Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

372

DISCHAKGE

DISCONTINUANCE

discharge is the result of performance) or is broken off before complete execution. Discharge is a generic term; its principal species are rescission, release, accord and satisfaction, per formance, judgment, composition, bankruptcy, merger, (q. v.) Leake, Cont. 413. As applied to demands, claims, rights of action, incumbrances, etc., to discharge the debt or claim is to extinguish it, to annul its obligatory force, to satisfy it. And here also the term is generic; thus a debt, a mort gage, a legacy, may be discharged by payment or pei formance, or by any act short of that, lawful in itself, which the creditor accepts as sufficient. To discharge a person is to liberate him from the binding force of an obligation, debt, or claim. Discharge by operation of law is where the dis charge takes place, whether it was intended by the parties or not; thus, if a creditor appoints his debtor his executor, the debt is discharged by operation of law, because the executor cannot have an action against himself. Co. Litt. 364b, note 1; Williams, Ex'rs, 1216; Chit. Cont. 714. In civil practice. To discharge a rule, an order, an injunction, a certificate, process of execution, or in general any proceeding in a court, is to cancel or annul it, or to revoke it, or to refuse to confirm its original provis ional force. To discharge a jury is to relieve them from any further consideration of a cause. This is done when the continuance of the trial is, by any cause, rendered impossible; also when the jury, after deliberation, cannot agree on a verdict. In equity practice. In the process of accounting before a master in chancery, the discharge is a statement of expenses and counter-claims brought in and filed, by way of set-off, by the accounting defendant; which follows the charge in order. In criminal practice. The act by which a person in confinement, held on an accusation of some ci ime or misdemeanor, is set at liber ty. The writing containing the order for his being so set at liberty is also called a "dis charge." In bankruptcy practice. , The discharge of the bankrupt is the step which regularly follows the adjudication of bankruptcy ami the administration of his estate. By it he is released from the obligation of all his debts which were or might be proved in the pro ceedings, so that they are no longer a charge upon him, and so that he may thereafter en gage in business and acquire property with out its being liable for the satisfaction of such former debts.

In maritime law. The unlading or un livery of*a cargo from a vessel. Story, J., 2 Sum. 589, 600. DISCLAIMER. The repudiation or re* nunciation of a right or claim vested in a per son or which he had formerly alleged to be his. The refusal, waiver, or denial of an es tate or right offered to a person. The disa vowal, denial, or renunciation of an interest, right, or property imputed to a person or al leged to be his. Also the declaration, or the instrument, by which such disclaimer is pub lished. Of estates. The act by which a party re fuses to accept an estate which has been con veyed to him. Thus, a trustee is said to dis claim who releases to his fellow-trustees his estate, and relieves himself of the trust. 1 Hil. Real Prop. 354; 13 Conn. 83. A renunciation or a denial by a tenant of his landlord's title, either by refusing to pay rent, denying any obligation to pay, or by setting up a title in himself or a third person, and tins is a distinct ground of forfeiture of the lease or other tenancy, whether of land or tithe. See 16 Ch. £>iv. 730. In pleading. A renunciation by the de fendant of all claim to the subject of the de mand made by the plaintiff's bill. Coop. Eq. PI. 309; Mitf. Eq. PI. 318. In patent law. When the title and spec ifications of a patent do not agree, or when part of that which it covers is not strictly patentable, because neither new nor useful, the patentee is empowered, with leave of the couit, to enter a disclaimer ot any part of either the title or the specification, and the disclaimer is then deemed to be part of the letteis patent or specification, so as to lender them valid for the future. Johns. Pat. 151. DISCLAMATION. In Scotch law. Dis avowal of tenure; denial that one holds lands of another. Bell. DISCOMMON. To deprive commona ble lands of their commonable quality, by in closing and appropriating or improving them. DISCONTINUANCE. In practice. The termination of an action, inconsequence of the plaintiff's omitting to continue the pro cess or proceedings by proper entries on the record. 3 Bl. Comm. 296; 1 Tidd, Pr. 678; 2 Arch. Pr. K. B. 233. In practice, a discontinuance is a chasm or gap left by neglecting to enter a continuance. By our practice, a neglect to enter a continuance, even in a defaulted action, by no means puts an end to it;

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