Voluntary

1.

Free; without compulsion or solicitation; in accordance with a person's choice, consent, or agreement.

2.

Without consideration, and particularly without valuable consideration; gratuitous.

Voluntary answer

In the practice of the court of chancery, was an answer put in by a defendant, when the plaintiff had filed no interrogatories which required to be answered.

Hunt Eq

Voluntary assignment. Presumably means an assignment of a debtor's property in trust to pay his debts generally, in distinction from a transfer of property to a particular creditor in payment of his demand, or to a conveyance by way of collateral security or mortgage.

Dias v. Bouchaud, 10 Paige Ch. 445.

Voluntary confession

A confession of crime made by an accused person, without any promise of worldly advantage held out to him as obtainable by confession, may be received in evidence against the person making it; while a confession made under such circumstances as indicate any inducement or compulsion is rejected.

Voluntary conveyance

A deed without any valuable consideration.

Seward v. Jackson, 8 Cow. 406.

Voluntary courtesy

A voluntary act of kindness. An act of kindness performed by one man towards another, of the free will and inclination of the doer, without any previous request or promise of reward made or offered by him who is the object of the courtesy. From such a voluntary act of kindness the law implies no promise on the part of him who is benefited by such act that he will make any remuneration or return for the same; for, if it were otherwise, one man might impose a legal obligation upon another against his will. If, however, the courtesy or act of kindness was performed at the instance or request of the party benefited, then the law implies a promise on the part of the latter to make a remuneration or return for such act. Hence the meaning of the phrases, that a "voluntary courtesy will not support an assumpsit," but that "a courtesy moved by a previous request will." Voluntary deposit. A deposit arising from the consent and agreement of parties, as distinguished from a necessary deposit made upon some sudden emergency.

Voluntary escape

An escape attributed to actual consent of the keeper or sheriff is called voluntary, in distinction from one ascribed to neglect to take sufficient precautions for keeping the prisoner in custody, which is called a negligent escape. See Escape. Voluntary jurisdiction. Those courts (ecclesiastical ones in particular) are said to have a voluntary jurisdiction which are merely concerned in doing or settling what no one opposes, and which keep an open office for that purpose (as granting dispensations, licenses, faculties, and other remnants of the papal jurisdiction), but do not concern themselves with administering redress for any injury. Brown. Voluntary manslaughter. Killing upon a sudden heat of the passions.

See 4 Bl. Com. 190, 191.

Voluntary oaths

Such as persons take in extra-judicial matters, and not regularly in a court of justice, or before an officer invested with authority to take the same. Voluntary redemption. In Scotch law, is when a mortgagee receives the sum due into his own hands, and discharges the mortgage, without any consignation. Bell. Voluntary waste. Injury to real property done by affirmative acts, such as pulling down buildings, as distinguished from mere neglect by which premises are allowed to fall into bad repair, called permissive waste.