Proviso
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
A conditional clause often inserted in deeds or statutes, or operative force of the statute frequently depends j it usually begins with the word provided. The word proviso is generally taken for a condition: but it dif Eers from it in several respects; for a condition is usually created by the grantor or lessor, but a proviso by the grantee or lessee. Jacob. A proviso also differs from an exception, in this, that an exception exempts, absolutely, from the operation of an engagement or an enactment; while a proviso defeats their operation, conditionally: an exception takes out of an engagement or enactment something which would otherwise be part of the subject-matter of it; wliile a proviso avoids them, by way of defeasance or excuse. See Bouvier. A proviso in a statute is generally intended to restrain the enacting clause, and to except something which would otherwise have been within it, or in some measure to modify the enacting clause.
Wayman V. Southard, 10 Wheat. 1, 30.
A proviso in deeds or laws is a limitation or exception to a grant made or authority conferred, the effect of which is to declare that the one shall not operate, or the other be exercised, unless in the case provided.
Voorhees v
Bank of the United States, 10 Pet. 449.