election
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 278 U.S. 130 - Pacific Co v. Peterson · 1928Most cited · 573 citing opinions
Jones Act · construing 46 U.S.C. § 30104
the alternative measures of relief accorded him, between which he is given an election, are merely the right under the new rule to recover compensatory damages for injuries caused by negligence and the right under the old rules to recover indemnity for injuries occasioned by unseaworthiness; and that no election is required between the right to recover compensatory damages for a tortious injury under the new rule and the contractual right to maintenance, cure and wages under the old rules-the latter being a cumulative right in no sense inconsistent with, or an alternative of, the right to recover compensatory damages.
How the Supreme Court has restated “election”
Each Supreme Court definition of “election,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “election”
Court decisions citing the 9 opinions that defined “election” — 1,791 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 9 definitions, chronological · 1813–2026
- ORIGINAL
It is a maxim in a Court of equity not to permit the same person to hold under and against a will. If therefore it be manifest, from the face of the will, that the testator did not intend the provision it contains for his widow to be in addition to her dower, but to be in lieu of it; if his intention discovered in other parts of the will must be defeated by the allotment of dower to the widow, she must renounce either her dower, or the benefit she claims under the will. But if the two provisions may stand well together, if it may fairly be presumed that the testator intended the devise or bequest to his wife as additional to her dower, then she may hold both.
dower vs. testamentary provision
where the whole beneficial interest in the money in the one case, or in the land in the other, belongs to the person for whose use it is given, a court of equity will not compel the trustee to execute the trust against the wishes of the cestuy que trust, but will permit him to take the money or the land, if he elect to do so before the conversion has actually been made: and this election he may make, as well by acts or declarations, clearly indicating a determination to that effect, as by application to a court of equity. It is this election, and not the mere right to make it, which changes the character of the estate so as to make it real or personal, at the will of the party entitled to the beneficial interest.
in equitable conversion
They deny the right of the appellee to claim the benefit of the provision of the settlement requiring her approbation to the investment, and also that of the will to make up the deficiency, and thereby throwing the loss of such investment upon the residue of the estate; averring the two provisions to be inconsistent, and requiring the appellee to elect between them.
between marriage settlement and will
Election is simply what its name imports; a choice, shown by an overt act, between two inconsistent rights, either of which may be asserted at the will of the chooser alone. ... In all such cases the characteristic fact is that one party has a choice independent of the assent of anyone else. But if a man owns property he has no election to transfer it to another. He cannot make the transfer unless the other assents.
between inconsistent rights
an act of election directed toward a third person may operate in rem and establish title as to all parties concerned. But the demand of the trustee on the bankrupt, even when enforced by a resort to the courts and by judgment, had no element of election about it. The legal title to the money had been in the bankrupt, and was transferred by the statute to the trustee.
no election where right is exclusive
By reporting income from the sales in question according to the deferred payment method, petitioner made an election that is binding upon it and the commissioner.
income tax method
An election, when held, is only a preliminary determination of fact.
NLRB certification
- 2026·Watson v. Republican National Committee (U.S. 2026, slip opinion)
choice," it also selectively quotes from two legal dictionaries to suggest that "elec- tion" was understood to encompass ballot receipt.