vitiate (vish-ee-ayt), vb. 1. To impair; to cause to have no force or effect ( the new statute vitiates any common-law argument that the plaintiffs might have). 2. To make void or voidable; to invalidate either completely or in part (fraud vitiates a contract). 3. To corrupt morally (Mr. Lawrence complains that his children were […]
Royal Marriages Act. A 1772 statute (12 Geo. 3, ch. 1) forbidding members of the royal family from marrying without the sovereign’s permission, except on certain conditions. “Royal Marriages Act …. An Act occasioned by George III’s fear of the effect on the dignity and honour of the royal family of members thereof contracting unsuitable
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Consideration that is so insignificant as to bear no relationship to the value of what is being exchanged (e.g., $10 for a piece of real estate). • Such consideration can be valid, since courts do not ordinarily examine the adequacy of consideration (although they do often inquire into such issues as fraud and duress). —
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sponsalia per verba de futuro (spon-say-lee-[schwa] p[schwa]r v[schwa]r-b[schwa] dee f[y]oo-t[y]oor-oh). [Latin “espousals by words about the future”] Hist. A promise to marry in the future. “[A] promise to marry in the future (sponsalia per verba de futuro) gave rise only to an executory contract of marriage. The regular way of executing the contract was to
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inducement, n. 1. The act or process of enticing or persuading another person to take a certain course of action. See fraud in the inducement under FRAUD. active inducement. The act of intentionally causing a third party to infringe a valid patent. • Active inducement requires proof of (1) an actual intent to cause the
Scots law. A marriage by consensual contract, without the necessity of a formal ceremony. • Until 1940, Scots law retained the medieval canon-law forms of marriage per verba de praesenti and per verba de futuro subsequente copula. These promises constituted irregular but valid marriages. Scots law still retains the irregular marriage by cohabitation with habit
territorial law. The law that applies to all persons within a given territory regardless of their citizenship or nationality. Cf. PERSONAL LAW. “[T]he expression ‘territorial law’ … is not confined to the positive rules that regulate acts and events occurring within the jurisdiction, but includes also rules for the choice of law. English rules for
blue-pencil test. A judicial standard for deciding whether to invalidate the whole contract or only the offending words. • Under this standard, only the offending words are invalidated if it would be possible to delete them simply by running a blue pencil through them, as opposed to changing, adding, or rearranging words. [Cases: Contracts 137.