Law Dictionary
	Search:

average daily balance- The average amount of money in an account (such as a bank account or credit-card account) during a given period. This amount serves as the basis for computing interest or a finance charge for the period.

average gross sales The amount of total sales divided by the number of sales transactions in a specific period.

average gross sales See SALE.

average tax rate See TAX RATE.

average variable cost The average cost per unit of output, arrived at by dividing the total variable expenses of production by the total units of output. See COST (1). Cf. LONG-RUN INCREMENTAL COST.

average variable cost- The average cost per unit of output, arrived at by dividing the total variable expenses of production by the total units of output. Cf. LONG-RUN INCREMENTAL COST.

averaging down An investment strategy in which shares in the same company are purchased at successively lower prices to achieve a lower average cost basis than the first purchase .o An investor may buy any number of shares in each transaction, not necessarily the same number each time. Cf. AVERAGING UP.

averaging up An investment strategy in a rising market in which equal numbers of shares in the same company are purchased at successively higher prices to reduce the investment's average cost basis .o For example, if an investor buys an equal number of shares at $10, $13, $15, and $lS, the average cost basis per share is $14. Cf. AVERAGING DOWN.

averment (a-var-mant), A positive declaration or affirmation of fact; esp., an assertion or allegation in a pleading <the plaintiff's averment that the defendant ran a red light>. Cf. ASSEVERATE.

averment of notice A statement in a pleading that someone else has been properly notified about some fact, esp. in special actions of assumpsit. See NOTICE.

aviation easement See avigational easement under EASEMENT.

aviation insurance Insurance that protects the insured against a loss connected with the use of an aircraft. This type of insurance can be written to cover a variety of risks, including bodily injury, property damage, and hangarkeepers liability.

aviation insurance See INSURANCE.

avigation easement See avigational easement under EASEMENT.

avigational easement See EASEMENT.

avigational easement- An easement permitting unimpeded aircraft flights over the servient estate. - Also termed avigation easement; aviation easement;flight easement; navigation easement.

avizandum (av-i-zan-dam). [Law Latin] Scots law. Deliberation; advisement. o The judge is said later to "advise" the case - that is, to give an opinion. ''To make avizandum with a process, or part of it, is to take it from the public court to theprivate consideration of the judge." William Bell, Bel/'s Dictionarv and Digest of the Law of Scotland 82 (George Watson ed., 7th ed. 1890).

avoid To render void <because the restrictive covenant was overbroad, the court avoided it> . Because this legal use of avoid can be easily confused with the ordinary sense of the word, the verb to void is preferable.

avoidable 1. Not inevitable; subject to prevention <an avoidable accident>.

avoidable cost See COST (1).

avoidable cost- A cost that can be averted if production is held below a certain level so that additional expenses will not be incurred.

avoidable-consequences doctrine See MITIGATION-OFDAMAGES DOCTRINE.

avoidance 1. The act of evading or escaping <avoidance of tax liability>. See TAX AVOIDANCE. 2. The act of refraining from (something) <avoidance of an argument>. 3. RESCISSION (1) <avoidance of the agreement>. 4. VOIDANCE <avoidance of a penalty>. 5. ANNULMENT (1) <avoidance of the marriage>. 6. CONFESSION AND AVOIDANCE <the defendant filed an avoidance in an attempt to avert liability>. - avoid, vb.

avoiding power See POWER (5).

avoiding power Bankruptcy. The power of a bankruptcy trustee or debtor in possession to void certain transfers made or obligations incurred by a debtor, including fraudulent conveyances, preferences transferred to creditors, unperfected security interests in personal property, and unrecorded mortgages. 11 USCA §§ 544-53.

avoision (a-voy-zhan), n. An ambiguous act that falls between legal avoidance and illegal evasion of the law. The term, coined by Arthur Seldon, an economist, is a blend of evasion and avoidance. Avoision usu. refers to financial acts that are not clearly legal tax avoidance or illegal tax evasion, but it may appear in other contexts. "The book is in three parts, divided into tiny chapterlets. forty-two in all. The first part takes up what Katz calls 'avoision': a fusion of 'avoidance' and 'evasion' that denotes cases in which it is unclear whether a person's conduct should be considered lawful avoidance of the law's prohibitions or illegal evasion. Two actresses are vying for the same part. Mildred knows that Abigail has been unfaithful to her husband. If she threatens to tell the husband unless Abigail forgoes the audition, that would be blackmail, and a crime. Instead she tells Abigail that she is mailing a letter addressed to the husband that reveals Abigail's infidelity and that has been timed to arrive the morning of the audition. Knowing that Abigail will stay home to intercept the letter, Mildred will have achieved the same end as she would have done by committing blackmail, yet her conduct is not criminal." Richard A. Posner, "The Immoralist," New Republic, July 15, 1996, at 38.

avoucher (a-vow-char). 1. Hist. A tenant's calling upon a warrantor of title to the land to help the tenant defend the title. 2. One who declares a probable truth, corroborates, confirms, or confesses.

avoutry See ADULTERY.

avowal (a-vow-al), n. 1. An open declaration. 2. OFFER OF PROOF.. - avow, vb.

avowant (a-vow-ant), A person who makes avowry in an action of replevin.

avowee See ADVOCATUS.

avowry (a-vow-ree), Common-law pleading. An acknowledgment - in an answer to a replevin action that one has taken property, and a justification for that taking <the defendant's avowry was based on alleged damage to the property by the plaintiff>. Cf. COGNIZANCE (4). - avow, vb.

avowter An adulterer. The crime was called avowtry. - Also spelled advouterer; avowterer; avouter; advowter.

avowtry See ADULTERY.

avulsion (a-val-shan), 1. A forcible detachment or separation. 2. A sudden removal of land caused by change in a river's course or by flood . Land removed by avulsion remains the property of the original owner. Cf. ALLUVION; ACCRETION (1); DELICTION; EROSION. 3. A tearing away of a body part surgically or accidentally. - avulse, vb.

avunculus (a-vangk-ya-las), n. [Latin] Roman & civil law. A maternal uncle; one's mother's brother.

avunculus maximus (mak-sa-mas). See ABAVUNCULUS.

avus (av-as or ay-vas), n. [Latin] Roman & civil law. A grandfather.

award A final judgment or decision, esp. one by an arbitrator or by a jury assessing damages. - Also termed arbitrament.

award- To grant by formal process or by judicial decree <the company awarded the contract to the low bidder> <the jury awarded punitive damages>.

award in interference See PRIORITY AWARD.

away-going crops See CROPS.

away-going crops- A tenant's crops that were sown and will not be ready to harvest before the tenancy expires. The tenant retains the ownership of the crop after the tenancy expires.

awol Absent without leave; missing without notice or permission.

axiom (ak-see-am), An established principle that is universally accepted within a given framework of reasoning or thinking <"innocent until proven guilty" is an age-old axiom of criminal law>. - axiomatic (ak-see-a-mat-ik), adj.

ayant cause (ay-ant). Civil law. 1. One to whom a right has been assigned by will, gift, sale, or exchange; an assignee. 2. One who has a "cause" or standing in one's own right.

aye (I),n.Parliamentary law. An affirmative vote.

ayel (ay-aI). See AIEL.

ayle (ayl). See AIEL.

b- abbr. BARON (3).

b and e Breaking and entering. See BURGLARY (2).

B reorganization A reorganization in which one corporation exchanges its voting shares for another corporation s voting shares.

b reorganization See REORGANIZATION (2).

b.f BONUM FACTUM.

b.r 1. Bankruptcy Reporter. Also abbreviated Bankr. Rep. 2. Bancus Regis [Latin "King's Bench"]. 3. Bancus Reginae [Latin "Queen's Bench"]. This abbre-viation has been replaced by the English initials of these courts, K.B. and Q.B.

b.s See bancus superior under BANCUS.

b/l BILL OF LADING.

b2b- BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS <a B2B transac-tion>.

b2c BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER <a B2C transac-tion>.

ba See banker's acceptance under ACCEPTANCE (4)·

baby act, pleading the Slang. The act of asserting a person's infancy as a defense to a contract claim.

baby bond See BOND (3).

baby bond, A bond usu. having a face value of $ 1 ,000 or less.

baby Doe A generic pseudonym for a very young child involved in litigation . Today a gender designa-tion is often added: Baby Girl Doe or Baby Boy Doe. The generic term is used to shield the child's identity.

baby ftc act. A state statute that, like the Federal Trade Commission Act, outlaws deceptive and unfair trade practices.

baby moses law See SAFE-HAVEN LAW.

baby-bartering See BABY-SELLING.

baby-brokering- See BABY-SELLING.

baby-selling The exchange of money or something of value for a child . All states have prohibitions against baby-selling. It is not considered baby-selling for pro-spective adoptive parents to pay money to a birth mother for pregnancy-related expenses. - Also termed baby-brokering; baby-bartering.

baby-snatching See child-kidnapping under KIDNAP-PING.

bac BLOOD ALCOHOL CONTENT.

bachelor 1. An unmarried man. 2. The usual title of the first degree that is conferred on a university graduate. 3. English law. A member of one of the orders of chivalry, such as the Order of the Bath. - Also termed (in sense 3) knight bachelor.

bachelor of laws See LL.B.

back 1. To indorse: to sign the back of a negotia-ble instrument. 2. To sign so as to show acceptance or approval. 3. To sign so as to indicate financial respon-sibility for (someone or something). 4. Hist. (Of a mag-istrate) to sign (a warrant issued in another county) to permit execution in the signing magistrate's county. "[Although) the warrant of the judge of the Court of King's Bench extends over the whole realm, ... that of ajustice of the peace cannot be executed out of his county, unless it be backed. that is, indorsed by ajustice of the county, in which it is to be carried into execution. It is said. that formerly there ought in strictness to have been a fresh warrant in every fresh county, but the practice of backing warrants has long been observed, and was at last sanctioned by the statute 23 Geo. 2. c. 26. s. 2, and 24 Geo. 2. c. 55." 1 Joseph Chitty, A Practical Treatise on the Criminal Law 45 (2d ed. 1826).

back carry The crime of carrying, on one's back, unlawfully killed game.

back door to Berne A U.S. copyright owner's simultaneous publication of the copyrighted work in both the United States and in a Berne Convention country in order to obtain Berne Convention protec-tion. This backdoor method was used before March 1989, when the United States became a member of the Berne Convention.

back lands Generally, lands lying away from not next to a highway or a watercourse.

back tax (oft. pl.) A tax that, though assessed for a previous year or years, remains due and unpaid.

back taxes See back tax under TAX.

backadation See BACKWARDATION.

backberend (bak-ber-and). [Old English] Hist. 1. The bearing of stolen goods upon one's back or about one's person .Backberend is sometimes modernized to backbearing. 2. A person caught carrying stolen goods. Also spelled bacberende: backberinde. Cf. HANDHABEND. "Backberinde signifieth bearing upon the Back, or about a Man. Bracton useth it for a Sign or Circumstance of Theft apparent, which the Civilians call Furtum manifestum .... " Giles Jacob, A New Law-Dictionary (8th ed. 1762).

backdate 1. To put a date earlier than the actual date on (something, as an instrument) .Under UCC § 3-113(a), backdating does not affect an instru-ment's negotiability. Cf. POSTDATE; ANTEDATE (1). 2. To make (something) retroactively valid.

back-end load See load fund under MUTUAL FUND.

background of the invention Patents. In a U.S. patent application and any resulting patent, the section that identifies the field of art to which the invention pertains, summarizes the state of the art, and describes the problem solved by the invention. _ The Background of the Invention section usu. includes two subsections: "Field of the Invention" and "Description of the Related Art." A mistaken inclusion in this section of a reference that postdates the date of invention may be construed as an admission.

backhaul allowance A price discount given to customers who get their goods from a seller's warehouse as a reflection of the seller's freight-cost savings.

backhaul allowance- See ALLOWANCE (1).

back-in right Oil & gas. A reversionary interest in an oil-and-gas lease entitling an assignor to a share of the working interest after the assignee has recovered speci-fied costs from production.

backing- Endorsement, esp. of a warrant by a magistrate. See BACK (4).

backpay The wages or salary that an employee should have received but did not because of an employer's unlawful action in setting or paying the wages or salary. Also written back pay. Cf. FRONTPAY.

backpay award A judicial or quasi-judicial body's decision that an employee or ex-employee is entitled to accrued but uncollected wages or benefits. - Some-times shortened to backpay.

backspread Securities. In arbitrage, a less than normal price difference in the price of a currency or commod-ity. See ARBITRAGE; SPREAD (3).

back-title certificate See BACK-TITLE LETTER.

back-title letter An official letter from a title insurer advising about the condition of title to land as of a certain date .o With this information, the title can be examined from that date forward. - Also termed back-title certificate.

back-to-back loan See LOAN.

back-to-work agreement A contract between a union and an employer covering the terms under which the employees will return to work after a strike.

backward integration A firms acquisition of ownership of facilities that produce raw materials or parts for the firms products. 6. Securities. The requirement that all security offerings over a given period are to be considered a single offering for purposes of determining an exemption from registration. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the courts apply five criteria to determine whether two or more transactions are part of the same offering of securities: (1) whether the offerings are part of a single plan of financing, (2) whether the offerings involve issuance of the same class of securities, (3) whether the offerings are made at or about the same time, (4) whether the same type of consideration is received, and (5) whether the offerings are made for the same general purpose. 17 CFR § 230.502.

backward integration See INTEGRATION (5).

backwardation Securities. A fee paid by the seller of securities so that the buyer will allow delivery after their original delivery date. Also termed backada-tion; inverted market.

backwater See WATER.

baculus (bak-ya-las or bak-a-Ias). Hist. A rod or staff used to symbolize the conveyance of unimproved land. See LIVERY OF SEISIN; FESTUCA.