Recognizance

2 An obligation of record, entered into before a court of i-ecord or a magistrate duly authorized, with condition to do some pa,rti Qular act; as, to appear at court, to keep the peace, to pay a debt.' Is commonly applied to all forms of security for the appearance of the accused in criminal proceedings, whether in the form of a common-law recognizance or of a common bond; and so of appeals from probate courts. "Bond" is not unfrequently used as a general term, including " recognizance,'' which is but one kind of a bond. The difference in some States is now largely one of form; and the terms are often interchanged.* In most respects a recognizance is like any other bond; the difference being chiefly that a "bond "is the creation of a fresh debt or obligation de novo; a recognizance is an acknowledgment of a former debt upon record. The cognizor (or conusor), the person who enters into it, acknowledges to owe the oognizee, the party to whom it is given (perhaps the commonwealth or government), a specified sum of money, with the condition to be void on performance of the thing stipulated. This, being either certified or taken by the officer of a court, is witnessed only by the record of that court, and not by the party's seal; so that it is not in strict propriety a deed, though the effects of it are greater than a common obligation, being allowed a. priority in point of payment, and binding the lands of the cognizor, from the time of enrollment on record.^ The provision that the cognizor shall not depart without leave of court has often been held to be distinct from those which bind him to answer the speci- I Carver v. Astor, 4 Pet.-*83 (1830), Story, J.; Sabariego V. Maverick, 124 0. S. 283 (1888), cases, Matthews, J. As to variance in recitals, see 24 Cent. Law J. 66 (1887)

— Irish Law Times. " Ee-k Sg'-nl-zans, or -k Sn'. In legal usage the verb is re-kog'-nize. fled charge, or all' matters which may be alleged against him, or to abide the final order of the court. > Recognize. To bind by a recognizance: as, to recognize a witness for his appearance.^ Recognizee. He in whose favor a recognizance is executed; a cognizee. Recognizor; recognitor. He who executes a recognizance; a cognizor. Recognizances are also required by courts as security for the due administration of trust property. A person accused of crime may be "discharged upon his own recognizance " when the evidence against him is slight and the time for trial distant, A recognizance is a matter of record, in the nature of a judgment. The process upon it, whether a scire facias or a summons, is intended to carry it into execution, and is judicial; it is an original suit in the sense that the defendant may plead to it. When final judgment is given, the whole of the proceedings constitutes one record. 3 A recognizance is a debt of record, in the nature of a conditional judgment, which a recorded default makes absolute. It is subject onl3' to such matters of legal avoidance as may be shown by the^ plea, or to such'matters of relief as may induce the court to remit or mitigate the forfeiture. The object of a scire facias is to notify the cognizor to appear and show cause why execution should not issue for the sum acknowledged.* See Bail, 2; Onus, Bxoneretm-. RECOMMENDATION". See Letter, 3, page 613.