conveyancing, contracts. (A) The conveyance of funds or assets to a third party to hold in trust and distributed after the successful closing of a sale or a set of conditions occur. Escrow of money is most common where a third party releases funds to a seller upon the successful transferrance of property to the buyer. Also common is source code escrow, a situation where the source code of a compiled computer program is held safely for the purchaser of a program so that, in the event of the dissolution of the developer, the purchaser may be able to have access to the source code in order to maintain their ability to continue to make use of their significant investment in computer software. (B) 1. A conditional delivery of a deed to a stranger, and not to the grantee himself, until certain conditions shall be performed, and then it is to be delivered to the grantee. Until the condition be performed and the deed delivered over, the estate does not pass, but remains in the grantor. 2. Generally, an escrow takes effect from the second delivery, and is to be considered as the deed of the party from that time; but this general rule does not apply when justice requires a resort to fiction. The relation back to the first delivery, so as to give the deed effect from that time, is allowed in cases of necessity, to avoid injury to the operation of the deed, from events happening between the first and second delivery. For example, when a feme sole makes a deed and delivers it as an escrow, and then marries before the second delivery, the relation back to the time when she was sole, is necessary to render the deed valid.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A scroll; a writing; a deed. Particularly a deed delivered by the grantor into the hands of a third person, to be held by the latter until the happening of a contingency or performance of a condition, and then by him delivered to the grantee. Thomas v. Sowards, 25 Wis. 631; Patrick v. McCormick, 10 Neb. 1, 4 N. W. 312; Cagger v. Lansing, 57 Barb. (N. Y.) 427; Davis v. Clark, 58 Kan. 100, 48 Pac. 563; Easton v. iDrlscoll, 18 R. I. 318, 27 Atl. 445. A grant may he deposited by the grantor with a third person, to be delivered on the performance of a condition, and on delivery by the depositary it will take effect. While in the possession of the third person, and subject to condition, it is called an “escrow.” Civil Code Cal.