Recognizance

An obligation of record, which a man enters into before some court of record, or magistrate duly authorized, binding himself under a penalty to do some particular act, — as to appear at the assises, to keep the peace, to pay a debt, or the like. Recognizee: the person in whose favor a recognizance is made. Recognizor: one who executes a recognizance. A recognizance is, in some respects, very similar to a bond. There are, however, important differences. A bond is the creation of a new debt; while a previously due. A recognizance is entered upon the records of some court, or on the magistrate's docket, and appears by reference to the record, instead of being made by the seal of the pai-ty bound, and delivered to the one benefited. In American practice, recognizances are chiefly used to secure the attendance of the party at court to answer some charge or suit against him. A person who might otherwise be kept in custody until the time for trial of the cause is allowed to go at large in the mean time, upon giving a recognizance, with sureties, that he will appear at the court designated. This is the same thing, in substance, as putting in bail, the different expressions being in use in various states, without very substantial difference in meaning, though the forms of the instruments may be unlike. When a person is arrested on a criminal charge, which appears to the magistrate to be trivial or slightly supported by evidence, sureties for his appearance are dispensed with, and he signs the recognizance alone. In these cases, he is said to be " discharged on his own recognizance." Hence the expression has come to indicate that the case is not a strong one against the accused. Recognizances are of two sorts: At common law, which is an obligation, acknowledged and enrolled in a court of law, with a condition to be void on the performance of a thing stipulated; it differs from a bond, in that the latter is a creation of a new debt, while a recognizance is an acknowledgment upon record of a former debt, owing to our sovereign lady the queen. And by statute, which are the statute-merchant, created by 11 Edw. I., and the statutestaple, created by 27 Edw. III. st. 2; but these are both obsolete.

Wharton.

At common law, a recognizance was defined as " an obligation of record, founded upon an acknowledgment of an. existing indebtedness by the person to be bound," and was sometliing more than a "contract." But under the statutes of Kansas a recognizance may be held and treated as a contract.

State V. Weatherwax, 12 Kan. 463.