Surcharge

n. An overcharge; an exaction, inipost or incumbrance beyond what is justand right or beyond one's authority or power. "Surcharge" may mean a second or further mortgage. Wharton. v. To put more cattle upon a common than the herbage wlll sustain or than the party has a right to do.

3 BL Comm. 237.

In equity practice

To show that a particular item, in favor of the party surcharging, ought to have been included, but was not, in an account which is alleged to be settled or complete,

Second surcharge

In English law

The surcharge of a common a second time, by the same defendant against whom the common was before admeasured, and for which the writ of second surcharge was given by the stafute of Westminster, 2.

3 Bl. Comm. 239.

Surcharge and falsify

This phrase, as used in the courts of chancery, denotes the liberty which these courts will occasionally grant to a plaintiff, who disputes an account which the defendant alleges to be settled, to scrutinize particular items therein without opening the entire account. The showing an item for which credit ought to have been given, but was not, is to surcharge the account; the proving an item to have been inserted wrongly is to falsify the account.

Brown. See Philips v. Belden, 2 Edw. Ch. (N. Y.) 23; Rehill v. McTague, 114 Pa. 82, 7 Atl. 224, 60 Am. Rep. 341; Kennedy v. Adickes, 37 S. C. 174, 15 S. E. 922.