Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CONDITION

CONDITION

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nexed to it by the parties, providing for a change or modiScation of their legal relations upon its occurrence. Mackeld. Horn. Law, §184. In the civil law, conditions are of the fol lowing several kinds: The casual condition is that which depends on chance, and is in no way in the power either of the creditor or of the debtor. Civil Code La. art. 2023. A mixed condition is one that depends at the same time on the will of one of the par ties and on the will of a third person, or on the will of one of the parties and also on a casual event. Civil Code La. art. 2025. The potestative condition is that which makes the execution of the agreement depend on an event which it is in the power of the one or the other of the contracting parties to bring about or to hinder. Civil Code La. art. 2024. A resolutory condition is one which de stroys or releases an obligation already vested, as soon as the condition is fulfilled. A suspensive condition is one which post pones the obligation until the happening of a future and uncertain event, or a present but unknown event. In French law. In French law, the fol lowing peculiar distinctions are made: (1) A condition is casuelle when it depends on a chance or hazard; (2) a condition is potesta tive when it depends on the accomplishment of something which is in the power of the party to accomplish; (3) a condition is mixte when it depends partly on the will of the party and paitly on the will of others; (4) a condition is suspensive when it is a future and uncertain event, or present but unknown event, upon which an obligation takes or fails to take effect; (5) a condition is resolu toire when it is the event which undoes an obligation which has already had effect as such. Brown. In common law. The rank, situation, or degree of a particular person in some one of the different orders of society; or his status or situation, considered as a jundicial person, arising from positive law or the institutions of society. A clause in a contract or agreement which has for its object to suspend, rescind, or modify the principal obligation, or, in case of a will, to suspend, revoke, or modify the devise or bequest. 1 Bonv. Inst. no. 730. A modus or quality annexed by him that hath an estate* or interest or right to the same, whereby an estate, etc., may either be

defeated, enlarged, or created upon an uncer tain event. Co. Litt. 201a. A qualification or restriction annexed to a conveyance of lands, whereby it is provided that in case a particular event does or does not happen, or in case the grantor or grantee does or omits to do a particular act, an estate shall commence, be enlarged, or be defeated. Greenl. Cruise, Dig. tit. xiii. c. i. § 1. The different kinds of conditions known to the common law are denned under their ap propriate names in the following titles. A further classification is, however, here sub joined: Conditions are either express or implied. They are express when they appear in the contract; they are implied whenever they re sult from the operation of law, from the nature of the contract, or from the presumed intent of the parties. Civil Code La. art. 2026. They are possible or impossible; the for mer when they admit of performance in the ordinary course of events; the latter when it is contrary to the course of nature or human limitations that they should ever be performed. They are lawful or unlawful; the former when their character is not in violation of any rule, principle, or policy of law; the lat ter when they are such as the law will not allow to be made. They are consistent or repugnant; the former when they are in harmony and concord with the other parts of the trans action; the latter when they contradict, an nul, or neutralize the main purpose of the contract. Repugnant conditions are also called "insensible." They are independent, dependent, or mutual; the first when each of the two con ditions must be performed without any ref erence to the other; the second when the per formance of one is not obligatory until the actual performance of the other; the third when neither party need perform his con dition unless the other is ready and willing to perform his. Synonyms distinguished. A "condi tion" is to be distinguished from a limitation, in that the latter may be to or for the benefit of a stranger, who may then take advantage of its determination, while only the grantor, or those who stand in his place, can take ad vantage of a condition, (16 Me. 158;) and in that a limitation ends the estate without en try or claim, which is not true of a condition. It also differs from a conditional limitation:

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