An adoption by an unmarried cohabiting partner of a child’s legal parent, not involving the termination of a legal parent’s rights; esp., an adoption in which a lesbian, gay man, or unmarried heterosexual person adopts his or her partner’s biological or adoptive child. See Restatement (Third) of Property: Wills and Other Donative Transfers § 2.5 […]
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major disaster. A hurricane, tornado, storm, flood, earthquake, drought, fire, or other catastrophe that, when it occurs within the United States, the President determines to be a sufficiently severe threat to warrant disaster assistance by the federal government. • When the President declares a major disaster, the federal government supplements the efforts and available resources
The failure to obey a court order that was issued for another party’s benefit. • A civil-contempt proceeding is coercive or remedial in nature. The usual sanction is to confine the contemnor until he or she complies with the court order. The act (or failure to act) complained of must be within the defendant’s power
A settlement that becomes a court judgment when the judge sanctions it. • In effect, an agreed judgment is merely a contract acknowledged in open court and ordered to be recorded, but it binds the parties as fully as other judgments. — Also termed consent judgment; stipulated judgment; judgment by consent. [Cases: Federal Civil Procedure
writ of error. 1. A writ issued by an appellate court directing a lower court to deliver the record in the case for review. Cf. ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR. [Cases: Appeal and Error 5, 398. C.J.S. Appeal and Error §§ 9–12, 18, 356, 724.] “The writ of error is the most common of all the forms
stock certificate. An instrument evidencing ownership of shares of stock. — Also termed certificate of stock; share certificate. [Cases: Corporations 94. C.J.S. Corporations § 172.] face-amount certificate. 1. A certificate, investment contract, or other security representing an obligation by its issuer to pay a stated or determinable sum, at a fixed or determinable date or
elements of crime. The constituent parts of a crime — usu. consisting of the actus reus, mens rea, and causation — that the prosecution must prove to sustain a conviction. • The term is more broadly defined by the Model Penal Code in § 1.13(9) to refer to each component of the actus reus, causation,
cross-examination, n. The questioning of a witness at a trial or hearing by the party opposed to the party who called the witness to testify. • The purpose of cross-examination is to discredit a witness before the fact-finder in any of several ways, as by bringing out contradictions and improbabilities in earlier testimony, by suggesting
patentability search. An inventor’s research into a field’s state of the art to determine whether an invention will qualify for patent protection. Cf. INFRINGEMENT SEARCH; VALIDITY SEARCH.
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sixty-day notice. Labor law. Under the Taft–Hartley Act, the 60-day advance notice required for either party to a collective-bargaining agreement to reopen or terminate the contract. • During this period, strikes and lockouts are prohibited. 29 USCA § 158(d)(1).