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APPROPRIATION Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

The act of appropriating or setting apart; prescribing the destination of a thing; designating the use or application of a fund. In public law. The act by which tne legislative department of government designates a particular fund, or sets apart a specified portion of the public revenue or of the money In the public treasury, to be applied to some general object of governmental expenditure, (as the civil service list, etc..) or to some individual purchase or expense. State v. Moore, 50 Neb. 88, 09 N. W. 373, 61 Am. St Rep. 538; Clayton v. Berry, 27 Ark. 129. When money is appropriated (f. e., set apart) for the purpose of securing the payment of a specific debt or class of debts, or for an individual purchase or object of expense. it is said to be specifically appropriated for that purpose. A specific appropriation is an act of the legislature by which a named sum of money has been set apart in the treasury, and devoted to the payment of a particular demand. Stratton v. Green, 45 Cal. 149.

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