Latin for Lawyers

RESCUE

announcing and explaining its decision on appeal. The short unsigned opin ion of an appellate court. RESCUE [L. re + excutio , excutere / to shake out, to search, investigate, find] To free from confinement or from risk or danger. To free from arrest or imprisonment, as a hostage or a prisoner of war. RESCUE DOCTRINE This is a two-pronged legal doctrine. The first prong states that a person who commits a tort upon another person will be liable for the injuries not only to that person but also to anyone who comes to the aid or rescue of the tortfea sor’s victim. The second prong states that a rescuer will not, as a matter of law, be charged with contributory negligence, unless he is reckless or rash. The doctrine is sometimes called the Good Samaritan Doctrine. See SAMARITAN RES DERELICTA [L. res + derelinquo , derelinquere / to abandon, forsesake, leave behind] Any property which has been abandoned by its owner. RESERVATION [L. re + servare / to protect] To withhold or retain an interest or right in an object or asset at the moment of its transfer to another. In the law of property, a reservation in a deed is a provision under which the grantor keeps for himself some right or interest which did not exist before the transfer and which is defined and created by the deed itself; it is an exclusion from the right or interest conveyed to the grantee and may be a temporary interest or a permanent interest. For exam ple, a grantor may convey the fee title to a parcel of land but reserve for him self and his heirs an easement over the land. A reservation is also the act of a court in withholding its decision on an application, such as a motion, until some later time. Also, a tract of land set aside by government for a public purpose, e.g., a national park or an Indian reservation . RESERVE [L. re + servo , servare / to watch over, to protect, to keep] To set aside; to retain for use at a future time; anything stored or set aside for future consumption. The word has many meanings to lawyers, among them, a fund set aside to provide for future contingencies and expenses, as in the maintenance of property, and sums set aside by an insurance company to cover future claims and losses. A bad debt reserve is an amount set aside by a company and listed on its balance sheet, to reflect its estimate of accounts receivable which may prove uncollectible. A depletion reserve is a reserve set aside by businesses with respect to assets of decreasing value, such as oil wells or coal mines. Some businesses, e.g., banks and insurance companies,

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