Maintenance

Sustenance; support; assistance. The furnishing by one person to another, for his support, of the means of living, or food, clothing, shelter, etc., particularly where the legal relation of the parties is such that one is bound to support the other, as between father and child, or husband and wife. In criminal law. An unauthorized and officious interference in a suit in which the offender has no interest, to assist one of the parties to it, against the other, with money or advice to prosecute or defend the action.

1 Russ. Crimes, 254.

Maintenance, in general, signifies an unlawful taking in hand or upholding of quarrels and sides, to the hindrance of common right.

Co. Litt. 368; Hawk. P. C. 298.

The intermeddling of a stranger in a suit, for the purpose of stirring up strife and continuing litigation.

35 Vt. 69.

Maintenance is the assisting another person in a lawsuit, without having any concern in the subject.

8 Johns. 220.

Maintenance is where one officiously intermeddles in a suit which in no way belongs to him. The term does not include all kinds of aid in the prosecution or defense of another's cause. It does not extend to persons having an interest in the thing in controversy, nor to persons of kin or affinity to either party, nor to counsel or attorneys, for their acts are not officious, nor unlawful. The distinction between "champerty" and "maintenance" is that maintenance is the promoting, or undertaking to promote, a suit by one who has no lawful cause to do so, and champerty is an agreement for a division of the thing in controversy, in the event of success, as a reward for the unlawful assistance. 3 Har. (Del.) 208. "Maintenance," at common law, signifies an unlawful taking in hand or upholding of quarrels or sides, to the disturbance or hindrance of common right. The maintaining of one side, in consideration of some bargain to have part of the thing in dispute, is called "champerty." Champerty, therefore, is a species of maintenance.

40 Conn. 570.