ABANDONMENT - The intent
and subsequent actions of a tenant that indicate that
the tenant has given up the leased premises. Examples
include an empty apartment, a return of keys, and utilities
turned off.
In insurances the act by which the insured relinquishes
to the assurer all the property to the thing insured.
No particular form is required for an abandonment,
nor need it be in writing; but it must be explicit
and absolute, and must set forth the reasons upon
which it is founded.
It must also be made in reasonable time after the
loss.
It is not in every case of loss that the insured can
abandon. In the following cases an abandonment may
be made: when there is a total loss; when the voyage
is lost or not worth pursuing, by reason of a peril
insured against or if the cargo be so damaged as to
be of little or no value; or where the salvage is
very high, and further expense be necessary, and the
insurer will not engage to bear it or if what is saved
is of less value than the freight; or where the damage
exceeds one half of the value of the goods insured
or where the property is captured, or even detained
by an indefinite embargo ; and in cases of a like
nature.
The abandonment, when legally made transfers from
the insured to the insurer the property in the thing
insured, and obliges him to pay to the insured what
he promised him by the contract of insurance.
In the French law, the act by which a debtor surrenders
his property for the benefit of his creditors.
In maritime contracts in the civil law, principals
are generally held indefinitely responsible for the
obligations which their agents have contracted relative
to the concern of their commission but with regard
to ship owners there is remarkable peculiarity; they
are bound by the contract of the master only to the
amount of their interest in the ship, and can be discharged
from their responsibility by abandoning the ship and
freight.
The Relinquishment Of A Right; the giving up of something
to which we are entitled.
Legal rights, when once vested, must be divested
according to law, but equitable rights may be abandoned;
a mill site, once occupied, may be abandoned; an application
for land, which is an inception of title; an improvement;
and a trust fund may be abandoned.
The abandonment must be made by the owner without
being pressed by any duty, necessity or utility to
himself, but simply because he wishes no longer to
possess the thing; and further it must be made without
any desire that any other person shall acquire the
same; for if it were made for a consideration, it
would be a sale or barter, and if without consideration,
but with an intention that some other person should
become the possessor, it would be a gift: and it would
still be a gift though the owner might be indifferent
as to whom the right should be transferred; for example,
he threw money among a crowd with intent that some
one should acquire the title to it.
By the Roman law, when the master was sued for the
tort of his slave, or the owner for a trespass committed
by his animal, he might abandon them to the person
injured, and thereby save himself from further responsibility.
Similar provisions were adopted in Louisiana. It
wass enacted by the civil code that the master shall
be answerable for all the damages occasioned by an
offense or quasi offense committed by his slave. He
could, however, discharge himself from such responsibility
by abandoning the slave to the person injured; in
which case such person shall sell such slave at public
auction in the usual form; to obtain payment of the
damages and costs; and the balance, if any, shall
be returned to the master of the slave, who shall
be completely discharged, although the price of the
slave should not be sufficient to pay the whole amount
of the damages and costs; provided that the master
shall make abandonment within three days after the
judgment awarding such damages, shall have been rendered;
provided also that it shall not be proved that the
crime or offense was committed by his order, for in
such cases the master shall be answerable for all
damages resulting therefrom, whatever be the amount,
without being admitted to the benefit of abandonment.
The owner of an animal is answerable for the damages
he has caused; but if the animal had been lost, or
had strayed more than a day, he may discharge himself
from this responsibility, by abandoning him to the
person who has sustained the injury, except where
the master has turned loose a dangerous or noxious
animal, for then he must pay for all the harm he has
done, without being allowed, to make the abandonment.
ABANDONMENT, malicious. The act
of a husband or wife, who leaves his or her consort
willfully, and with an intention of causing perpetual
separation.
Such abandonment, when it has continued the length
of time required by the local statutes, is sufficient
cause for a divorce.
