Receiver

1.

In equity practice, a person appointed by a court to take charge of funds or property while sub judice, make sales, collect proceeds or increase, and render account. mode, in chancery practice, of preserving the property involved in a suit until its termination; also of making judicial sales, in a class of cases. Thus, in a suit to dissolve partnership or to foreclose a railway mortgage, it has been common for the complainant — either because of apprehension that the property might be lost or dissipated, if left in defendant's care during the litigation, or because of some advantage or necessity as to making sale of the property — to move for and obtain appointment of a receiver. The same remedy is in frequent use under codes of reformed procedure, where it is treated as a provisional remedy, ancillary to the civil action in which the plaintiff is seeking the ultimate relief. The receiver is not a permanent stated officer of the court, but a person appointed for the particular cause. He is, however, regarded as an officer, in the discharge of his trust, and has most of the privileges and protection of an officer of chancery, so far as appropriate; gives bonds, as may be required by the court, and then comes into possession and charge of the property in qupstion, and cares for it or disposes of it as its nature requires, and the orders and decrees of the court from time to time may command.

2.

Receiver is also a generic term for various officers, — more numerous in England than in America, — the chief classes of which are mentioned below.

3.

In criminal law, receiver is used briefly for receiver of stolen goods. To receive such goods, with guilty knowledge and intent, is a punishable offence by statute, throughout England and the United States. In England, receiving any chattel, money, valuable security, or other property wh atsoever, obtain ed by felony, knowing the same to have been so feloniously obtained, is a felony, for which the receiver may be indicted and convicted, either as an accessory after the fact to the principal felony or as for a substantive felony, and, in the latter case, whether or not the principal felon shall have been previously convicted. The offence is punishable with penal servitude for any period between five and fourteen years, or with imprisonment for labor, and with or without solitary confinement, and (if a male under the age of sixteen years) with or without whipping. (24 §• 25 Vict. ch. 96, § 91.) Brown. In the United States, the mode of proof and measure of punishment vary somewhat under the local statutes. Receiver of fines. An English officer who receives the money from persons who compound with the crown on original writs sued out of chancery.

Wharton.

Receiver of petitions. The form and contents of petitions to parliament are governed by much more precise and exacting rules than obtain in American legislatures (see Petition); and, in former years, a distinct class of ofl Scers was attached to parliament whose duty it was to receive, and scrutinize in the first instance, all petitions preferred to that body. The mode of receiving and trying such petitions is said to have been formerly judicial rather than legislative; but the functions of the triers have now given way to the authority of the parliament at large. By the house of lords, indeed, receivers and triers of petitions are still appointed at the opening of every session, as in aucient times. But petitions are, by both houses, considered now in the first instance, and only referred to triers or committees in certain cases. See May Pari. Pr. Receiver of wrecks. The title of a class of English officers appointed by the treasury in different districts to summon as many men as may be necessary, to demand help from any ship near at hand, or to press into their service any wagons, carts, or horses, for the purpose of preserving or assisting any stranded or distressed vessel, or her cargo, or for the saving of human life.

2 Steph. Com. 544. Receiver-general.

The receiver-general of the public revenue; an English officer appointed in every county to receive the taxes granted by parliament, and remit the money to the treasury.

Wharton.

The receiver-general of the duchy of Lancaster is an officer belonging to the duchy court, who gathers in all the revenues and fines of the lands belonging to that duchy, and all forfeitures and assessments belonging to the same.

Brown.