Election
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
The act of choosing or se lecting one or more from a greater number of persons, things, courses, or rights. The choice of an alternative. The internal, free, and spontaneous separation of one thing from another, without compulsion, consisting in intention and will.
Dyer, 281.
The selection of one man from among several candidates to discharge certain duties in a state, corporation, or society. The choice which is open to a debtor who is bound in an alternative obligation lo select either one of the alternatives. In equity. The obligation imposed upon a party to choose between two inconsistent or alternative rights or claims, in cases where there is clear intention of the person from whom he derives one that he should not enjoy both.
2 Story, Eq. Jur. § 1075.
The doctrine of election presupposes a plurality of gifts or rights, with an intention, express or implied, of the party who has a right to control one or both, that one should be a substitute for the other.
1 Swanst.
394, note b; 3 Wood. Lect. 491; 2 Rop. Leg. 480-578. afforded by law for the redress of an injury, or one ont of several available forms of action. In criminal law. The choice, by the prosecution, upon which of several counts in an indictment (charging distinct offenses of the same degree, but not parts of a continuous series of acts) it will proceed.