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Vacant / Vacate

Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition:
Vacant. Empty; unoccupied; as, a "vacant" office or parcel of land. Deprived of contents, without inanimate objects. It implies entire abandonment, nonoccupancy for any purpose. Foley v. Sonoma County Farmer's Mut. Fire Ins. Co. of Sonoma, Cal.App., 108 P.2d 939, 942. Absolutely free, unclaimed, and unoccupied.
In fire policy insuring dwelling, term "vacant" means empty, without inanimate objects, deprived of contents; a thing is vacant when there is nothing in it; "vacant" means abandoned and not used for any purpose.

Vacate. To annul; to set aside; to cancel or rescind. To render an act void; as, to vacate an entry of record, or a judgment. As applied to a judgment or decree it is not synonymous with "suspend" which means to stay enforcement of judgment or decree.
To put an end to; as, to vacate a street. To move out; to make vacant or empty; to leave; especially, to surrender possession by removal; to cease from occupancy.

[Editor's note: If Andrew makes a claim against Ben for payment of cash, property, or services, but Ben demands that Andrew first produce the contract or law (together with the implementing regulation making Ben a person under that law) obligating Ben to satisfy Andrew's claim; and if Andrew cannot produce such a contract or law; then can Ben rightfully call Andrew's claim vacant? Yes, I think that is a proper use of the term.]

KJV References

None

Webster’s Dictionary, 1828

VA'CATE, verb transitive
1. To annul; to made void; to make of no authority or validity; as, to vacate a charter.
The necessity of observing the Jewish sabbath was vacated by the apostolical institution of the Lord's day.
2. To make vacant; to quit possession and leave destitute. It was resolved by parliament that James had vacated the throne of England.
3. To defeat; to put an end to.
He vacates my revenge. [Unusual.]

VA'CANT, adjective [Latin vacans.]
1. Empty; not filled; void of every substance except air; as a vacant space between houses; vacant room.
2. Empty; exhausted of air; as a vacant receiver.
3. Free; unincumbered; unengaged with business or care.
Philosophy is the interest of those only who are vacant from the affairs of the world.
4. Not filled or occupied with an incumbent or possessor; as a vacant throne; a vacant parish.
5. Being unoccupied with business; as vacant hours; vacant moments.
6. Empty of thought; thoughtless; not occupied with study or reflection; as a vacant mind.
7. Indicating want of thought.
The duke had a pleasant and vacant face.
8. In law, abandoned; having no heir; as vacant effect or goods.

Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856

VACANCY.
1. A place which is empty. The term is principally applied to cases where an office is not filled.
2. By the constitution of the United States, the president has the power to fill up vacancies that may happen during the recess of the senate. Whether the president can create an office and fill it during the recess of the senate, seems to have been much questioned. Story, Const. §1553. See Serg. Const. Law, ch. 31; 1 Breese, R. 70.

VACANT POSSESSION, estates.
An estate which has been abandoned by the tenant; the abandonment must be complete in order to make the possession vacant, and therefore if the tenant have goods on the premises, it will not be so considered. 2 Chit. Rep. 17 7; 2 Str. 1064; Bull. N. P. 97; Comyn on Landl. & Ten. 507, 517.

VACANT SUCCESSION.
An inheritance for which the heirs are unknown.

VACANTIA, BONA, civil law.
Goods without an owner. Such goods escheat.

TO VACATE.
To annul, to render an act void; as to vacate an entry which has been made on a record when the court has been imposed upon by fraud, or taken by surprise.

Black's Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891

VACANCY.

A place which is empty. The term is principally applied to an interruption in the incumbency of an office. The term “vacancy” applies not only to an interregnum in an existing office, but it aptly and fitly describes the condition of an office when it is first created, and has been filled by no incumbent. 89 Pa. St. 425.

VACANT POSSESSION.

An estate which has been abandoned, vacated, or forsaken by the tenant.

VACANT SUCCESSION.

A succession is called “vacant” when no one claims it, or when all the heirs are unknown, or when all the known heirs to it have renounced it. Civil Code La. art. 1095.

VACANTIA BONA.

Lat. In the civil law. Goods without an owner, or in which no one claims a property; escheated goods. Inst. 2, 6, 4; 1 Bl. Comm. 298.

VACATE.

To ennui; to cancel or rescind; to render an act void; as, to vacate an entry of record, or a judgment.

WEX Legal Dictionary

Vacatur
Definition
Latin for "it is vacated." A rule or order that sets aside a judgment or annuls a proceeding.

Vacate
Definition
1) In civil and criminal procedure
To set aside or annul a previous judgment or order.
2) In property law
To surrender or leave the premises.

Vacant
Definition
1) Empty, unclaimed, and/or unoccupied real property.
2) An abandoned estate, i.e. an estate that has no heirs or claimants.

Vacant succession
Definition
An estate that has no heirs, because they either do not exist or have renounced the estate. A vacant estate may escheat back to the state.

William Cowper said:

Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.

Walter Lippmann said:

A regime, an established order, is rarely overthrown by a revolutionary movement; usually a regime collapses of its own weakness and corruption and then a revolutionary movement enters among the ruins and takes over the powers that have become vacant.

Thomas Jefferson said:

I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.

Lieutenant Commander Robert E. Korroch said:

The jury possesses a general veto power and may acquit when it has no sympathy for the Government’s case, no matter how overwhelming the evidence of guilt. A jury acquittal is final and unreviewable; a judge may not direct a jury to convict or vacate an acquittal, nor may a prosecutor appeal an acquittal on grounds of judicial error or erroneous jury determination.

Samuel Adams said:

If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of Almighty God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.