In chancery practice. The exercise of a right to designate the person or persons who are to take the use of real estate. 2 Washb. Real Prop. 302. The act of a person in directing the disposition of property, by limiting a use, or by substituting a new use for a former one, in pursuance of a power granted to him for that purpose by a preceding deed, called a “power of appointment;” also the deed or other instrument by which he so conveys. Where the power embraces several permitted objects, and the appointment is made to one or more of them, excluding others, it is called “exclusive.” Appointment may signify an appropriation of money to a specific purpose. Harris ,v. Clark, 3 N. Y. 93, 119, 51 Am. Dec. 352. In public law. The selection or designation of a person, by the person or persons having authority therefor, to fill an office or public function and discharge the duties of the same. State v. New Orleans, 41 La Ann. 156, 6 South. 592; Wickersham v. Brit tan, 93 Cal. 34, 28 Pac. 792, 15 L. R. A. 106; Speed v. Crawford, 3 Mete. (Ky.) 210. The term “appointment” is to be distinguished from “election.” The former is an executive act, whereby a person is named as the incumbent of an office and invested therewith, by one or more individuals who have the sole power and right to select and constitute the officer. Election means that the person is chosen by a principle of selection in the nature of a vote, participated in by the public generally or by the entire class of persons qualified to express their choice in this manner. See McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U. S. 1, 13 Sup. Ot. 3, 36 L. Ed. 869; State v. Compson, 34 Or. 25, 54 Pac 349; Reid v. Gorsuch, 67 N. J. Law, 396, 51 Atl. 457; State v. Squire, 39 Ohio St. 197; State v. Williams, 60 Kan. 837, 58 Pac. 476.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
The act of appointing someone to do a job, the act of designation of an individual to a position or to perform a task. (A) chancery practice. The act of a person authorized by a will or other instrument to direct how trust property shall be disposed of, directing such disposition agreeably to the general directions of the trust. 2. The appointment must be made in such a manner as to come within the spirit of the power. And although at law the rule only requires that some allotment, however small, shall be given to each person, when the power is to appoint to and among several persons; the rule in equity differs, and requires a real and substantial portion to each, and a mere nominal allotment to one is deemed illusory and fraudulent. When the distribution is left to discretion, without any prescribed rule, Is to such of the children as the trustee shall think proper, he may appoint to one only; 5 Ves. 857; but if the words be, ‘amongst’ the children as he should think proper, each must have a share, and the doctrine of illusory appointment applies. (B) government, wills. The act by which a person is selected and invested with an office; as the appointment of a judge, of which the making out of his commission is conclusive evidence. The appointment of an executor, which is done by nominating him as such in a will or testament. 2. By appointment is also understood a public employment, nearly synonymous with office. The distinction is this, that the term appointment is of a more extensive signification than office; for example, the act of authorizing a man to print the laws of the United States by authority, and the right conveyed by such an act, is an appointment, but the right thus conveyed is not an office.