Abandonment (legal)

Abandoned car repair station in Victoria, Australia

In law, abandonment is the relinquishment, giving up, or renunciation of an interest, claim, privilege, possession,[1] civil proceedings, appeal, or right, especially with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting it. Such intentional action may take the form of a discontinuance or a waiver. This broad meaning has a number of applications in different branches of law.[1] In common law jurisdictions, both common law abandonment and statutory abandonment of property may be recognized.

Common law abandonment is "the relinquishment of a right [in property] by the owner therefore without any regard to future possession by himself or any other person, and with the intention to forsake [sic] or desert the right...."[2] or "the voluntary relinquishment of a thing by its owner with the intention of terminating his ownership, and without [the intention of] vesting ownership to any other person; the giving up of a thing absolutely, without reference to any particular person or purpose...."[2] By contrast, an example of statutory abandonment (albeit in a common law jurisdiction) is the abandonment by a bankruptcy trustee under 11 U.S.C. § 554.

In Scots law, failure to assert a legal right in a way that implies the abandonment of that property is called "taciturnity", while the term "abandonment" in Scots law refers specifically to a procedure by which a party gives up civil proceedings or an appeal.

  1. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Abandonment". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 6–7.
  2. ^ a b Ginnow & Nikolic 1985, § 2