Obligations & Contracts
Ending a contract by mutual agreement of both parties to stop performing it.
Termination (rescission) of a contract.
A wrongdoer's culpable state of mind — either intent or negligence.
Fault
The right to possess, use, and dispose of a thing within the limits set by law.
Ownership
The transfer of a deceased person's property to others under law or by will.
Inheritance
The formal claim a plaintiff brings against a defendant in civil proceedings.
Complaint (statement of claim)
The legally set time limit within which a person can bring a claim to court to protect a violated right.
Statute of limitations
The duty to compensate for harm caused to another's life, health, or property, independent of any contract between the parties.
Tort liability
A limited right of a non-owner to make specific use of another person's land.
Easement
The people who inherit property by law when there is no will.
Intestate heirs
Returning the parties to the position they were in before an invalid transaction took place.
Restitution
A contract entered into under fraud, duress, or mistake, which a court may declare invalid.
Voidable contract
A defense excusing liability due to an extraordinary and unavoidable event beyond a party's control.
Force majeure
An arrangement transferring property as security for an obligation, letting the creditor satisfy the debt from its value.
Pledge (security interest)
A portion of an estate reserved by law for certain heirs, regardless of what a will says.
Forced share (compulsory portion)
Compelling a debtor to actually carry out the specific act required by a contract.
Specific performance
Liability of several debtors under which the creditor may demand full performance from all of them together or from any one of them alone.
Joint and several liability
A reduction in damages where the injured party's own gross carelessness helped cause or worsen the harm.
Contributory negligence
Open, continuous, good-faith possession of property as one's own for a period set by law, giving rise to a right of ownership.
Adverse possession
An heir's formal refusal of property they were entitled to inherit.
Renunciation of inheritance
Review of a trial court's decision by a higher court at the request of a dissatisfied party.
Appeal
Replacing an original obligation between the same parties with a new obligation involving a different subject matter or manner of performance.
Novation
Liability that arises regardless of fault on the wrongdoer's part – for example, for harm from an inherently hazardous activity.
Strict liability
Ownership shared by two or more people without dividing it into fixed shares.
Joint ownership
The division of property jointly acquired by spouses upon divorce.
Division of marital property
The compulsory collection of a debt through court officers under a writ of execution.
Enforcement proceedings