An agent is a person authorized to act on behalf of another person. The party an agent is authorized to act for is known as the principal. A principal-agent relationship can either be intentionally created or created by implication through...
financial events
alienable
Alienable means transferable.
An interest in property is alienable if it may be conveyed by one party to another. In general, all private property is alienable unless some contractual, common law, or statutory restriction...
alienation
Alienation refers to the process of a property owner voluntarily giving or selling the title of their property to another party. When property is considered alienable, that means the property is able to be sold or transferred to another party...
alimony
Alimony refers to the financial assistance and monetary support provided by one spouse to another after a marriage ends in divorce. Oftentimes, the receiving spouse must be unable to support themselves without the help of their ex-spouse....
aliquot
Aliquot is derived from the Latin word meaning divisible from a larger whole without a remainder (i.e. divisible an exact number of times). Today, it usually means a fractional part or a share of the whole. The term aliquot is most commonly...
alternate beneficiary
An alternate beneficiary is someone who will benefit from or gain ownership of property only if the primary beneficiary is unable or unwilling to take ownership. An alternative beneficiary in property law arises when someone bequests property...
alternative contingent remainder
An alternative contingent remainder occurs when the same property is subject to two contingent remainders with opposite conditions precedent such that one of them will always take effect.
A contingent remainder is a type of...
ambiguity
Ambiguity means language in an agreement has more than one meaning. Cases such as this one from New York explain that ambiguity in the context of a contract is defined as “whether a reasonably intelligent person looking at the contract...
ameliorative waste
Ameliorative waste refers to modifications that increase the value of property made by a tenant who failed to obtain the landowner or future interest holder’s permission. Ameliorative waste differs from permissive waste and voluntary waste,...
amend
To amend is to make a change by adding, subtracting, or substituting. For example, one can amend a statute, a contract, the United States Constitution, or a pleading filed in a lawsuit. Generally, procedures dictate the way in which one...