Defeasance

Defeazance. [L. Lat. defeisantia; from Fr. defaire, to undo or defeat.] In conveyancing. A collateral deed made at the same time with a feoffment or other conveyance, contauiing cer* tain conditions, upon the performance oi which the estate then created may be defeated or totally undone.

2 Bl. Com. 327. Co. Litt. 236, 237.

In this manner mortgages were, in former times, usually made; the mortgagor enfeoffing the mortgagee, and he at the same time executing a oeed of defeasance, whereby the feoffment was rendered void, on repayment of the money borrowed at a certain day.

2 Bl. CW. 327.

Defeasances are now of rare occurrence, the practice in modem times bein^ to mclude in the same deed, [the mortgage] both the conveyance of the land to the alienee, and the conditions, if any, to wl^ch it is to be subject, and by which its effect may be defeated.

1 Steph. Com. 487.

See 4 Kent's Com. 141, 142, and notes. An instrument accompanying a bond, recognizance or judgment, containing a condition which, when performed, drfeats or undoes it.

2 Bl. Com. 342. Co. Litt. 236, 237.

A defeasance may also be endorsed on a bond, but the modem practice is to make the condition a part of the bond itself.

See Bond.