contr. A clause in an agreement, by which the obligor agrees to pay a certain-sum of money, if he shall fail to fulfill the contract contained in another clause of the same agreement. 2. A penal clause in an agreement supposes two obligations, one of which is the primitive or principal; and the other, is, conditional or accessory. 3. The penal obligation differs from an alternative obligation, for this is but one in its essence; while a penalty always includes two distinct engagements, and, when the first is fulfilled, the second is void. When a breach has taken place, the obligee has his option to require the fulfillment of the first obligation, or’ the payment of the penalty, in those cases which cannot be relieved in equity, when the penalty is considered as liquidated damages. Dalloz, Dict. mots Obligation avec clause penale. 4. It is difficult, in many cases, to distinguish between a penalty and liquidated damages. In general, the courts have inclined to consider the sum reserved by such agreement to be a penalty, rather than as stipulated damages. 5. The sum will be considered as a penalty, and not as liquidated damages, in the following cases: 1. When the parties to the agreement have expressly declared the sum to be a penalty, and no other intent is to be collected from the instrument. 2. When from the form of the instrument, as in the case of a money bond, it is sufficiently clear a penalty was intended. 3. When it is doubtful whether the sum was intended as a penalty or not, and a certain damage or debt is made payable on the face of the instrument. 4. When the agreement was evidently made for the attainment of another object, to which the sum, specified is wholly collateral. 5. When the agreement contains several matters, of different degrees of importance, and yet the sum mentioned is payable for the breach of any, even the least. 6 Bing. 141; 5 Bing. N. C. 390; 7 Scott, 364. 6. When the contract is not under seal, and the damages may be ascertained and estimated; and this though the parties have expressly declared the sum to be as liquidated damages. 6. The penalty remains unaffected, although the condition may have been partially performed; as in a case where the penalty was one thousand dollars, and the condition was to pay an annuity of one hundred dollars, which had been paid for ten years; the penalty was still valid. 5 Verm. 365. 7. A distinction seems to be made in courts of equity between penalties and forfeitures. In cases of forfeiture for the breach of any covenant other than a covenant to pay rent, relief will not be granted in equity, unless upon the ground of accident, fraud, mistake, or surprise, when the breach is capable of compensation.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
1. The sum of money which the obligor of a bond undertakes to pay by way of penalty, in the event of his omitting to perform or carry out the terms imposed Upon him by the conditions of the bond. Brown; Tayloe v. Sandiford, 7 Wheat 13, 5 L. Ed. 384; Watt v. Sheppard, 2 Ala. 445. A penalty is an agreement to pay a greater sum, to secure the payment of a less sum. It is conditional, and can be avoided by the payment of the less sum before the contingency agreed upon shall happen. By what name it is called is immaterial. Henry v. Thompson, Minor (Ala.) 209, 227. 2. A punishment; a punishment Imposed by statute as a consequence of the commission of a certain specified offense. The terms “fine,” “forfeiture,” and “penalty” are often used loosely, and even confusedly; but when a discrimination is made, the word copenalty” is found to be generic in its character, including both fine and forfeiture. A “fine fe a pecuniary penalty, and is commonly (perhaps always) to be collected by suit in some form. A “forfeiture” is a penalty by which one loses his rights and interest in his property. Gosseiink v. Campbell, 4 Iowa, 300. “3.The term also denotes money recoverable by virtue of a statute imposing a payment by way of punishment.