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collateral-inheritance tax A tax levied on the transfer of property by will or intestate succession to a person other than the spouse, a parent, or a descendant of the decedent. Cf. legacy tax.

collateral-inheritance tax See TAX.

collateralize (ka-Iat-ar-al-lz), 1. To serve as collateral for <the purchased property collateralized the loan agreement>. 2. To make (a loan) secure with collateral <the creditor insisted that the loan be collateralized>. collateralization (ka-Iat-ar-al-a-zay-shan), n.

collateralized mortgage obligation A bond secured by a group of mortgage obligations or passthrough securities and paid according to the payment schedule ofits class (or tranche). CMOs are issued by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and benefit from predictable payments of interest and principal. Abbr. CMO. See pass-through security under SECURITY; TRANCHE.

collateral-negligence doctrine The rule holding that one who engages an independent contractor is not liable for physical harm that the contractor causes if (1) the contractor's negligence consists solely of the improper manner in which the contractor's work is performed, (2) the risk of harm created is not normal to the work, and (3) the employer had no reason to contemplate the contractor's negligence when the contract was made.

collateral-order doctrine A doctrine alloWing appeal from an interlocutory order that conclusively determines an issue wholly separate from the merits of the action and effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment. Also termed Cohen doctrine (fr. Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221 (1949". See appealable decision under DECISION.

collateral-source rule Torts. The doctrine that if an injured party receives compensation for the injuries from a source independent of the tortfeasor, the payment should not be deducted from the damages that the tortfeasor must pay . Insurance proceeds are the most common collateral source. Also termed collateral-benefit rule.

collatio bonorum (ka-Iay-shee-oh ba-nor-am). [Latin "collation of goods"]. The bringing into hotchpot of goods or money advanced by a parent to a child, so that the parent's personal estate will be equally distributed among the parent's children. PI. collationes bonorum. See HOTCHPOT. "[Ilf the estates so given them, by way of advancement, are not quite equivalent to the other shares, the children so advanced shall now have so much as will make them equal. This just and equitable provision hath been also said to be derived from the collatio bonorum of the imperial law: which it certainly resembles in some pOints, though it differs widely in others. But it may not be amiss to observe, that, with regard to goods and chattels, this is part of the common law of England, under the name of hotchpot." 2 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 516-17 (1766).

collatio signorum (ka-Iay-shee-oh sig-nor-am). [Law Latin "comparison of signs"]. A method oftesting a seal's genuineness by comparing it with another known to be genuine.

collation (ka-Iay-shan), 1. The comparison of a copy with its original to ascertain its correctness; the report of the officer who made the comparison. 2. The taking into account of the value ofadvancements made by an intestate to his or her children so that the estate may be divided in accordance with the intestacy statute. Cf. HOTCHPOT. 93-118.) 3. Eccles. law. The act (by a bishop) of conferring a benefice in which the bishop holds the right of advowson, thus combining the acts of presentation and institution. Also termed collation to a benefice. See advowson collative under ADVOWSON. collate (kdlayt), vb. collator (ka-lay-tar), n.

collation to a benefice See COLLATION.

collatione facta uni post mortem alterius (ka-lay-shee-oh-nee fak-ta yoo-ni pohst mor-tam al-teer-ee-as [or awl-]). [Law Latin "by collation to a benefice made to one after the death of the other"]. A writ directed to the Court of Common Pleas, requesting that the court order a bishop to appoint a clerk in place of another who had died pending appointment.

collatione heremitagii (ka-lay-shee-oh-nee her-a-ma-tay-jee-I). [Law Latin "by collation of hermitage"]. A writ by which the Crown conferred the keeping of a hermitage on a clerk.

collative fact See investitive fact under FACT.

collative fact- See investitive fact.

collectability The ability ofa judgment creditor to make a judgment debtor pay the amount of the judgment; the degree to which a judgment can be satisfied through collection efforts against the judgment debtor.

collecting bank See BANK.

collecting bimk In the check-collection process, any bank handling an item for collection, except for the payor bank. UCC § 4-105(5).

collection The process through which an item (such as a check) passes in a payor bank. See payor bank under BANK.

collection indorsement See restrictive indorsement under INDORSEMENT.

collection indorsement- See restrictive indorsement.

collection item An item (such as a documentary draft) taken by a bank for a customer's account, but not credited until payment for the item has actually been received. See documentary draft under DRAFT.

collective bargaining Negotiations between an employer and the representatives oforganized employees to determine the conditions of employment, such as wages, hours, discipline, and fringe benefits. See CONCESSION BARGAINING. "Collective bargaining means the joint determination by employees and employers of the problems of the employment relationship. Such problems include wage rates and wage systems, hours and overtime, vacations, discipline, work loads, classification of employees, layoffs, and worker retirement. The advent of collective bargaining does not give rise to these problems. Rather they are germane to the industrial relations environment, and exist with or without unionization." Benjamin J. Taylor & Fred Whitney, Labor Relations Law 3 (1971).

collective mark See collective trademark under TRADEMARK.

collective measure An activity undertaken by more than one country to achieve an agreed-upon end. The countries involved may undertake a collective measure either in an ad hoc manner or through an institutionalized association.

collective punishment A penalty inflicted on a group of persons without regard to individual responsibility for the conduct giving rise to the penalty. Collective punishment was outlawed in 1949 by the Geneva Convention.

collective punishment See COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT.

collective trademark See TRADEMARK.

collective work See WORK (2).

collective-bargaining agreement A contract between an employer and a labor union regulating employment conditions, wages, benefits, and grievances. Abbr. CBA. Also termed labor agreement; labor contract; union contract; collective-labor agreement; trade agreement.

collective-knowledge rule See FELLOW-OFFICER RULE.

collective-labor agreement See COLLECTIVE- BARGAINING AGREEMENT.

collector of decedent's estate A person temporarily appointed by a probate court to collect assets and payments due to a decedent's estate, and to settle other financial matters requiring immediate attention. A collector is often appointed to look after an estate when there is a will contest or a dispute about who should be appointed administrator. The collector's duties end when an executor or administrator is appointed.

collega (ka-Iee-ga), [Latin] Roman law. A person invested with joint authority; a colleague or associate. Collega usu. referred to a member of an association (collegium) or a coheir. See COLLEGIUM.

collegatarius (ka-Ieg-a-tair-ee-as), [Latin] Roman law. A colegatee.

collegatary (ka-leg-a-ter-ee). A colegatee; a person who shares a common legacy with one or more other persons. Also termed collegatarius (ka-leg-a-ter-ee-as).

college 1. An institution oflearning that offers instruction in the liberal arts, humanities, and sciences, but not in the technical arts or in studies preparatory to admission to a profession. 2. An assembly of people, established by law or private agreement to perform some special function or to promote some common purpose, usu. of an educational, political, ecclesiastical, or scientific nature.

college of advocates and doctors of law See DOCTORS' COMMONS.

college of arms See HERALDS' COLLEGE.

college of Justice The body of judges and lawyers created in 1532 to constitute the Court of Session, the superior civil court of Scotland.

collegium (ka-Iee-jee-am), [Latin] Roman law. An association of at least three people having the right to assemble and enact rules concerning membership, organization, and the rights and duties of members. Collegia were formed for profeSSional, cultural, charitable, and religious purposes. PI. collegia.

collegium illicitum (ka-Iee-jee-am i-lis-a-tam). A collegium that either is not sanctioned by law or assembles for some purpose other than that expressed in its charter.

collegium licitum (ka-Iee-jee-am lis-a-tam). An assemblage of people empowered to act as a juristic person in the pursuit of some useful purpose or business.

collision 1. The contact of two or more moving vessels. 2. ALLISION.

collision insurance See INSURANCE.

collision insurance Automobile insurance that covers damage to the insureds vehicle resulting from a rollover or collision with any object, but does not cover a personal injury or damage to other property.

colliterales et socii (ka-lit-a-ray-Ieez et soh-shee-I). [Law Latin "assistants and associates"]. In England, the former title of assistants to the Chancery judges (i.e., masters in chancery).

collobium (ka-Ioh-bee-am). [Law Latin]. A hood or covering for the shoulders, formerly worn by serjeants at-law.

colloquium (ka-Ioh-kwee-am). 1. The offer of extrinsic evidence to show that an allegedly defamatory statement referred to the plaintiff even though it did not explicitly mention the plaintiff. 2. The introductory averments in a plaintiff's pleading setting out all the special circumstances that make the challenged words defamatory. Cf. INDUCEMENT (4); INNUENDO (2). PI. colloquiums, colloquia.

colloquy (kol-a-kwee). Any formal discussion, such as an oral exchange between a judge, the prosecutor, the defense counsel, and a criminal defendant in which the judge ascertains the defendant's understanding of the proceedings and of the defendant's rights .This discussion helps the court to determine the defendant's ability to continue in the proceedings (esp. important during a change-of-plea hearing).

collusion (ka-Ioo-zhan), 1. An agreement to defraud another or to do or obtain something forbidden by law. 2. As a defense to divorce, an agreement between a husband and wife to commit or to appear to commit an act that is grounds for divorce . For example, before the advent of no-fault divorce, a husband and wife might agree to make it appear that one of them had committed adultery. Cf. CONNIVANCE (2); CONDONATION (2); RECRIMINATION (1). collude, vb. collusive, adj. coUuder, n.

collusive action An action between two parties who have no actual controversy, being merely for the purpose of determining a legal question or receiving a precedent that might prove favorable in related litigation. Also termed fictional action.

collusive action- See ACTION.

collusive joinder Joinder of a defendant, usu. a nonresident, in order to have a case removed to federal court. See manufactured diversity under DIVERSITY OF CITIZENSHIP.

collusive joinder See JOINDER.

collyer doctrine (kol-yar). The principle under which the National Labor Relations Board will refer an issue brought before it to arbitration if the issue is arbitrable under the collective-bargaining agreement. Collyer Insulated Wire, 192 NLRB 837 (197l). Cf. SPIELBERG DOCTRINE.

colonial law 1. Law governing a colony or colonies. 2. The body oflaw in force in the 13 original U.S. colonies before the Declaration ofIndependence.

colon-semicolon form A style of writing patent claims that uses a colon after the preamble and semicolons between every two elements. Cf. OUTLINE FORM, SINGLE-PARAGRAPH FORM; SUBPARAGRAPH FORM.

colonus partiarius (ka-loh-nas pahr-shee-air-ee-as). [Latin "tenant farmer sharing produce" or "a sharing landholder"] Roman law. A farmer who gave a fixed portion of the farm's produce as payment (instead of money) to the landlord. Cf. SHARECROPPING.

colony 1. A dependent territorial entity subject to the sovereignty of an independent country, but considered part of that country for purposes of relations with third countries. 2. A group of people who live in a new territory but retain ties with their parent country. 3. The territory inhabited by such a group. See MOTHER COUNTRY. colonize, vb. colonial, adj.

color 1. Appearance, guise, or semblance; esp., the appearance of a legal claim to a right, authority, or office <color of title> <under color of state law>. 2. Common-law pleading. An apparent, but legally insuf ficient, right or ground of action, admitted in a defendant's pleading to exist for the plaintiff; esp., a plaintiff's apparent (and usu. false) right or title to property, the existence of which is pleaded by the defendant and then attacked as defective, as part of a confession and avoidance to remove the case from the jury by turning the issue from one of fact to one of law. See GIVE COLOR. "It is a rule of pleading, that no man be allowed to plead specially such a plea as amounts only to the general issue. or a total denial of the charge; but in such case he shall be driven to plead the general issue in terms, whereby the whole question is referred to ajury. But if the defendant. in an assise or action of trespass, be desirous to refer the validity of his title to the court rather than the jury, he may state his title specially, and at the same time give colour to the plaintiff, or suppose him to have an appearance or colour of title, bad indeed in point of law, but of which the jury are not competent judges. As if his own true title be, that he claims by feoffment with livery from A, by force of which he entered on the lands in question, he cannot plead this by itself, as it amounts to no more than the general issue ... not guilty in an action of trespass. But he may allege this speCially, provided he goes farther and says, that the plaintiff claiming by colour of a prior deed of feoffment, without livery. entered; upon whom he entered; and may then refer himself to the judgment of the court which of these two titles is the best in point of law." 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 309 (1768).

color book An official compilation of diplomatic documents and internal papers and reports of a government, the purpose of which is to inform the legislature and the public about foreign policy, esp. during foreign crises . Color books reached their height of popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are now little used in most countries.

color of apparent organization The appearance ofcorporate authority, including the assumption and exercise of corporate functions in good faith, even though the corporation's organizers did not fully or substantially comply with the terms of the corporate charter or the statutory requirements for incorporation. See de facto corporation under CORPORATION.

color of authority The appearance or presumption of authority sanctioning a public officer's actions . The authority derives from the officer's apparent title to the office or from a writ or other apparently valid process the officer bears.

color of law The appearance or semblance, without the substance, of a legal right . The term usu. implies a misuse of power made possible because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of the state. State action is synonymous with color of [statellaw in the context of federal civil-rights statutes or criminal law. See STATE ACTION.

color of office The authority or power that is inherent in an office, esp. a public office . Acts taken under the color ofan office are vested with, or appear to be vested with, the authority entrusted to that office. "The starting point in the law of bribery seems to have been when a judge, for doing his office or acting under color of his office, took a reward or fee from some person who had occasion to come before him, and apparently guilt attached only to the judge himself and not to the bribe·giver." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 527 (3d ed. 1982).

color of process The appearance of validity and sufficiency surrounding a legal proceeding that is later found to be invalid.

color of title A written instrument or other evidence that appears to establish title but does not in fact do so. Also termed apparent title.

colorable 1. (Of a claim or action) appearing to be true, valid, or right <the pleading did not state a colorable claim>. 2. Intended to deceive; counterfeit <the court found the conveyance of exempt property to be a colorable transfer, and so set it aside>.

colorable alteration A modification that effects no real or substantial change, but is made only to distinguish an invention or work from an existing patent or copyright; a small change made in a product or process solely to avoid literal infringement ofan earlier patent's claim. Also termed colorable deviation.

colorable claim 1. A claim that is legitimate and that may reasonably be asserted, given the facts presented and the current law (or a reasonable and logical extension or modification of the current law). 2. A claim in which the debtor and property holder are, as a matter of law, not adverse . An example of a colorable claim is one made by a person holding property as an agent or bailee of the bankrupt.

colorable claim- See CLAIM (4).

colorable deviation See COLORABLE ALTERATION.

colorable imitation Any mark, whether or not created with an intent to deceive, whose resemblance to a registered mark is likely to cause confusion or mistake. See SIMILARITY.

colorable transaction See TRANSACTION.

colorable transfer See TRANSFER.

colorable-imitation test A test for a trademark violation in which a court determines whether an ordinary person who is not allowed to compare the two items side by side could recognize the difference between the two.

colorado air force school See UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY.

Colorado River abstention A federal court's decision to abstain while relevant and parallel state court proceedings are under way. Colorado River Water Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800,96 S.Ct. 1236 (1976).

colorado river abstention See ABSTENTION.

colore officii (ka-lor-ee-a-fish-ee-I), [Latin "by color of office"] See COLOR OF OFFICE.

com COMPANY.

comaker One who participates jointly in borrowing money on a promissory note; esp., one who acts as surety under a note if the maker defaults. Also termed cosigner. Cf. MAKER (2).

combatant (kam-bat-ant or kom-ba-tant). A person who participates directly in hostilities. "Legitimate" combatants are members of the armed forces or uniformed members of a militia or volunteer corps, under military command and subject to the laws of war. Cf. NONCOMBANT.

combination 1. An alliance of individuals or corporations working together to accomplish a common (usu. economic) goal. See COMBINATION IN RESTRAINT OF TRADE. 2. CONSPIRACY. 3. STRADDLE. 4. Patents. A union of old and new elements in an invention. The term encompasses not only a combination of mechanical elements but also a combination of substances in a composition claim or steps in a process claim. Cf. AGGREGATION. 5. Patents. An invention that uses two or more patented inventions to make a distinct and useful third product. In the past, an inventor seeking a combination patent had to show "synergism," a surprising result from the combination. But the u.s. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the term "combination" has no legal effect, because most inventions combine and build on existing technology. Today there are no special rules for combination patents. 6. Patents. A union of elements in an invention that work together cooperatively to perform a useful function; the opposite of an aggregation. Cf. AGGREGATION.

combination in restraint of trade An express or tacit agreement between two or more persons or entities designed to raise prices, reduce output, or create a monopoly. Also termed combine.

combination patent A patent granted for an invention that unites existing components in a novel andnonobvious way.

combination patent See PATENT (3).

combine (kom-bin), See COMBINATION IN RESTRAINT OF TRADE .

combined § 8 and § 15 affidavit A sworn statement that satisfies the requirements of both § 8 and § 15 of the Lanham Act. Sometimes shortened to § 8 and § 15 affidavit. Also termed combined § 8 and § 15 declaration. See DECLARATION OF INCONTESTABILITY; DECLARATION OF 'USE.

combined application See TRADEMARK APPLICATION.

combustio domorum (kam-bus-tee-oh da-mor-am). [Latin "houses burning"]. See HOUSEBURNING.

comes (koh-meez). [Latin]. 1. A count or earl. 2. A person who is part of a high government official's retinue. PL comites. See COMITATUS.

comes and defends Traditionally, the standard commencement of a defendant's plea or demurrer. The phrase, now rarely used, announces the defendant's appearance in court and intent to defend against the action.

comes now Traditionally, the standard commencement in pleadings <Comes now the plaintiff, Gilbert Lewis, by and through his attorneys of record, and would show unto the court the following> . For a plural subject, the phrase is come now <Come now the plaintiffs, Bob and Louise Smith>. - Sometimes shortened to comes <Comes the State of Tennessee>. Also termed now comes.

comfort letter 1. A letter from a certified public accountant certifying that no false or misleading information has been used in preparing a financial statement accompanying a securities offering . Such a letter usu. has limited effect because the CPA ordinarily attests to certain representations and warranties that the issuer has authorized the CPA to rely on. - Also termed cold-comfort letter. 2. Corporations. A letter, esp. from a parent corporation on behalf of a subsidiary, stating its support (but short of a guarantee) for the activities and commitments of another corporation. Also termed letter of comfort.

comfort opinion An attorney s written opinion that there is no reason to believe that the registration statement contains any material misrepresentations or omissions that would violate section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933. The attorney usu. participates in the registration statement s preparation and confers with the securities issuer s representatives, underwriters, and public accountants before writing the opinion. The comfort opinion s purpose is to reassure the parties that the registration statement complies with securities laws; it is not part of the statement and is usn. not included.

comfort opinion See OPINION (2).

comingle See COMMINGLE.

comingling See COMMINGLING.