contract law A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more Party (law), parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, Service (economics), services, money, or pr ...

, extinguishment is the destruction of a

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

. Rawle, Francis; Bouvier, John. (1914) Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
Extinguishment.
' Pp. 1166-1167. 3rd revision (being the 8th ed.) Vernon Law Book Co. ;

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 311,527, making it Minnesota's second-most populous city a ...

. Publisher: West Publishing Company. 3 vols. If the subject of the contract is destroyed (such as through merging the contract subject and the contract

obligation An obligation is a course of action which someone is required to take, be it a legal obligation or a moral obligation. Obligations are constraints; they limit freedom. People who are under obligations may choose to freely act under obligations. ...

), then the contract may be made void. Extinguishment occurs in a variety of contracts, such as land contracts (common, copyhold),

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money Loan, borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Co ...

s, rents, and right of ways. A right may be extinguished by nullifying that right or, in the case of a debt, discharged by payment in full or through settlement. Dictionary.com (2008)
Extinguishment.
' Accessed June 16, 2008 An extinguishment may be by matter of fact and by matter of law. If a

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some propert ...

receives satisfaction and full payment of a debt and the creditor releases the debtor, then that is express extinguishment by matter of fact. If a person is renting land and subsequently becomes the owner of that same land by purchase or descent, the rent is extinguished through implied extinguishment by matter of fact. There are numerous situations where a claim is extinguished by

operation of law The phrase "by operation of law" is a legal term that indicates that a right or liability has been created for a party, irrespective of the intent of that party, because it is dictated by existing legal principles. For example, if a person dies wi ...

. If two persons are jointly but not severally liable for a

simple contract In contract law, a simple contract, also known as an informal contract, is a contract made orally, in writing, or both, rather than a contract made under seal. Simple contracts require consideration to be valid, but simple contracts may be impl ...

debt, a judgment at

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

obtained against only one of the debtors works as an extinguishment of the claim on the other debtor as a matter of law. A conveyance of mortgaged land by the mortgagor to the mortgagee extinguishes the

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...

. However taking a

promissory note A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...

for the amount due on the mortgage does not deprive the mortgage holder of a right to a

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the pers ...

, but merely suspends its enforcement until the note is payable.

Extinguishment of common

Common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

(a common), in England and Wales and the United States, is a piece of land owned by one person, but over which other people can exercise certain traditional rights, such as allowing their livestock to graze upon it. If the owner of the common right becomes the owner of the fee simple estate, then the common right becomes extinguished. If the crop or other item over which there is a common right is severed from the land, then the common right becomes extinguished. Other situations in which the common right becomes extinguished include

legal release A legal release is a legal instrument that acts to terminate any legal liability between the releasor and the releasee(s), signed by the releasor. A release may also be made orally in some circumstances. Releases are routinely used by photographer ...

and approvement (improvement of common lands, by inclosing and converting them to the uses of husbandry for the advantage of the lord of the manor.)

Extinguishment of copyhold

copyhold Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the ...

was a parcel of

land tenure In Common law#History, common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land "owned" by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement betw ...

granted to a peasant by the lord of the manor in return for services, such as agricultural services. Such grants/servitude was not always in the best interest of the peasant and the copyhold could be extinguished by an act of the tenant showing an intention not to hold the land any longer. Copyholds may be extinguished by the union of the copyhold and the freehold in the same person. Copyholds were gradually enfranchised (turned into ordinary holdings of land—either freehold or 999-year

leasehold A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a Lease, lessee or a tenant has rights of real property by some form of title (property), title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold right ...

) during the 19th century. Legislation in the 1920s finally extinguished the last of them.

Extinguishment of a debt

Debts may be extinguished by the creditor accepting a higher security. If the creditor recovers a judgment, the original debt is extinguished. However, a trust deed given to secure the payment of a bond is not extinguished by a judgment on the bond since the original debt is not merged by the trust deed. A debt evidenced by a note may be extinguished by a surrender of the note

Extinguishment of rent

A union of the title to the lands and the rent in the same person will extinguish the rent. In

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, a

ground rent As a legal term, ground rent specifically refers to regular payments made by a holder of a leasehold property to the freeholder or a superior leaseholder, as required under a lease. In this sense, a ground rent is created when a freehold piece of ...

(rent of unimproved land) is extinguished by a conveyance from the ground rent owner to the tenant.

Extinguishment of ways

Right of ways include the right to use the land of another for a special purpose, such as a passageway. If the owner of the right of way purchases the close over which the right of way lies, the right of way is extinguished.

Notes

References

* Rawle, Francis; Bouvier, John. (1914) Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
Extinguishment.
' Pp. 1166-1167. 3rd revision (being the 8th ed.) Vernon Law Book Co. ;

. Publisher: West Publishing Company. 3 vols. {{Law Contract law