Acquiesce

Comprehending laws and contracts is impossible, unless we first learn the meaning of the words and phrases they contain.

Moderator: notmartha

Post Reply
User avatar
notmartha
Posts: 896
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 1:16 pm

Acquiesce

Post by notmartha »

KJV References

None

Septuagint, Brenton's edition
Leviticus 26:41 - and I walked with them with a perverse mind; and I will destroy them in the land of their enemies: then shall their uncircumcised heart be ashamed, and then shall they acquiesce in [the punishment of] their sins.
Webster’s Dictionary, 1828
ACQUIESCE, verb intransitive acquiess'. [Latin acquiesco, of ad and quiesco, to be quiet; quies, rest.]
1. To rest satisfied, or apparently satisfied, or to rest without opposition and discontent; usually implying previous opposition, uneasiness, or dislike, but ultimate compliance, or submission; as, to acquiesce in the dispensations of providence.
2. To assent to, upon conviction; as, to acquiesce in an opinion; that is, to rest satisfied of its correctness, or propriety.
ACQUIESCED in, in a passive sense, complied with; submitted to, without opposition; as, a measure has been acquiesced in.
Bouvier’s Dictionary of Law, 1856
ACQUIESCENCE, contracts.
1. The consent which is impliedly given by one or both parties, to a proposition, a clause, a condition, a judgment, or to any act whatever.
2. When a party is bound to elect between a paramount right and a testamentary disposition, his acquiescence in a state of things which indicates an election, when he was aware of his rights will be prima facie evidence of such election.
3. The acts of acquiescence which constitute an implied election must be decided rather by the circumstances of each case than by any general principle.
4. Acquiescence in the acts of an agent, or one who has assumed that character, will, be equivalent to an express authority. Acquiescence differs from assent.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891:
ACQUIESCE.
To give an implied consent to a transaction, to the accrual of a right, or to any act, by one‘s mere silence, or with
out express assent or acknowledgment.
ACQUIESCENCE.
Acquiescence is where a person who knows that he is entitled to impeach a transaction or enforce a right neglects to do so for such a length of time that, under the circumstances of the case, the other party may fairly infer that he has
waived or abandoned his right. Sweet.

Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, 1991
Acquiesce
To give an implied consent to a transaction, to the accrual of a right, or to any act, by one’s mere silence, or without express assent or acknowledgement.

Acquiescence
Conduct recognizing the existence of a transaction, and intended, in some extent at least, to carry the transaction, or permit it to be carried, into effect. Passive compliance or satisfaction; distinguished from avowed consent on the one hand, and, on the other, from opposition or open discontent. Conduct from which assent may be reasonably inferred. Equivalent to assent inferred from silence with knowledge or from encouragement and presupposes knowledge and assent. Imports tacit consent, concurrence, acceptance or assent.
Acquiescence and laches are cognate but not equivalent terms. The former is a submission to, or resting satisfied with, an existing state of things, while laches implies a neglect to do that which the party ought to do for his own benefit or protection. Hence laches may be evidence of acquiescence. Laches imports a merely passive assent, while acquiescence implies active assent. “Acquiescence” relates to inaction during a performance of an act while “laches” relates to delay after act is done.
Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1893). Vol. 1
The great majority of governments have been the result of force or fraud; yet even these may be considered as resting upon the tacit consent or acquiescence of the governed. If they have the physical power, they are competent to overthrow it; nor are other nations justified in interfering in such domestic conflicts. It is to be remarked that in the freest nations—even in the republics which compose the United States—the consent of the entire body of the people has never been expressly obtained.
Acquiescence is often by silence. While you have the “right to remain silent” it is not always the prudent move.

Bouvier’s Dictionary of Law, 1856
SILENCE.
1. The state of a person who does not speak, or of one who refrains from speaking.
2. Pure and simple silence cannot be considered as a consent to a contract, except in cases when the silent person is bound in good faith to explain himself, in which case, silence gives consent. But no assent will be inferred from a man's silence, unless, 1st. He knows his rights and knows what he is doing and, 2d. His silence is voluntary.
3. When any person is accused of a crime, or charged with any fact, and he does not deny it, in general, the presumption is very strong that the charge is correct.
4. The rule does not extend to the silence of a prisoner, when on his examination before a magistrate he is charged by another prisoner with having joined him in the commission of an offence:
5. When an oath is administered to a witness, instead of expressly promising to keep it, he gives his assent by his silence, and kissing the book.
6. The person to be affected by the silence must be one not disqualified to act as non compos, an infant, or the like, for even the express promise of such a person would not bind him to the performance of any contract.
7. The rule of the civil law is that silence is not an acknowledgment or denial in every case, qui tacet, non utique fatetur: sed tamen verum est, eum non negaro.

Admissions
13. Admissions are express or implied. An express admission is one made in direct terms. An admission may be implied from the silence of the party, and may be presumed. As for instance, when the existence of the debt, or of the particular right, has been asserted in his presence, and he has not contradicted it. And an aquiescence and endurance, when acts are done by another, which if wrongfully done, are encroachments, and call for resistance and opposition, are evidence, as a tacit admission that such acts could not be legally resisted.
Maxims Regarding Silence
To conceal is one thing, to be silent another.

What is expressed renders what is implied silent.

The omission of those things which are silently expressed is of no consequence.

He who is silent appears to consent.

Things silent are sometimes considered as expressed.
Also see Consent and Assent, Agreement, De Facto
Post Reply