Pledge

or PAWN. A bailment of personal property as security for some debt or engagement.

41 N. Y. 241.

A deposit of personal property as security, with an implied power of sale in case of default.

Jones, Pl. § 1.

A pledge or pawn (Lat. pignus), according to Story, is a bailment of personal property as security for some debt or engagement. Story, Bailm. § 286, which see for the less comprehensive definitions of Sir Wm. Jones, Lord Holt, Pothier, etc. Domat broadly defines it as an appropriation of the thing given for the security of an engagement. But the term is commonly used as Sir Wm. Jones defines it, to wit, as a bailment of goods by a debtor to his creditor, to be kept till the debt is discharged.

Jones, Bailm. 117; 2 Ld. Raym. 909; Poth. de Naut. art. prelim. 1; Civ. Code, art. 2071; Domat, bk. 3, tit. 1, § 1, note 1; Civ. Code La. art. 3100; 6 Ired. (N. C.) 309.

The pledgee secures his debt by the bailment, and the pledgor obtains credit or other advantage.

See 1 Pars, Cont. 591 et seq.

Pledge and pawn. At common law, the terms were synonymous, but in modern usage. Pledge and mortgage. A pledge is distinguished from a chattel mortgage in that it depends for its validity on possession of the subject matter. Pledge and hypothecation. Hypothecation (q. v.) is a special form of pledge wherein the possession remains in the debtor. In Louisiana. There are two kinds of pledges, — the pawn and the antichresis. The former relates to movable securities, and the latter to immovables. If a creditor have not a right to enter on the land and reap the fruits, the security is not an antichresis.

3 La. 157.

A pledge of negotiable paper is not valid against third parties without transfer from debtor to creditor.

2 La. 387. See, in general, 13 Pet. (U. S.) 351; 5 Mart. (La.; N. S.) 618; 18 La. 543; 1 La. Ann. 340; 2 La. Ann. 872.