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FORFEITURE Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

1. A punishment annexed by law to some illegal act or negligence in the owner of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, whereby he loses all his interest therein, and they go to the party Injured as a recompense for the wrong which heal one, or the public together with himself, have sustained. 2 Bl. Comm. 207. Wiseman v. Mcnulty, 25 Cal. 237.2. The loss of land by a tenant to his lord, as the consequence of some breach of fidelity. 1 Steph. Comm. 100.3. The loss of lands and goods to the state, as the consequence of crime. 4 Bl.Comm. 381. 387; 4 Steph. Comm. 447, 452; 2 Kent, Comm. 385; 4 Kent, Comm. 420.Avery v. Everett 110 N. Y. 317, IS N. E. 14S, 1 L. It. A. 204, 0 Am. St. Rep. 308.4. The loss of goods or chattels, as a punishment for some crime or misdemeanor in the party forfeiting, and as a compensation for the offense and injury committed against him to whom they are forfeited. 2 Bl. Comm. 420. It should be noted that “forfeiture” is not an identical or convertible term with”confiscation.” The latter is the consequence of the former. Forfeiture is the result which the law attaches as an immediate and necessary consequence to the illegal acts of the individual; but confiscation implies the action of the state; and property, although it may be forfeited, cannot be said to be confiscated until the government has formally claimed or taken possession of it.5. The loss of office by abuser, non-user, or refusal to exercise it.6. The loss of a corporate franchise or charter in consequence of some illegal act,or of malfeasance or non-feasance.7. The loss of the right to life, as the consequence of the commission of some crime to which the law has affixed a capital penalty.8. The incurring a liability to pay a definite sum of money as the consequence of violating the provisions of some statute, or refusal to comply with some requirement of law. State v. Marion County Com’rs, 85 Ind. 403.9. A thing or sum of money forfeited. Something imposed as a punishment for anol’i’ense or delinquency. The word in this sense is frequently associated with the word ”penalty.” Van Buren v. Digges, 11 How. 477, 13 L. E(l. 771.10. In mining law, the loss of a mining claim held by location on the public domain (unpatented) in consequence of the failure of the holder to make the required annual expenditure upon it within the time allowed. McKay v. McDougall, 25 Mont. 258, 04 Pac.009. 87 Am. St Itep. 395; St. John v. Ividd, 20 Cal. 271.

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