Fungible Things

Defined in 4 dictionaries — Bouvier (1914), Black's (1910), Kinney (1893), Burrill (1850)

Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia

John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914

When the subject of the obligation is a thing of a given class,' the thing is said to be fungible; i. e., the delivery of any object which answers io the generic description will satisfy the obligation. Campbell’s, Austin, 61. FUR (Lat.). A thief. One who stole without using force, as distinguished from a robber. See Fubtum.

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

Movable goods which may be estimated and replaced according to weight, measure, and number. Things belonging to a class, which do not have to be dealt with in specie. Those things one specimen of which is as good as another, as is the case with half-crowns, or pounds of rice of the same quality. Horses, slaves, and so forth, are non-fungible things, because they differ individually in value, and cannot be exchanged indifferently one for another. Holl. Jur. 88. Where a thing which is the subject of an obligation (which one man is bound to deliver to another) must be delivered in specie, the thing is not fungible ; that very individual thing, and not another thing of the same or another class, in lieu of it, must be delivered. Where the subject of the obligation is a thing of a given class, the thing is said to be fungible; i.e., the delivery of any object which answers to the generic description will satisfy the terms of the obligation. Aust Jur. 483, 484.

A Law Dictionary and Glossary

George C. Kinney · 1893

In the civil law. Things which may be furnished or restored in kind, as distinguished from specific things.

A New Law Dictionary and Glossary

Alexander M. Burrill · 1850

[Lat. res fungibiles.] In the civil law. Things which may be furnished or restored in kind {qitct functionem recipiunt in genere;) as diblinguished from specific things. A barbarous term, supposed to have originated in the use of the words functionem recipere^ in the DigesU. Dig. 12. 1. 2. 1 Mackeldey's Civil Law, 153, § 148. Sometimes confined to moveable things which may be weighed, counted or measured, (^u^^jsondere, numero, vel mensura constant.) Id. ibid.

In this sense, the word fungible is still used in Scotch law. 1 Bell's Com. 255, (5th ed.) Story on Bailm. § 284. Dr. liallifax describes res fungibiles as consumable goods, or things tliat perish in the using. Mo Uifax Anal. b. % c. 8> 15.