prevail

gain victory by virtue of strength or superiority: win mastery: triumph.

Defined by the Supreme Court in Buckhannon Board and Care Home Incs v. West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, 532 U.S. 598 (2001).

He is the prevailing party, within the meaning of a statute entitling such party to costs, who prevails on the main issue, to a greater extent than admitted by his adversary, though not to the full extent of his claim. 3 To be a prevailing party does not depend upon the degree of success at different stages of the suit; but whether at the end of the suit or proceeding the party who has made a claim against the other has successfully maintained it.* See Costs. PREVENTIOIf. See Crime; Defense, 1; Homicide; Injunction; Police, 2; Prohibition; Quia Timet; Suffer.

To be a preralling party, within the meaning of a statute entitling such party to costs on appeal, does not depend on the amount recovered. A railroad corporation, appealing from commissioner's assessment of location damages, is the losing party, if any damages at all are returned by the jury. Bangor, &c. R. R. Co. v. Chamberlain, 60 Me. 285. "Prevailing party," in statutes awardan order requiring a credit to be entered by the defendant mortgagee, which had not been previously allowed. Hawkins v. Nowland, 63 Mo. 328. A city obtaining a verdict of condemnation, that the value of the ground was just equal to the benefits to the owner, is the " prevailing party " entitled to costs. The constitutional right to just compensation for private property taken for public use is like all other constitutional rights which may sometimes require expenditure to secure their enforcement. Rogers v. City of St. Charles, 54 Mo. 229. The term includes a creditor recovering any sum on appeal from an allowance of his claim by commissioners of insolvency, though less than the original amount. Henry V. Miller, 61 Me. 105. It applies to a complainant who has prevailed on the main issue, though not to the full extent of his claim, yet to a greater extent than admitted by the defendant; as, for instance, upon the proportions of water of a mill privilege to which the parties were respectively entitled. Weston v. Cushing, 45 Vt. 531.