The relinquishment or refusal to accept of a right. 2. In practice it is required of every one to take advantage of his rights at a proper time and, neglecting to do so, will be considered as a waiver. If, for example, a defendant who has been misnamed in the writ and declaration, pleads over, he cannot afterwards take advantage of the error by pleading in abatement, for his plea amounts to a waiver. 3. In seeking for a remedy the party injured may, in some instances, waive a part of his right, and sue for another; for example, when the defendant has committed a trespass on the property of the plaintiff, by taking it away, and afterwards he sells it, the injured party may waive the trespass, and bring an action of assumpsit for the recovery of the money thus received by the defendant. 4. In contracts, if, after knowledge of a supposed fraud, surprise or mistake, a party performs the agreement in part, he will be considered as having waived the objection. 5. It is a rule of the civil law, consonant with reason, that any one may renounce or waive that which has been established in his favor: Regula est juris antique omnes licentiam habere his quae pro se introducta sunt, renunciare.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
The renunciation, repudiation, abandonment, or surrender of some claim, right, privilege, or of the opportunity to take advantage of some defect, irregularity, or wrong. The passing by of an occasion to enforce a legal right, whereby the right to enforce the same is lost; a common instance of this is where a landlord waives a forfeiture of a lease by receiving rent, or distraining for rent, which has accrued due after the breach. of covenant causing the forfeiture became known to him. Wharton. This word is commonly used to denote the declining to take advantage of an irregularity in legal proceedings, or of a forfeiture Incurred through breach of covenants In a lease. A gift of goods may be waived by a disagreement to accept; so a plaintiff may commonly sue in contract waiving the tort. Implied waiver. A waiver is implied where one party has pursued such a course of conduct with reference to the other party as to evidence an intention to waive his rights or the advantage to which he may be entitled, or where the conduct pursued is inconsistent with any other honest intention than ail intention of such waiver, provided that the other party concerned has been induced by such conduct to act upon the belief that there has been a waiver, and has incurred trouble or expense thereby. Waiver of exemption. A clause inserted in a note, bond, lease, etc, expressly waiving the benefit of the laws exempting limited amounts of personal property from levy and sale on judicial process, so far as concerns the enforcement of the particular debt or obligation. . Waiver. A protest. An agreement by the indorser of a note or bill to be bound in his character of indorser without the formality of a protest in case of non payment, or, in the case of paper which cannot or is not required to be protested, dispensing with the necessity of a demand and notice. Waiver of tort. The election, by an injured party, for purposes of redress, to treat the facts as establishing an implied contract, which he may enforce, instead of an injury by fraud or wrong, for the committing of which he may demand damages, compensatory or exemplary.