalid." For example, a contract or
will, executed without the required formalities, might be
said to be invalid or illegal, but could not be described as
unlawful. Further, the word "lawful" more clearly implies an ethical content than does "legal." The
latter
goes no further than to denote compliance, with positive,
technical, or formal rules; while the former usually
imports a moral substance or ethical permissibility. A
further distinction is that the word "legal" is used as the
synonym of "constructive," which "lawful" is not. Thus
"legal fraud" is fraud implied or inferred by law, or
made out by construction. "Lawful fraud" would be a
contradiction of terms. Again, "legal" is used as the
antithesis of "equitable." Thus, we speak of "legal
assets," "legal estate," etc., but not of "lawful assets," or
"lawful estate." But there are some connections in
LAWFUL
which the two words are used as exact equivalents.
Thus, a "lawful" writ, warrant, or process is the same as
a "legal" writ, warrant, or process.
See also Legal; Legitimate; Valid.
Lawful age. Full age, legal age, majority; generally 18
years of age, though the "lawful age" for certain acts
(e.g. drinking, driving motor vehicle, etc.) may vary from
state to state. See also Capacity; Legal age.

Person/Individual
US citizen
Treason
human
human trafficking