(A) chancery practice. The performance of that which a court of chancery orders to be done on relieving a party who has broken a condition, which is to place the opposite party in no worse situation than if the condition had not been broken. 2. Courts of equity will not relieve from the consequences of a broken condition, unless compensation can be made to the opposite party. Fonb. c. 6; s. 51 n. (k) Newl. Contr: 251, et. seq. 3. When a simple mistake, not a fraud, affects a contract, but does not change its essence, a court of equity will enforce it, upon making compensation for the error, The principle upon which courts of equity act, says Lord Chancellor Eldon, is by all the authorities brought to the true standard, that though the party had not a title at law, because he had not strictly complied with the terms so as to entitle him to an action, (as to time for instance,) yet if the time, though introduced, as some time must be fixed, where something is to be done on one side, as a consideration for something to be done on the other, is not the essence of the contract; a material object, to which they looked in the first conception of it, even though the lapse of time has not arisen from accident, a court of equity will compel the execution of the contract upon this ground, that one party is ready to perform, and that the other ma, have performance in substance if he will permit it. (B) contracts. A reward for services rendered. (C) contracts, civil law. When two persons are equally indebted to each other, there takes place a compensation between them, which extinguishes both debts. Compensation is, therefore, a reciprocal liberation between two persons who are creditors and debtors to each other, which liberation takes place instead of payment, and prevents a circuity. Or it may be more briefly defined as follows; compensatio est debiti et crediti intter se contributio. 2. Compeasation takes places, of course, by the more operation of law, even unknown to the debtors the two debts are reciprocally extinguished, as soon as they exist simultaneously, to the, amount of their respective sums. Compensation takes place only between two debts, having equally for their object a sum of money, or a certain quantity of consumable things of one and the same kind, and which are equally liquidated and demandable. Compensation takes place, whatever be the cause of either of the debts, except in case, 1st. of a demand of restitution of a thing of which the owner has been unjustly deprived; 2d. of a demand of restitution of a deposit and a loan for use; 3d. of a debt which has for its cause, aliments declared not liable to seizure. Civil Code of. Louis. 2203 to 2208. Compensation is of three kinds: 1. legal or by operation of law; 2. compensation by way of exception; and, 3. by reconvention. 3. Compensation very nearly resembles the set-off of the common law. The principal difference is this, that a set-off, to have any effect, must be pleaded; whereas compensation is effectual without any such plea, only the balance is a debt. .2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1407. (D) crim. law; Compeusatio criminura, or recrimination 2. In cases of suits for divorce on the ground of adultery, a compensation of the crime hinders its being granted; that is, if the defendant proves that the party has also committed adultery, the defendant is absolved as to the matters charged in the libel of the plaintiff.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
Indemnification; payment of damages; making amends; that which la necessary to restore an injured party to his former position. An act which a court orders to be done, or money which a court orders to be paid, by a person whose acts or omissions have caused loss or injury to another, in order that thereby the person damnified may receive equal value for his loss, or be made whole in respect of his injury. Railroad Co. v. Denman, 10 Minn. 280 (Gil. 206). Also that equivalent In money which is paid to the owners and occupiers of lands taken or injuriously affected by the operations of companies exercising the power of eminent domain. In the constitutional provision for “just compensation” for property taken under the power of eminent domain, this term means a payment in money. Any benefit to the remaining property of the owner, arising from public works for which a part has been taken, cannot be considered as compensation. Railroad Co. v. Burkett, 42 Ala. 83. As compared with consideration and damages compensation, in its most careful use, seems to be between them. Consideration is amends for something given by consent, or by the owner’s choice. Damages is amends exacted from a wrongdoer for a tort Compensation is amends for something which was taken without the owner’s choice, vet without commission of a tort Thus, one should say, consideration for land sold; compensation for land taken for a railway; damages for a trespass. But such distinctions are not uniform. Land damages is a common expression for compensation for lands taken for public use. Abbott. The word also signifies the remuneration or wages given to an employe or officer. But it is not exactly synonymous with “salary.” See People v. Wemple, 115 N. Y. 302, 22 N. E. 272; Com. v. Carter, 55 S. W. 701, 21 Ky. Law Rep. 1509; Crawford County v. Lindsay, 11 111. App. 261; Kilgore v. People, 76 111. 548. In the civil, Scotch, and French law. Recoupment; set-off. The meeting of two debts due by two parties, where the debtor in the one debt is the creditor in the other; that is to say, where one person is both debtor and creditor to another, and therefore, to the extent of what Is due to him, claims allowance out of the sum that he is due. Bell; 1 Karnes, Eq. 395, 396. Compensation is of three kinds, legal, or by operation of law; compensation by way of exception; and by reconvention. Stewart v. Harper, 16 La. Ann. 181. Compensatory damages. See DAMAGES.