legal intent

legal intent
A presumed intent, for example, the intent to accomplish the natural and probable consequences of one's acts. 29 Am J2d Ev § 204. A term applied without circumspection to the intent of a testator. In strict reasoning, a testator can have but one intent,-his own actual intent. To speak of a testator's legal intent is strictly a solecism; there is no such thing. So that, when it is said that a testator's legal intent is to be gathered from the decisions of the court of his domicil, nothing more is meant than that whatever his actual intent may have been, if he has used in his will certain technical terms to which the courts of his domicil have attached a crystallized and settled judicial meaning which has become a rule of property in that state, then such will, wherever it comes under construction in other states, will have the same meaning given to those technical words which the courts of his domicil gave them. That is what the phrase "legal intent" means, and this rule about the legal intent being governed by the courts of his domicil means. In truth, we should only speak of a testator's actual intent, for that is all the testator ever had. If it violates no law, it stands. If it violates the law, the will fails, unless either statute or the settled decisions of the courts have given the terms which he has used a meaning which will save the will. Ball v Phelan, 94 Miss 293, 49 So 956.

Ballentine's law dictionary. . 1998.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • intent — Adjective: With fixed purpose; earnest; determined; engrossed. Noun: Purpose. The purpose to use a particular means to effect a certain result. Baker v State, 120 Wis 135, 97 NW 566. A constituent element of all criminal acts, but not necessarily …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • intent — in·tent /in tent/ n 1: the act or fact of intending: as a: the design or purpose to commit a wrongful or criminal act – called also criminal intent; compare knowledge, mens rea …   Law dictionary

  • Legal formalism — is a legal positivist view in philosophy of law and jurisprudence. While Jeremy Bentham s legal positivism can be seen as appertaining to the legislature, legal formalism appertains to the Judge; that is, formalism does not (as positivists do)… …   Wikipedia

  • Legal Information Institute — (LII) The home page of LII on 03/03/2010 URL law.cornell.edu Slogan Providing free online ac …   Wikipedia

  • Legal instrument — is a legal term of art that is used for any written legal document such as a certificate, a deed, a will, an Act of Parliament or a law passed by a competent legislative body in municipal (domestic) or international law. Many legal instruments… …   Wikipedia

  • intent on — index solicitous Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • intent upon — index decisive, insistent, resolute Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • Legal status of Salvia divinorum — ] In such places where Salvia divinorum legislation exists, it varies in its prohibitive degree from country to country. Australia has imposed its strictest Schedule 9 (US Schedule I equivalent) classification for example, and Italy has also… …   Wikipedia

  • Legal Tender Cases — The Legal Tender Cases were a series of United States Supreme Court cases in the latter part of the nineteenth century that affirmed the constitutionality of paper money. In the 1870 case of Hepburn v. Griswold , the Court had held that paper… …   Wikipedia

  • intent — I adj. (cannot stand alone) intent on, upon (she is intent on getting the job done quickly) II n. 1) criminal intent 2) intent to + inf. (with intent to kill) 3) by intent 4) (misc.) to all intents and purposes ( practically ); (legal) loitering… …   Combinatory dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”