Abandonment

[Lat. cessio, derelictio, destitutio.] The relinquishment, cession, or surrender of a right, or of property, by one person to, or for another. See Cession. The giving up a thing absolutely, without reference to any particular person or purpose; as throwing a jewel into the highway; leaving a thing to itself, as a vessel at sea; desertion, or dereliction.

2 Bl. Com. 9, 10.

See Dereliction. The voluntary leaving of a person to whom one is bound by a particular relation, as a wife, husband, or child. See Malicious Abandonment, Abandonment. In marine insurance. A relinquishment, or cession of property by the owner to the insurer of it, in order to claim as for a total loss, when in fact it is so by construction only.

2 Steph. Com. 178.

The exercise of a right which a party having insured goods or vessels has, to call upon the insurers, in cases where the property insured has, by perils of the sea, become so much damaged as to be of little value, to accept of what is, or may be saved, and to pay the full amount of the insurance, as if a total loss had actually happened.

Park on Ins. 143. 2 Marshall on Ins. 559.

3 Kent's Com. 318 — 335, and notes. Abandonment may be made either by a formal instrument called a deed of cession; or, which is more usual, by letter, no particular form being necessary.

6 Cranch R. 268. 1 Wash. C. C. R. 400, 530. See 18 Pick. R. 83.

Peters' Digest, Abandonment. United States Digest, Abandonment. Abandonment. [Lat. cessio.] In French law. The act by which a debtor surrenders his property for the benefit of his creditors. Merlin Repert.

Abandonment.