Forfeiture

4 definitions found

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

  Forfeiture \For"fei*ture\ (?; 135), n. [F. forfeiture, LL.
     forisfactura.]
     1. The act of forfeiting; the loss of some right, privilege,
        estate, honor, office, or effects, by an offense, crime,
        breach of condition, or other act.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              Under pain of foreiture of the said goods.
                                                    --Hakluyt.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. That which is forfeited; a penalty; a fine or mulct.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              What should I gain
              By the exaction of the forfeiture?    --Shak.
  
     Syn: Fine; mulct; amercement; penalty.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  forfeiture
       n 1: something that is lost or surrendered as a penalty; [syn: {forfeit}]
       2: a penalty for a fault or mistake that involves losing or
          giving up something; "the contract specified forfeits if
          the work was not completed on time" [syn: {forfeit}]
       3: the act of losing or surrendering something as a penalty for
          a mistake or fault or failure to perform etc. [syn: {forfeit},
           {sacrifice}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  38 Moby Thesaurus words for "forfeiture":
     amercement, bereavement, cost, damage, damages, dead loss, debit,
     denial, denudation, deprivation, despoilment, destruction,
     detriment, dispossession, distraint, distress, divestment, escheat,
     escheatment, expense, fine, forfeit, injury, loser, losing,
     losing streak, loss, mulct, perdition, privation, robbery, ruin,
     sacrifice, sconce, spoliation, stripping, taking away,
     total loss
  
  

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

  FORFEITURE, punishment, torts. Forfeiture is 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 become 
  vested in the party injured, as a recompense for the wrong which he alone, 
  or the Public together with himself, hath sustained. 2 Bl. Com. 267. 
       2. Lands, tenements and hereditaments, may be forfeited by various 
  means: 1. By the commission of crimes and misdemeanors. 2. By alienation 
  contrary to law. 3. By the non-performance of conditions. 4. By waste. 
       3. - 1. Forfeiture for crimes. By the Constitution of the United 
  States, art. 3, s. 3, it is declared that no attainder of treason shall work 
  corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person 
  attainted. And by the Act of April 30, 1790, s. 24, 1 Story's Laws U. S. 88, 
  it is enacted, that no conviction or judgment for any of the offences 
  aforesaid, shall work corruption of blood, or any forfeiture of estate. As 
  the offences punished by this act are of the blackest dye, including cases 
  of treason, the punishment of forfeiture may be considered as being 
  abolished. The forfeiture of the estate for crime is very much reduced in 
  practice in this country, and when it occurs, the stater takes the title the 
  party had, and no more. 4 Mason's R. 174; Dalrymple on Feudal Property, c. 
  4, p. 145-154; Fost. C. L. 95. 
       4. - 2. Forfeiture by alienation. By the English law, estates less than 
  a fee may be forfeited to the party entitled to the residuary interest by a 
  breach of duty in the owner of the particular estate. When a tenant for life 
  or years, therefore, by feoffment, fine, or recovery, conveys a greater 
  estate than he is by law entitled to do, he forfeits his estate to the 
  person next entitled in remainder or reversion. 2 Bl. Com. 274. In this 
  country, such forfeitures are almost unknown, and the more just principle 
  prevails, that the conveyance by the tenant operates only on the interest 
  which he possessed, and does not affect the remainder-man or reversioner. 4 
  Kent, Com. 81, 82, 424; 1 Hill. Ab. c. 4, s. 25 to 34; 3 Dall. Rep. 486; 5 
  Ohio, R. 30. 
       5. - 3. Forfeiture by non-performance of conditions. An estate may be 
  forfeited by a breach, or non-performance of a condition annexed to the 
  estate, either expressed in the deed at its original creation, or impliedly 
  by law, from a principle of natural reason. 2 Bl. Com. 281; and see Ad 
  Eject. 140 to 173. Vide article Reentry; 12 Serg. & Rawle, 190. 
       6. - 4. Forfeiture by waste. Waste is also a cause of forfeiture. 2 Bl. 
  Com. 283. Vide article Waste. 
       7. By forfeiture is also understood the neglect of an obligor to fulfill
  
  his obligation in proper time: as, when one has entered into a bond for a 
  penal sum, upon condition to pay a smaller at a particular day, and he fails 
  to do it, there is then said to be a forfeiture. Again, when a party becomes 
  bound in a certain sum by a recognizance to pay a certain sum, with a 
  condition that he will appear at court to answer or prosecute a crime, and 
  he fails to do it, there is a forfeiture of the recognizance. Courts of 
  equity, and now courts, of law, will relieve from the forfeiture of a bond; 
  and upon a proper case shown, criminal courts will in general relieve from 
  the forfeiture of a recognizance to appear. See 3 Yeates, 93; 2 Wash. C. C. 
  442 Blackf. 104, 200; Breeze, 257. Vide, generally, 2 Bl. Com. ch. 18; Bouv. 
  Inst. Index, h.t.; 2 Kent's Com; 318; 4 Id. 422; 10 Vin. Ab. 371, 394 13 
  Vin. Ab. 436; Bac. Ab. Forfeiture Com. Dig. h.t.; Dane's Ab. h.t.; 1 Bro 
  Civ. L. 252 4 Bl. Com. 382; and Considerations on the Law of Forfeiture for 
  High Treason, London ed. l746.