Demand

A legal obligation; a request made the doing of a specified thing.

n. Aclaim: the assertion ofa legal right; a legal obligation asserted in the courts. “Demand” isa word of art of an extent greater in its signification than any other word except “claim.” Co. Litt.291; 2 Hill, 220. Demand embraces all sorts of actions, rights, and titles, conditions beforeor after breach, executions, appeals, rents of all kinds, covenants, annuities, contracts, recognizances, statutes, commons, ete. A release of all demands to date burs an action for damages accruing after the date from a nuisance previously erected. 1 Denio, 257. Demand is more comprehensive in import than “debt” or “duty.” 4 Johns. 536; 2 Hill, 220. Demand, or claim, is properly used in reference to a cause of action. 32 How. Pr. 280. An imperative request preferred by one person to another, under a claim of right, re quiring the latter to do or yield something or to abstain from some act.

practice, is a request by one individual to another to doa particular thing. Demands are either express or implied. In many cases an express demand must be made before the commencement of an action, some of which will be considered below; in other cases an implied demand is all that the law requires, and the bringing of an action 1s a sufficient demand in those cases. 1 Saund. 33, note 2. A demand is frequently necessary to secure to a man all his rights, both in actions arising on contracts and those which are founded on some tort. 1. Whether a demand is requisite before the plaintiff can commence an action arising on contract, depends upon the express or implied stipulations of the parties. In case of the sale of property, for example, to be paid for on delivery, a demand of it must be made before the commencement of an action for non-delivery, and proved on the trial, unless it can be shown that the seller has incapacitated himself by a resale and delivery of the property to another person. 1 East, R. 204; 5 T. R. 409; 10 East, R. 359; 5B. & Ald. 712. On the same principles, a request on a general promise to marry is requisite, unless it be dispensed with by the party’s marrying another person, which puts it out of his power to fulfil his contract, or that he refuses to marry at any time. 2 Dow. & Ry. 55; 1 Chit. Pr. 57, note (n), and 438, note (e). A demand of rent must always be made before a re-entry for the non-payment of rent. Vide Re-entry. There originally necessary, but has become so by the act of the obligor. Ona promissory note no express demand of payment is requisite before bring- Ing an action, but if the debtor has tendered the amount due to the creditor on the note, it becomes necessary before bringing an action, that ‘a demand should be made of the debtor for payment, and this should be of the very sum tendered. 1 Campb. 181; Ib. 474; 1 Stark. R. 323; 2 E.C. L. R. 409. 2. It is requisite in some cases arising ex delicto, to make a demand of restoration of some right, before the commencement of an action. The following are examples.—1. When the wife, apprentice, or servant of one person, has been harboured by another, the proper course is to make a demand of restoration before an action brought, in order to constitute the party a wilful wrongdoer, unless the plaintiff can prove an original illegal enticing away. 2 Lev. 63; Willes, 582; 1 Peake’s