Arrhae

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Arrha \Ar"rha\, n.; pl. {Arrh[ae]}. [L. Cf. {Earnest}.] (Law)
     Money or other valuable thing given to evidence a contract; a
     pledge or earnest.
     [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:



  ARRHAE, contracts, in the civil law. Money or other valuable things given by
  the buyer to the seller, for the purpose of evidencing the contract earnest.
       2. There are two kinds of arrhae; one kind given when a contract has
  only been proposed; the other when a sale has actually taken place. Those
  which are given when a bargain has been merely proposed, before it has been
  concluded, form the matter of the contract, by which he who gives the arrhae
  consents and agrees to lose them, and to transfer the title to them in the
  opposite party, in case he should refuse to complete the proposed bargain;
  and the receiver of arrhae is obliged on his part to return double the
  amount to the giver of them in case be should fail to complete his part of
  the contract. Poth. Contr. de Vente, n. 498. After the contract of sale has
  been completed, the purchaser usually gives arrbae as evidence that the
  contract has been perfected. Arrbae are therefore defined quod ante pretium
  datur, et fidem fecit contractus, facti totiusque pecuniae solvendae. Id. n.
  506; Code, 4, 45, 2.