Respondent

Person answering

As the party who appeals against the judgment of an inferior court is termed the appellant, so he who contends against the appeal is the respondent. The word also denotes the persons upon whom and who are made, as it were, defendants thereto. The term respondent is used in like manner in proceedings in the English divorce court; and corespondent is the paramour in the adultery laid as cause of divorce, who may be joined, in the practice of that court. In general, it corresponds to defendant, in the various proceedings to which it is applied.

Rj;SPONDENTIA.

A mercantile contract, generally defined to be a loan of money upon hypothecation of cargo (as bottomry is upon security of the hull), to be repaid with maritime interest if the cargo arrives safe, or sustains injury only through its own defects, or the fault of master and mariners.

See 3 Kent Com. 354.

The etymology of "bottomiy" and "respondentia" would seem to suggest a somewhat different definition, — ■ bottomry being a loan on the security of the vessel's hull or bottom; and respondentia being a loan made on the personal security of the borrower; on the lender's confidence that the borrower will answer or respond to the obligation of repayment at maturity. Practically, the result is the same. The loan upon the cargo rests chiefly upon the personal responsibility of the borrower; for, by the very nature of the mercantile adventure involved, the cargo is to be sold or exchanged, and the lender must trust the borrower to repay him from the proceeds. Increased interest is allowed in these loans, because the lender takes the marine risk. See Kent, supra. There seems some tendency in modern books to use " bottomry " for either contract for a loan of money, subject to marine risk, and at maritime interest, whether upon hull or cargo, and to discontinue the use of the term respondentia. The general nature of a respondentia bond is this: the borrower binds himself in a large penal sum, upon condition that the obligation shall be void, if he pay the lender the sum borrowed, and so much a month from the date of the bond till the ship arrives at a certain port, or if the ship be lost or captured in the course of the voyage. (2 Park Ins. 615. ) But such a contract is now usually called a bottomry bond, although (as bottom, was included in the security. (Maude If P. Merch. Ship. 433; Kay Law of Ship.) Broum. The word respondentia properly applies to the loan of money upon merchandise laden on board a ship, the repayment whereof is made to depend upon the safe arrival of the merchandise at the destined port. Maitland V. The Atlantic, Newb. 514, 516.