pension

The presumption is that such a law is not intended to create private contractual or vested rights, but merely declares a policy to be pursued until the Legislature shall ordain otherwise. If, upon a construction of the statute, it is found that the payments are gratuities, involving no agreement of the parties, the grant of them creates no vested right.

A stated and certain allowance granted by the government to an individual, or those who represent him, for valuable services performed by him for the country. It is sometimes loosely used in the sense of "annuity." In Spanish Law. Rent; a rent, White, New Recop. bk. 2, c. 2, § 3.

A stated allowance out of the publlc treasury granted by government to an individual or to his representatives, for hls valuable services to the country or in compensation for loss or damage sustained by him in the public service. Price v. Society for Savings, 64 Conn. 362, 30 Atl. 139, 42 Am. St. Rep. 198; Manning v. Spry, 121 Iowa, 191, 96 N. W. 873; Frisbie v. U. S„ 157 U. S. 160, 15 Sup. Ct. 586, 39 L. Ed. 657.

In English practice. An annual payment made by each member of the inns of court. Cowell; Holthouse. Also an assembly of the members of the society of Gray's Inn, to consult of their affairs. In the civil, Scotch, and Spanish law. A rent; an .annual rent.

— Pension of churches. In English ecclesiastical law. Certain sums of money paid to clergymen in lieu of tithes. A spiritual person may sue in the spiritual court for a pension originally granted and confirmed by the ordinary, but, where it is granted by a temporal person to a clerk, he cannot; as, if one grant an annuity to a parson, he must sue for it in the temporal courts. Oro. Eliz. 675.

— Pension writ. A peremptory order against a member of an inn of court who is in arrear for his pensions, (that is, for his periodical dues,) or for other duties. Cowell.

An allowance of money out of the public funds, to be paid periodically, to a person who has rendered special services to the state, as in war.

In English law. An annual payment made by each member of the inns of court; an assembly of the members of the society of Gray's Inn to consult of their affairs. Pension writ: a peremptory order against a member in arrears with his dues.

In old English and Scots law. A payment of rent; an annual rent

IO 1. (1) In Gray's Inn, an assembly of the members of the society to '* consult " over their affairs. (2) An annual payment due from each member. A " pension writ " was a sort of peremptory order against a member who was in arrears with his dues.i^ 2. In lieu of a corody, especially when due 1 Chaffee v. United States, 18 Wall. 538 (1873), Field, Justice. 2 Elliott V. East Penn. R. Co., 93 U. S. 576 (1878). 3 L. pendere, to hang. 4 Wentworth v. Farmington, 48 N. H. 207 (1868); 3 Cliff. 371; 4 Watts, 156. a_Wegman u Childs, 41 N. Y. 163 (1869); Ulshaferu Stewart, 71 Pa. 170, 174 (1872); 142 Mass. 96. * L. pc^nitentia, penitence: pcena^ punishment. " Penitentiary " has meant: a penitent, an ordainer of penances, and a place for penitents. See Locus, Penitentias. ■^ Miliars. State. 2 Kan. 183 (1863). 8 4B1. Com. 371. " 1 W. Bl. Rep. xxi; 1 Shars. Bl. xvi; 4 Bl. Com. 371. ^^F. pension: L. pensionem, pensio^ weighing, defrom ecclesiastical persons, and which is a right of sustenance or to receive certain allotments of victual and provision for one's maintenance, a " pension" or sum of moneyis sometimes substituted.! 3. A periodical allowance of money granted by a government for services rendered, in particular to a soldier or sailor in connection with a war or with military operations.^ Whence pensionary (n. and adj.) and pensioner. See Debt, Public. PEONAGE; The state or condition of a peon,— in Mexico, a debtor held in servitude until he has worked out his debt. See Citizen, Amendment, XIV.

n. A periodical allowance of money, especially one made by government in consideration of past services, either of the recipient or of some one on whom the recipient depended. Pension, v.: to grant a person the right to a stated pecuniary allowance. Pensioner: properly, one who makes a periodical payment; but, by a firmly settled perversion, the recipient of a pension. Some of the books give, as one definition of pension, an allowance made to any one without an equivalent. But this seems traceable to Johnson's Dictionary, and to be tinged with some personal feeling. We do not understand that the word particularly suggests the notion of a gratuity. In pensions from government there is no present, immediate consideration returned; and it may well be that in instances the power to grant pen.sions is perverted, by bestowing them on those to whom no equivalent can be attributed; but the sense of the word is an allowance bestowed for past services. And in other connections there ' is an immediate, reciprocal consideration. Pensions have been granted on an extended scale in the United States and in England to soldiers and sailors, and land, there is an extension of this policy to other classes of beneficiaries. With reference to government pensions, usage has become settled of calling the recipient of a pension a pensioner. Etymologically, this seems a solecism. By analogy, the • recipient of the money should be called the pensionee; the party paying it is properly the pensioner. And the word is so used in the older parlance of English colleges, •where a pensioner is a student, who, not being on any foundation, not holding any scholarship, is expected to pay periodically for his commons and tuition. This opposite meaning of the word should be remembered; but pensioner, in ordinary use, oftenest means recipient. That which in the Inner and the Middle Temple is called a parliament, and in Lincoln's Inn a council, is in Gray's Inn termed a pension; that is, an assembly of the members of the society, to consult of their af Eairs. Certain annual payments of each member of the inns of court are also so termed. There is also a writ called a pension writ, which seems to be a sort of peremptory order against those members of the society who are in arrear with their pensions and other dues. Brown. Pensioner. One who is supported by an allowance at the will of another; a dependent. It is usually app Ued (in a public sense) to those who receive pensions or annuities from government; who are chiefly such as have retired from places of honor and emolument. Jacob. Pensioners are a band of gentlemen, so called, in attepdance upon the king's person {Cornel); also persons receiving payments from the crown, or receiving periodical payments, especially for past services. Also, persons making periodical payments are sometimes so ca Ued; thus, resident undergraduates of the university of Cambridge, who are not on the foundation of any college, are spoken of as pensioners. Mozley &W. Pension Tvrit. A peremptory order against a member of an inn of court who is in arrear for his pensions (that is, for his periodical dues), or for other duties. Covid.