![Abandoned building in Chelsea Victoria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Abandoned_building_in_Chelsea_Victoria.jpg)
In law, abandonment is the relinquishment, giving up or renunciation of an
interest
In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distin ...
,
claim,
civil proceedings
Civil law is a major branch of the law.Glanville Williams. ''Learning the Law''. Eleventh Edition. Stevens. 1982. p. 2. In common law legal systems such as England and Wales and the United States, the term refers to non-criminal law. The law rel ...
,
appeal,
privilege,
possession
Possession may refer to:
Law
* Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance
* Drug possession, a crime
* Ownership
* ...
, or
right
Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...
, especially with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting it. Such intentional action may take the form of a discontinuance or a
waiver
A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege.
Regulatory agencies of state departments or the federal government may issue waivers to exempt companies from certain regulations. For example, a United St ...
. This broad meaning has a number of applications in different branches of law. In
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
jurisdictions, both ''common law abandonment'' and ''statutory abandonment'' of
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
may be recognized.
Common law abandonment is "the relinquishment of a right
n property
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
by the owner thereof without any regard to future possession by himself or any other person, and with the intention to or desert the right...."
or "the voluntary relinquishment of a thing by its owner with the intention of terminating his ownership, and without
he intention of
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
vesting ownership in any other person; the giving up of a thing absolutely, without reference to any particular person or purpose...."
[ By contrast, an example of statutory abandonment (albeit in a common law jurisdiction) is the abandonment by a ]bankruptcy trustee
A trustee in bankruptcy is an entity, often an individual, in charge of administering a bankruptcy estate.
Canada
In Canada, a licensed insolvency trustee (LIT) is an individual or a corporation licensed by the official superintendent to hol ...
under .
In Scots law, failure to assert a legal right in a way that implies 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
Civil law is a major branch of the law.Glanville Williams. ''Learning the Law''. Eleventh Edition. Stevens. 1982. p. 2. In common law legal systems such as England and Wales and the United States, the term refers to non-criminal law. The law rel ...
or an appeal.
Giving up an interest
Abandonment of property
Intentional abandonment is also referred to as ''dereliction'', and something voluntarily abandoned by its owner with the intention of not retaking it is a ''derelict''. Someone that holds the property or to whom property rights have been relinquished is an abandonee. An item that has been abandoned is termed an abandum. A res nullius
''Res nullius'' is a doctrine.Johnston. The International Law of Fisheries. 1987p 309 The expression "res nullius" (lit: ''nobody's thing'') is a Latin term derived from private Roman law whereby ''res'' (an object in the legal sense, anything ...
abandoned by its owner, leaving it vacant
Within the context of building construction and building codes, "occupancy" refers to the use, or intended use, of a building, or portion of a building, for the shelter or support of persons, animals or property. A closely related meaning is t ...
, belongs to no one.
In the American legal and media context, investigative reporters have relied on the concepts of abandonment or "constructive abandonment" in receiving documents from sources. Examples include Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for ''The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor.
While a young reporter for ''The Washingto ...
and Carl Bernstein
Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original new ...
's receipt of materials related to the Watergate scandal from the former apartment of John Mitchell, and more recently, Project Veritas
Project Veritas is an American far-right activist group founded by James O'Keefe in 2010. The group produces deceptively edited videos of its undercover operations, which use secret recordings in an effort to discredit mainstream media o ...
' receipt of Ashley Biden's diary.
;Examples
* Ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
* Abandoned amusement park
The following is a list of amusement parks and theme parks that have been closed, demolished, or abandoned:
Africa
Egypt
* Luna Park, Cairo (1911–1915)
Rwanda
* Kigali Park, Rwanda
South Africa
* Ratanga Junction, Cape Town (1998-2018)
...
* Abandoned mine
* Abandoned railway station
An abandoned (or disused) railway station is a building or structure which was constructed to serve as a railway station but has fallen into disuse. There are various circumstances when this may occur – a railway company may fall bankrupt, or t ...
* Abandoned ship
A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...
* Abandoned village
An abandoned village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. In many countries, and throughout history, thousands of villages have been deserted for a variety of causes. Abandonment of villages is often related to epidemic, f ...
Abandonment of easement
The relinquishment by a nonuser, for a specified period, of some accommodation or right in another's land, such as right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
or free access of light and air.
Abandonment of domicile
Occurs when one ceases to reside permanently in a former domicile
Domicile may refer to:
* Home, a place where someone lives
* Domicile (astrology)
In astrology, a planet's domicile (or less commonly house, not to be confused with the astrological house system) is the zodiac sign over which it has rulership ...
, coupled with the intention of choosing a new domicile. The presumptions which will guide the court in deciding whether a former domicile has been abandoned or not must be inferred from the facts of each case. In the United States, a tenant is generally understood to have abandoned a property if they have fallen behind in rent
Rent may refer to:
Economics
*Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property
*Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production
*Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...
and shown a lack of interest in continuing to live there. The landlord must then send notice of the intent to seize the property and wait a certain number of days to take action on it. How long the landlord has to wait depends on the value of the property. The landlord can keep the money up to the costs incurred as a result of the abandonment; the rest must be set aside for the former tenant, should they eventually return.
Abandonment of insurance
Abandonment occurs when the insured
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
surrenders to the insurer all rights to damaged or lost property and claims payment for a total loss. Sometimes, this is permitted only when damage constitutes constructive total loss
Marine insurance covers the physical loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport by which the property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and the final destination. Cargo insurance is the sub-branch o ...
.[ In ]marine insurance
Marine insurance covers the physical loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport by which the property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and the final destination. Cargo insurance is the sub-branch o ...
parlance, abandonment involves the surrender of a ship or goods to the insurer, who becomes the abandonee. Abandonment can also mean refusal to accept from a delivering carrier a shipment so damaged in transit as to be worthless.
Abandonment of copyright
Abandonment is recognized as the intentional release of material by a copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
holder into the public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
. However, statutory abandonment is legally a tricky issue which has little relevant case precedent to establish how an artist can abandon their copyright during their lifetime. Owners who wish for the public to make free use of their work often seek to do so by using a Creative Commons license and retaining copyright rather than relinquishing ownership entirely.
Copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
protection attaches to a work as soon as it is fixed in a tangible medium, whether the copyright holder desires this protection or not. Before the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976
The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, cod ...
an artist could abandon or forfeit their copyright by neglecting to comply with the relevant formalities. Difficulty arises when one tries to apply the doctrine of abandonment to present-day concerns regarding the abandonment or gifting of a digitized work to the public domain. The abandonment of a work is difficult to prove in court, though Learned Hand proposed a test which parallels other forms of abandonment law wherein an author or copyright holder could abandon their work if they intend to abandon it and commit an overt act to make public that intention.
Abandonment of trademark
Depending on the territory, the abandonment of a trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
is understood to happen when the mark is not used for three or more years, or when it is deliberately discontinued;[ trademark law protects only trademarks being actively used and defended.
]
Abandonment of patent
Abandonment is relinquishment by an inventor of the right to secure a patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
, in such a way as to constitute a dedication of the invention to public use. Under United States patent law
Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited ...
, abandonment of a patent application
A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claims stated in a formal document, including necessary official forms and re ...
occurs when either the required reply is not filed within the required time period or an express abandonment is filed.MPEP § 711 Abandonment of Patent Application
/ref>
Abandonment of public transportation systems
Abandonment is permission sought by or granted to a carrier by a state or federal agency to cease operation of all or part of a route or service. This has a legal signification in England recognized by statute, by authority of which the Board of Trade may, under certain circumstances, grant a warrant to a railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
authorizing the abandonment of its line or part of it. Likewise, in the United States, the Surface Transportation Board grants permission to abandon railway lines.
Failure to fulfill a responsibility
Abandonment rules in the military
The abandonment of a military unit by a soldier, a Marine, or an airman; or of a ship or a naval base by a sailor; can be called desertion; and being away from one's assigned location for a significant length of time can be called ''" Away Without Leave"'', ''"Absent Without Leave
Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which a ...
"'', or ''"Dereliction of duty
Dereliction of duty is a specific offense under United States Code Title 10, Section 892, Article 92 and applies to all branches of the US military. A service member who is derelict has willfully refused to perform his duties (or follow a given o ...
"''. However, the term "Dereliction of Duty" also includes the offenses of being present but not carrying out one's assigned duties and responsibilities with the expected amount of effort, alertness, carefulness, ingenuity, and sense of duty.
Abandonment of contract
Abandonment of contract means failure to fulfil a contractual obligation, which will affect the abandoner's entitlement to the contractually agreed consideration, for example in the case of ''Sumpter v Hedges'' (1898).
Abandonment of family
Desertion refers to intentional and substantial abandonment, permanently or for a period of time stated by law, without legal excuse and without consent, of one's duties arising out of a status such as that of husband and wife or parent and child. It can involve desertion of a spouse with the intention of creating a permanent separation. Desertion of one spouse by the other without just cause is called malicious abandonment.[ Child abandonment is often recognized as a crime, in which case the child is usually not physically harmed directly as part of the abandonment. Child abandonment is also called ''exposure'' or ''exposition'', especially when an infant is left in the open.
]
Abandonment of a patient
In medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
, abandonment occurs when a health care professional
A health professional, healthcare professional, or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physician (su ...
(typically a physician, nurse, dentist, or paramedic) has already begun emergency treatment of a patient
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other hea ...
, and then suddenly walks away while the patient is still in need, without securing the services of an adequate substitute or giving the patient adequate opportunity to find one. It is a crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
in many countries and can result in the loss of one's license to practice. Also, because of the public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...
in favor of keeping people alive, the professional cannot defend themselves by pointing to the patient's inability to pay for services; this opens the medical professional to the possibility of exposure to malpractice
In the law of torts, malpractice, also known as professional negligence, is an "instance of negligence or incompetence on the part of a professional".Malpractice definition,
Professionals who may become the subject of malpractice actions inc ...
liability beyond one's insurance coverage.
See also
* Attempt#Abandonment, abandonment of criminal intent
* Public domain#Disclaimer of interest
* Squatting
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
* Urban exploration
Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inter ...
, abandoned buildings, structures, and vehicles (most commonly seafaring ones) are often favored targets for urban explorers
References
Further reading
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{{Wikisource1911Enc, Abandonment
Legal terminology