Pignorative Contract

In civil law. A contract by which the owner of an estate engages it to another for a sum of money, bursed, voluntarily, that sum of money. Poth. Obi. PIGNORIS CAPTIO (Lat.)

In Roman law. The name given to one of the legis aetiones of the Roman law. It consisted chiefly in the taking of a pledge, and was, in fact, a mode of execution. It was confined to special cases determined by positive law or by custom, such as taxes, duties, rents, etc., and is comparable in some respects to distresses at common law. The proceeding took place in the presence of a praetor, PIGNUS (Lat.)

In civil law. Pledge, or pawn; the contract of pledge; the right in the thing pledged. "It is derived" says Gaius, "from pugnum, the fist, because what is delivered in pledge is delivered in hand." Dig. 50. 16. 238. 2. This is one of several instances of the failure of the Roman jurists when they attempted etjrmological explanations of words. The elements of pignus (pig) are contained in the word pan(g)-o and its cognate forms. See Smith. Though pledge is distinguished from mortgage (hypotheca), as being something delivered in hand, while mortgage is good without possession, yet a pledge (pignus) may also be geod without possession. Domat, Civ. Law, bk. iii. tit. 1, § 5; Calv. Lex. Pignus is properly applied to movables, hypotheca to immovables; but the distinction is not always preserved. Id.

In Civil Law. A contract by which the owner of an estate engages it to another for a sum of money and grants to him and his successors the right to enjoy it until he shall be reimbursed, voluntarily, that sum of money. Pothier, Obi.