approve

To confirm, ratify, sanction, or consent to, some act or thing done by another. Board of Education v Reno Community High School, 124 Kan 175, 257 P 957. As used in a statute giving an officer power to "approve" an application, it is not ordinarily limited to a mere verification of the facts as stated in the application, but involves a grant of discretionary power, complete unless limited by the statute, and implies knowledge, the exercise of discretion after knowledge, and the act of passing judgment. McCarten v Sanderson, 111 Mont 407, 109 P2d 1108, 132 ALR 1229. "To approve," especially where it is a public officer who is to give sanction, is to go beyond an unexpressed mental acquiescence; his sanction should be given with certainty and by an unmistakable sign or declaration. People * Hall, 140 Cal App 745, 31 P2d 83 1. Approval by * finance committee of a municipality means that the members of the committee, acting upon their official responsibilities and having in view the public welfare, are to investigate and sanction according to their own independent judgment each separate item. It is not a ministerial function but implies active and important prudential obligations. Brown v Newburyport, 209 Mass 259, 95 NE 504. A sense of the term much less familiar is that of accusing. A person who is indicted for crime is said to approve another person when he, the approver, before plea, confesses and accuses the other of the offense. In a sense that seems to have become obsolete; to "approve" land means to improve it by cultivation and reclamation.