Secure

2 1.

To make safe or certain: to protect, insure, save, ascertain.' Congress may secure to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.* The term does not here iint)ly the protection of an acknowledged legal right. Acts passe-d in the exercise of the power create rights, rather than sanction previously existing rights. To " secure " a debt may mean to save it.

2.

To assure, guarantee, indemnify; to render certain that money will be paid or an obligation performed. As, for a non-resident plaintiff to be required to secure payment of the costs (g. 1;.) of the suit he has instituted; for a debtor to secure his creditor by giving him a lien upon realty: the creditor being then said to be "secured." A contract by which a vendor agrees to execute a conveyance as soon as the vendee " secures the payment" of the purchase-money, means, not when he pays it in mone.7, but when he gives something by means of which payment may, at any future time, be procured or compelled.* 3. To procure; to perfect. To "secure" a mechanic's lien means to do such acts as will perfect an incipient lien, that is, make it available.' Security. (1) An instrument which guarantees the certainty of some specific thing, as, payment or performance. (2) A surety. Written after the name of one who signs a promissory note, means " surety." * See Surety. > State V. Hallock, 16 Nev. 385 (1882), Leonard, C. J. ' L. se-cwrus, free from anxiety. s Wheaton v. Peters, 8 Pet. *660 (1834), M'Lean, J. ' Constitution, Art. I, sec.

8. Oliver v. Sterling, 20 Ohio St. 401 (1870). 8 Foot V. Webb, 59 Barb. 53 (1866). (3) Individual safety. See Personal Security (3). Securities.

Written assurances for the return or payment of money; evidences of indebtedness. In popular acceptation, includes bills of exchange, promissory notes, and bonds for the payment of money.' Collateral security. A security side by side with, or in addition to, other security as the primary or principal obligation, or additional to the debtor's own engagement. Thus, when one man covenants with another, and enters into a bond to perform the covenant, the bond is the collateral security. A bond accompanying a mortgage is another example. Such security is frequently termed the " collateral," and the plural " collaterals " is in general use. A sepai-ate obligation, attached to another contract to guarantee its performance; also, a transfer of property, or of another contract, to insure the performance of the principal engagement * The transfer establishes a privity of contract "which invests the creditor with ownership of the securities for the purposes of dominion over the debt assigned.* The creditor must use due diligence to collect a promissory note left with him as collateral security, or suffer the loss of the amount of it.*" He should give notice of his intention to sell the security, after default of payment, and also of the time and place of sale, in the absence -of a contract to, sell ex mero motu.' But he is not bound to apply the collateral before enforcing his direct remedy against the debtor.'

— The collateral may be redelivered for collection by the debtor as trustee for the pledgee.* It may be regarded £is settled in commercial jurisprudence — there being no statutory regulation to the contrary — that where negotiable paper is received in payment of an antecedent debt;

— or where it is transferred by indorsement as collateral security for a debt created, or a purchase made, at the time of the transfer;

— or the transfer is to secure a debt, not due, under an agreement expressed or to be clearly implied from the circiunstances that the collection of the principal ' Jennings u Davis, 31 Conn. 139-40 (1862). ' Chambersburg Ins, Co. v. Smith, 11 Pa. 187 (1849), Coulter, J.; Shoemaker v. Nat. Mechanics' Bank, 2 Abb. U. S. 423 (1869). s [Lochrane v. Solomerf, 33 Ga. 292 (186S). * Hanna v. Holton, 78 Pa. 334 (1875). * Semple Manuf. Co. v. Detwiler, 30 Kan. 398-99 (1883), cases. "Davis V. Funk,.39 Pa. 250 (1861); Loomis o. Stave, 7i m. 623 (1874); 2 Kent, 581-S3; Story, Bailm. § 310. ' Lewis V. United States, 92 U. S. 623 (1 75), eases. debt is to be postponed or delayed until the collateral matured;

— or where time is agreed to be given and is actually given upon a debt overdue, in consideration of the transfer of negotiable paper as collateral security therefor;

— or where the transferred note takes the place of other paper previously pledged as collateral tor a debt, either at the time such debt was contracted or before it became due,— in each case the holder who takes thp transferred paper before its maturity, and without notice, actual or otherwise, of any defense thereto, is held to have received it in.the due course of business, and becomes a holder for value, entitled to enforce payment, without regard to any equity or defense which exists between parties to the paper. But there is a conflict of authority where the note is transferred before maturity as collateral security merely, without other circumstances, for a debt previously created. Abundant authority sustains the position that if such paper be so indorsed that the holder becomes a party to the instrument, although the transfer is without express agreement by the creditor for indulgence, that transfer is not an improper use of the paper, and is as much in the usual course of commercial business as is its transfer in payment of such debt. In either case the bona fide holder is unaffp'ted by equities or defenses between the prior parties of which he had no notice.' The doctrine as to an antecedent debt does npt apply to an instrument conveying property as security in consideration only of pre-existing indebtedness.' The decided weight of authority is that antecedent indebtedness constitutes ample consideration for a new contract.* Counter-security. Security given to a person who has become surety for another. The condition is that if he who first became surety shall suffer expense or loss, the person accommoda.ted will indemnify him. Marshal securities. See Marshal, 2. Personal security, (i) Evidence of indebtedness which binds the personalty of the debtor; choses in action or other personal estate pledged to the performance of a contract. Opposed, real security: an obligation in the nature of a lien on land. (2) Security of the person; right of personal security: consisting in a person's legal and uninterrupted enjoyment of his life, limbs, body, health, and reputation,'' qq. v. See also Liberty, 1; Right, 2. ' Brooklyn City & Newton R. Co. v. Nat. Bank of the Republic of New York, 102 U. S. 26-28 (1880), cases, Harlan, J. Clifford and Bradley, JJ., filed concurring opinions; Miller and Field, JJ., dissented. 2 People's Saving Bank v. Bates, 120 U. S. 564r 7 (1887), cases. 3 Merchants' Bank v. Mc Clelland, 9 Col. 610 (1886), cases.

Public security

The safety or protection of the community.

See Police, 2.

Public securities

Evidences of indebtedness on the part of the people of a State or of the United States. May mean securities issued under legislative sanction in furtherance of works deemed promotive of the interests of the public' Railroad bonds are not " public securities," within the /Ordinary meaning of those terms." See Debt, Public.

See generally Available; Bond; Deposit, 2; Obligation, 4; Tax, 2.