(A) Banking. An amount or commission that is paid to a lender (such as a bank) for a loan of money or an extension of credit. The interest rate is added to the balance due and calculated periodically. It may be monthly or annual. Compounded means that the interest that is generated but which may not be due until later, may be added into the calculation of the amount due under the loan. For example, if a loan is due end of year and is calculated and compounded monthly, interest for the following month includes the principal of the loan plus the interest due. An 8% interest rate compounded monthly on a $100 loan that is due end of year results in an 8% interest rate being applied to $108 for the second month of the loan. (B) estates. The right which a man has in a chattel real, and more particularly in a future term. It is a word of less efficacy and extent than estates, though, in legal understanding, an interest extends to estates, rights and titles which a man has in or out of lands, so that by a grant of his whole interest in land, a reversion as well as the fee simple shall pass. (C) contracts. The right of property which a man has in a thing, commonly called insurable interest. It is not easy to give all accurate definition of insurable interest. 2. The policy of commerce and the various complicated. rights which different persons may have in the same thing, require that not only those who have an absolute property in ships and goods, but those also who have a qualified property therein, may be at liberty to insure them. For example, when a ship is mortgaged, after, the mortgage becomes absolute, the owner of the legal estate has an insurable interest, and the mortgagor, on account of his equity, has also an insurable interest. 3. A man may not only insure his own life for the benefit of his heirs or creditors, and assign the benefit of this insurance to others having thus or otherwise an interest in his life, but be may insure the life of another in which he may be interested. (D) evidence. The benefit which a person has in the matter about to be decided and which is in issue between the parties. By the term benefit is here understood some pecuniary or other advantage, which if obtained, would increase the, witness estate, or some loss, which would decrease it. 2. It is a general rule that a party who has an interest in the cause cannot be a witness. It will be proper to consider this matter by taking a brief view of the thing or subject in dispute, which is the object of the interest; the quantity of interest; the quality of interest; when an interested witness can be examined; when the interest must exist; how an interested witness can be rendered competent. 3. 1. To be disqualified on the ground of interest, the witness must gain or lose by the event of the cause, or the verdict must be lawful evidence for or against him in another suit, or the record must be an instrument of evidence for or against him. But an interest in the question does not disqualify the witness. 4. 2. The magnitude of the interest is altogether immaterial, even a liability for the most trifling costs will be sufficient. 5. 3. With regard to the quality, the interest must be legal, as contradistinguished from mere prejudice or bias, arising from relationship, friendship, or any of the numerous motives by which a witness may be supposed to be influenced. It must be a present, certain, vested interest, and not uncertain and contingent. And it must have been acquired without fraud. . 6. 4. To the general rule that interest renders a witness incompetent, there are some exceptions. First. Although the witness may have an interest, yet if his interest is equally strong on the other side, and no more, the witness is reduced to a state of neutrality by an equipoise of interest, and the objection to his testimony ceases. 7. Secondly. In some instances the law admits the testimony of one interested, from the extreme necessity of the case; upon this ground the servant of a tradesman is admitted to prove the delivery of goods and the payment of money, without any release from the master. 8. 5. The interest, to render the witness disqualified, must exist at the time of his examination. A deposition made at a time when the witness had no interest, may be read in evidence, although he has afterwards acquired an interest.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In property. The most general term that can be employed to denote a property in lands or chattels.’ In its application to lands or things real, it is frequently used in connection with the terms “estate,” “right,” and “title,” and, according to Lord Coke, it properly includes them all. Co. Litt. 345&. See Ragsdale v. Mays, 65 Tex. 257; Hurst v. Hurst, 7 W. Va. 297; New York v. Stone, 20 Wend. (N. Y.) 142; State v. Mc Kellop, 40 Mo. 185; Loventhal v. Home Ins. Co., 112 Ala. 116, 20 South. 419, 33 L R. A. 258, 57 Am. St. Rep. 17. More particularly it means a right to have the advantage accruing from anything; any right in the nature of property, but less than title; a partial or undivided right; a title to a share. The terms “interest” and “title” are not synonymous. A mortgagor in possession, and a purchaser holding under a deed defectively executed, have, both of them, absolute as well as insurable interests in the property, though neither of them has the legal title. Hough v. City F. Ins. Co., 29 Conn. 20, 76 Am. Dec. 581. Absolnte or conditional. That is an absolute interest in property which is so completely vested in the individual that he can by no contingency be deprived of it without bis own consent. So, too, he is the owner of such absolute interest who must necessarily sustain the loss if the property is destroyed. The terms “interest” and “title” are not synonymous. A mortgagor in possession, and a purchaser holding under a deed defectively executed, have, both of them, absolute, as well as insurable, interests in the property, though neither of them has the legal title. “Absolute” is here synonymous with “vested,” and is used in contradistinction to contingent or conditional. Hough v. City F. Ins. Co., 29 Conn. 10, 76 Am. Dec. 581; Garver v. Hawkeye Ins. Co, 69 Iowa, 202. 28 N. W. 555; Washington F. Ins. Co. v. Kelly, 32 Md. 421, 431, 3 Am. Rep. 149; Elliott v. Ashland Mut. F. Ins. Co., 117 Pa. 548, 12 Atl. 676, 2 Am. St. Rep. 703; Williams v. Buffalo German Ins. Co. (C. C) 17 Fed. 63. Interest or no interest. These words, inserted in an insurance policy, mean that the question whether the insured has or has not an insurable interest in the subject matter is waived, and the policy is to be good irrespective of such interest. The effect of such a clause is to make it a wager policy. Interest policy. In insurance. One which actually, or prima fade, covers a substantial and insurable interest; as opposed to a wager policy. Interest suit. In English law. An action in the probate branch of the high court of justice, in which the question in dispute is as to which party is entitled to a grant of letters of administration of the estate of a deceased pex^son. Wharton. In the law of evidence. “Interest,” in a statute that no witness shall be excluded by interest in the event of the suit, means “concern,” “advantage,” “good,” “share,” “portion,” “part,” or “participation.” Fitch v. Bates, 11 Barb. (N. Y.) 471; Morgan v. Johnson, 87 Ga. 382, 13 S. E. 710. A relation to the matter in controversy, or to the issue of the suit, in the nature of a prospective gain or loss, which actually does, or presumably might, create a bias or prejudice in the mind, inclining the person to favor one side or the other. For money. Interest is the compensation allowed by law or fixed by the parties for the use or forbearance or detention of money. Civ. Code Cal.