Definitions from Case Law

any crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.

where any reservation or limitation shall be made of a use, or property, by way of condition, reversion, remainder, or otherwise, in goods and chattels, the possession whereof shal

a letter written within a reasonable time before or after the date of a bill of exchange, describing it in terms not to be mistaken, and promising to accept it, is, if shown to the

schools with student enrollments 90 per cent or more one race.

the duty of a receiver, virtute officii, is to bring to the discharge of his trust that prudence, caution, and attention which careful men usually bring to the conduct of their own

A custodian, by assuming the duties of his office, undertakes the obligation to produce the books of which he is custodian in response to a rightful exercise of the State's visitor

Although mere suspicion, not resting upon strong circumstances unexplained, should not be permitted to outweigh positive testimony in giving effect to a penal statute; yet it canno

the question is not whether the third-party concern is antagonistic to or compatible with the interests of bargaining-unit employees, but whether it vitally affects the 'terms and

Preaching and teaching the principles of one's sect, if performed part-time or half-time, occasionally or irregularly, are insufficient to bring a registrant under § 6(g). These ac

voidable at the vendor's election, and the condition may be insisted upon or waived, at his choice.

This language establishes that the guilty party is precluded from enforcing the contract against an unwilling innocent party, but it does not compel the conclusion that the contrac

Their purchase was declared void only as against the creditors of the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad Company. In other words, it was only voidable, not absolutely void. By satisf

the deed of an infant, being an executed contract, is only voidable at his election; that it is not void. It operates to transmit the title.

The District Court did not lose jurisdiction by erroneously construing or applying provisions of the statute under which it administered the bankrupt estate. Its order was voidable

It is not true, that because a policy is procured by misrepresentation of material facts, it is therefore to be treated, in the sense of the law, as utterly void ab initio. It is m

[a creditor's right of] surrender exists as well after suit as before suit. ... [The trustee may avoid preferences without a demand before suit when demand would have been unavaili

Care is to be observed lest the doctrine that a contract is void as against public policy be unreasonably extended. Detriment to the public interest is not to be presumed in the ab

One void claim, however, does not vitiate the entire patent, if made by mistake or inadvertence and without any wilful default or intent to defraud or mislead the public.

A warrant of commitment departing in matter of substance from the judgment back of it is void. Being void and not merely irregular, its nullity may be established upon a writ of ha

If this court entertained a doubt of the validity of the decree rendered by the circuit court of the county of Washington, ordering a conveyance of the title of Hamlin in the lands

Those who allege that it is void for uncertainty, must prove either that there are two estates called 'El Cahon,' near the mission of San Diego, to which the description in the pat

It was not the criminal penalty that was held invalid, but the exaction of obedience to a rule or standard which was so vague and indefinite as really to be no rule or standard at

The essential purpose of the 'void for vagueness' doctrine is to warn individuals of the criminal consequences of their conduct.

the statute is like a tyrant; where he comes, he makes all void: but the common law is like a nursing father, and makes void only that part where the fault is, and preserves the re

A judgment obtained in a suit of which the defendant had no notice was a nullity and the party against whom it was obtained was entitled to relief. For in such a case the person na

A judgment rendered in personam against a defendant without jurisdiction of his person is not only erroneous but void.

where an allottee undertakes to negotiate a lease for a forbidden term he enters a field in which he must be regarded as without capacity or authority to negotiate or act and that

an irregular or a void judicial sale, made at the instance of a mortgagee, passes to the purchaser all the rights the mortgagee, as such, had

where a specification by ambiguity and a needless multiplication of nebulous claims is calculated to deceive and mislead the public, the patent is void.

Whatever may be the rule with regard to decrees concerning status or its incidents, an ordinary personal judgment for money, invalid for want of service amounting to due process of

Void process confers no right on the officer to sell, and all acts done under it are absolute nullities.

a release of rights under the Act is void when the employee is induced to sign it by the deliberately false and material statements of the railroad's authorized representatives mad

It is rarely that things are wholly void and without force and effect as to all persons and for all purposes, and incapable of being made otherwise. Things are voidable which are v

Where a Court has jurisdiction, it has a right to decide every question which occurs in the cause; and whether its decision be correct or otherwise, its judgment, until reversed, i

The well known distinction between an erroneous act or judgment by a tribunal having cognizance of the subject matter, and the act or judgment of a tribunal having no cognizance of

That mandamus was issued upon the voluntary submission of the collector and the district attorney, and in order to extricate themselves from an embarrassment resulting from conflic

So far as due process affects admissions before trial of the defendant, the accepted test is their voluntariness.

that a defendant was not advised of his right to remain silent or of his right respecting counsel at the outset of interrogation, as is now required by Miranda, is a significant fa

If a seizure be completely and explicitly abandoned, and the property restored by the voluntary act of the party who has made the seizure, all rights under it are gone. Although ju

it should appear from the evidence and circumstances attending the transaction that the acceptance was intended as a discharge of the vessel and owner from any further responsibili

Parties may adjust their own disputes, and when they do so voluntarily and understandingly, no appeal lies to the courts to review their mutual decision.

temporary price reductions granted by the oil companies to independent dealers who are injured by local competitive price reductions of competing retailers.

Taken together, these sections mean that a debt due the United States is required first to be satisfied when the possession and control of the estate of the insolvent is given to a

Even if this bond did not strictly conform to the act of congress prescribing the form... a bond voluntarily given to the United States, and not prescribed by any statute, would st

voluntary cessation of allegedly illegal conduct does not deprive the tribunal of power to hear and determine the case, i.e., does not make the case moot. The case may nevertheless

a forced abandonment of their ancestral home was not a 'voluntary cession' within the meaning of § 2 of the Act of July 27, 1866.

In the federal courts, the requisite of voluntariness is not satisfied by establishing merely that the confession was not induced by a promise or a threat. A confession is voluntar

The aim of the rule that a confession is inadmissible unless it was voluntarily made is to exclude false evidence. Tests are invoked to determine whether the inducement to speak wa

A deed from a parent to a child, for the consideration of love and affection, is not absolutely void as against creditors. It may be so under certain circumstances; but the mere fa

where a writing has been voluntarily destroyed, with an intent to produce a wrong or injury to the opposite party, or for fraudulent purposes, or to create an excuse for its non-pr

The case is therefore not one where the master set sail with the knowledge that the deviation from the voyage, as described in the bill of lading, would ensue, and with the purpose

a plea of guilty entered by one fully aware of the direct consequences, including the actual value of any commitments made to him by the court, prosecutor, or his own counsel, must

The proclamation of the Governor is but a recommendation. It has not the force of law, nor was it so intended. The duties of fasting and prayer are voluntary, and not of compulsion

causing the death of another human being under circumstances which would otherwise be murder if the killer acts solely as the result of a sudden, violent, and irresistible passion

duties paid without protest constitute a voluntary payment, doubtless made and received in mutual mistake of the law; but in such a case no action will lie to recover back the mone

where a man demands money of another, as matter of right, and that other, with a full knowledge of the facts upon which the demand is founded, has paid a sum of money voluntarily,

what traditionally has been known in the field of business and finance as voluntary reorganizations, that is to say, reorganizations designed by the management, not those imposed o

A voluntary conveyance by a person not indebted, is clearly good against future creditors. That constitutes the distinction between the two statutes. Fraud vitiates the transaction

one going at his own risk to the assistance of the ship on the chance of reward in case of success, and not as one employed rendering service for pay according to his effort or the

casting a ballot" in any election—whether general, primary, or special and whether federal, state, or local.

A State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualificati

resident population, 18 years of age or older.

the recorded 'yes' or 'no' vote on a bill, ordinance, resolution, motion, amendment, or confirmation.

A warrant holder 'does not become a stockholder, by his contract, in equity any more than at law.' His rights are wholly contractual. He does not have, and may never acquire, any l

mixing a small amount of sulphur with rubber and subjecting the mixture to heat for a period of time, during which a chemical combination of the rubber and sulphur takes place and

any woman who was discharged and so served in any corps or unit of the United States established for the purpose of enabling women to serve with, or as auxiliary to, the armed forc

The priority is attached to the debt, and not to the person of the creditor; to the claim, and not to the claimant. The act does not enumerate classes of creditors and confer upon

(A) any wager with respect to a sports event or a contest placed with a person engaged in the business of accepting such wagers, (B) any wager placed in a wagering pool with respec

To procure a policy for $3000 to cover a debt of $70 is of itself a mere wager. The disproportion between the real interest of the creditor and the amount to be received by him dep

the constitution of that State has expressly declared, that the trial by jury shall remain inviolate; and the constitution of the United States has also declared, that in suits at

the money rate at which the service rendered is recompensed under the contract of hiring in force at the time of the injury, including the reasonable value of board, rent, housing,

the manifest purpose of the priority was 'to enable employees displaced by bankruptcy to secure, with some promptness, the money directly due to them in back wages, and thus to all

No principle of law found either in the statute or in Court decisions precludes waiting time from also being working time.

to "abandon, renounce, or surrender"—so here, to eliminate a regulatory requirement or condition.

an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege.

every existing claim which the party has omitted to make at the hearing upon the merits, and before the final decree, is to be considered as waived by him, and is not to be enterta

Several federal constitutional rights are involved in a waiver that takes place when a plea of guilty is entered in a state criminal trial. First, is the privilege against compulso

His 'voluntary offer of testimony upon any fact is a waiver as to all other relevant facts, because of the necessary connection between all.

Waiver of constitutional rights, however, is not lightly to be inferred. A witness cannot properly be held after claim to have waived his privilege and consequent immunity upon vag

Waivers of constitutional rights not only must be voluntary but must be knowing, intelligent acts done with sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequenc

To be valid such waiver must be made with an apprehension of the nature of the charges, the statutory offenses included within them, the range of allowable punishments thereunder,

A waiver of a demurrer often takes place, and is, by law, permissible... Quilibet renuntiare potest jure pro se introducto. The want of a decision would, in this aspect of the subj

To preserve the protection of the Bill of Rights for hard-pressed defendants, we indulge every reasonable presumption against the waiver of fundamental rights

such waivers by Congress of governmental immunity in case of such federal instrumentalities should be liberally construed. Hence, when Congress establishes such an agency, authoriz

Now, it is well settled that the lien implied by the general admiralty law, may be waived by the express contract of the parties, or by necessary implication; and the implication a

as a condition to a valid waiver order, petitioner was entitled to a hearing, including access by his counsel to the social records and probation or similar reports which presumabl

The lien created by the maritime law may be, and is, waived by the creditor, by any act or contract which is inconsistent with an intention to receive or retain that lien. The impl

an unconditional promise by the drawer or endorser of a bill, to pay it, after full knowledge of all the circumstances necessary to apprize him of his discharge from his responsibi

the plaintiff was entitled to treat the contract as on foot, notwithstanding the defendant's act, and go on with it cy-pres. Under the circumstances it could not comply literally w

The privilege may not be relied on and must be deemed waived, if not in some manner fairly brought to the attention of the tribunal which must pass upon it.

a defendant who voluntarily takes the stand in his own behalf, thereby waiving his privilege, may be subjected to a cross-examination concerning his statement. 'Assuming the positi

Disclosure of a fact waives the privilege as to details... if the witness himself elects to waive his privilege... and discloses his criminal connections, he is not permitted to st

where the offense is not capital and the accused is not in custody, the prevailing rule has been, that if, after the trial has begun in his presence, he voluntarily absents himself

A defendant who pleads guilty is entitled to the benefit of counsel, and a request for counsel is not necessary. It is enough that a defendant charged with an offense of this chara

a prisoner who takes the stand in his own behalf waives his constitutional privilege of silence, and ... the prosecution has the right to cross-examine him upon his evidence in chi

the section must be interpreted in the light of its function in giving consent of the Government to be sued, which consent, since it is a relinquishment of a sovereign immunity, mu

suit may not be maintained against the United States in any case not clearly within the terms of the statute by which it consents to be sued

When a state authorizes a suit against itself to do justice to taxpayers who deem themselves injured by any exaction, it is not consonant with our dual system for the Federal court

a statutory right conferred on a private party, but affecting the public interest, may not be waived or released if such waiver or release contravenes the statutory policy. Where a

The immunity from giving testimony is one which the defendant may waive by offering himself as a witness. When he takes the stand in his own behalf, he does so as any other witness