Relief

1.

In the practice of courts, relief is the general term for the advantage, benefit, or help which a complainant asks from the tribunal; the judicial enforcement of a right or redre.ss of a wrong, invoked in a suit. The term is of very common use in practice in equity, and under the codes of procedure, where various kinds of redress, either damages, or injunction, or specific performance, or judgment annulling an instrument or removing a cloud on title, or restoration to possession of property, are sought in substantially one form of suit. In strict common-law practice, where the redress obtainable was nearly confined to judgments for po.ssession or for damages, there has been less need of any general term of this kind, and it is not often met.

2.

In feudal law, a relief was a tribute exacted by the lord from an incoming tenant who succeeded to an estate, upon the idea of compensating the lord; because, the estate having fallen by the death of the ancestor, it was necessary for the lord to lift it (relecer), for the benefit of the heir. This idea lost all foundation when feuds became hereditaiy; but the exaction was long continued, notwithstanding. Wharton says, it has been " abolished with other feudal gi'ievances; " Brown (citing Williams), that " it seems that a relief is still payable, if demanded." Relief is a French word, from the Latin relerare, to relieve, or take up that which is fallen; for it is given by the tenant or vassal who is of perfect age, after the expiring of the wardship, to his superior lord, of whom he held his lands by knight-service, that is, by ward and relief; for by payment thereof he relieves, and, as it were, raiseth up again his lands, after they were fallen down into his superior's hands, by reason of wardship, &c.

— Relief is otherwise thus explained; viz., a feudatory or beneficiary estate in lands was at first granted only for life; and after death of the vassal it returned to the chief lord, for which reason it was cailed feudum cadiicum, viz. fallen to the lord by the death of the connivance and assent of the chief lord, when the possessor of such an estate died, it was called hereditas caduca, i.e. it was fallen to the chief lord;

— to whom the heir having paid a certain sum of money, he did then rdevare hoereditatem caducam out of his hands, and the money thus paid was called a relief.

This must be understood after the conquest; for in the time of the Saxons tliere were no reliefs, but heriots paid to the lord at the death of Ms tenant, which in those days were horses, arms, &c.; and such tributes could not be exacted by tiie English immediately after the conquest, for they were deprived of both by the Normans; and instead thereof, in many places, the payment of certain sums of money was substituted, which they called a re Uef, and which continues to this day.

Jacob. 3.

In the administration of the English poor-laws, the word relief is used somewhat technically to signify the authorized assistance, in the supply of necessaries and medical attendance, extended by parochial ofiicers to paupers. It is more fully known as parochial or workhouse relief, and is either in-door relief, the condition of which is that the party relieved shall reside in the workhouse; or out-door relief, to which no such condition is attached. Relieving officer is the style or title of an overseer or other officer charged with the duty of administering immediate relief to paupers who apply for it. The word relief has the following meanings in the law of Scotland: Casualty of relief. This is in the nature of the feudal relief. Relief of cautioners. This is the right of contribution between co-sureties. Relief betwixt heir and executor. This is a marshalling of assets in favor of an heir who has paid a personal debt (that is, a debt payable out of the personal property), or of an executor who has paid a heritable debt (that is, a debt primarily chargeable on the assets descended to the heir).

Bail.