Ransom

1.

In old English law, money paid for the pardon of some great offense, or to redeem the person from imprisonment; the redemption of a corporal punishment.^ 2. Redemption; repurchase. A friendly belligerent may ransom the property of a neutral after capture. A bill of exchange given as collateral security for the payment of the ransom of a vessel was held to be a contract on which an action could be sustained in a court of common law. Duress, arising from a threat to destroy vessel and cargo, will not avoid the contract, where the capture was justified by probable cause. A ransom is in the nature of a repurchase of the actual right of the captor as a prize-court would adjudicate it.*