Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Circuity of action is, when an action is rightfully brought for a duty, but yet about the bush, as it were, for that it might as well have been otherwise answered and determined, and the suit saved: a

Duty

1. A legal obligation that is owed or due to another and that needs to be satisfied; an obligation for which somebody else has a corresponding right. "There is a duty if the court says there is a duty; the law, like the Constitution, is what we make it. Duty is only a word with which we state our conclusion that there is or is not to be liability; it necessarily begs the essential question .... [M]any factors interplay: the hand of history, our ideas of morals and justice, the convenience of administration of the rule, and our social ideas as to where loss should fall." William L. Prosser, Palsgraf Revisited, 52 Mich. L. Rev. 1, 15 (1953) "A classic English definition [of duty] from the late nineteenth century holds that, when circumstances place one individual in such a position with regard to another that thinking persons of ordinary sense would recognize the danger of injury to the othe

absolute duty

A duty to which no corresponding right attaches. ( According to John Austin's legal philosophy, there are four kinds of absolute duties: (1) duties not regarding persons (such as those owed to God and to lower animals), (2) duties owed to persons indefinitely (i.e., to the community as a whole), (3) self-regarding duties (such as the duty not to commit suicide), and (4) duties owed to the sovereign. 1 John Austin, The Providence of Jurisprudence Determined 400 (Sarah Austin ed., 2d ed. 1861).

active duty

See positive duty.

active duty.

Military law. The full-time status of being in any of the U.S. armed forces.

active-control-of-vessel duty.

See ACTIVE-OPERATIONS DUTY.

active-operations duty

Maritime law. A shipowner's obligation to provide safe working conditions, in the work areas controlled by the shipowner, for the stevedore and longshoremen who are loading or unloading the ship. - Also termed active-control-of-vessel duty. Cf. TURNOVER DUTY; INTERVENTION DUTY.

affirmative duty

A duty to take a positive step to do something.

breach of duty

The violation of a legal or moral obligation; the failure to act as the law obligates one to act. See NEGLIGENCE.

common duty of care

A landowner's obligation to take reasonable care under the circumstances to see that a lawful visitor will be reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which the visitor is permitted to be there.

contractual duty

1. A duty arising under a particular contract. 2. A duty imposed by the law of contracts.

countervailing duty

A duty that protects domestic industry by offsetting subsidies given by foreign governments to manufacturers of imported goods.

customs duty

A duty levied on an imported or exported commodity; esp., the federal tax levied on goods shipped into the United States.

delegable duty

A duty that may be transferred to another to perform. See ASSIGNMENT.

duty of candor

See DUTY (2)

duty of care.

See DUTY (3)

duty of detraction

A tax on property acquired by succession or will and then removed from one state to another.

duty of detraction.

See DUTY (4).

duty of fair representation

A labor union's duty to represent its member employees fairly, honestly, and in good faith.

duty of fair representation.

See DUTY (2)

duty of good faith and fair dealing

A duty that is implied in some contractual relationships, requiring the parties to deal with each other fairly, so that neither prohibits the other from realizing the agreement's benefits. This duty is most commonly implied in insurance contracts, and usu. against the insurer, regarding matters such as the insurer's obligation to settle reasonable demands that are within the policy's coverage limits. See GOOD FAITH; BAD FAITH.

duty of loyalty

See DUTY (2)

duty of the flag.

Hist. A maritime ceremony by which a foreign vessel struck her flag and lowered her topsail upon meeting the British flag. ( The ceremony was an acknowledgment of British sovereignty over the British seas.

duty of tonnage

A charge imposed on a commercial vessel for entering, remaining in, or leaving a port.

duty of water

The amount of water necessary to irrigate a given tract. duty on import. See import duty under DUTY (4).

duty to act

A duty to take some action to prevent harm to another, and for the failure of which one may be liable depending on the relationship of the parties and the circumstances.

duty to act.

See DUTY (i).

duty to mitigate

Contracts. A nonbreaching party's duty to make reasonable efforts to limit losses resulting from the other party's breach. ( Not doing so precludes the party from collecting damages that might have

duty to speak

A duty to say something to correct another's false impression. 0 For example, a duty to speak may arise when a person has, during the course of negotiations, said something that was true at the time but that has ceased to be true before the contract is signed.

duty-bound

adj. Required by legal or moral obligation to do something <Jones is dutybound to deliver the goods by Friday>.

duty-free, adj

Of or relating to products of foreign origin that are not subject to import or export taxes.

duty-to-defend clause

A liability-insurance provision obligating the insurer to take over the defense of any lawsuit brought by a third party against the insured on a claim that falls within the policy's coverage.

estate duty

A duty imposed on the principalvalue of all property that passed on death. ( In Britain, this duty was replaced by inheritance

fiduciary duty

A duty of utmost good faith, trust, confidence, and candor owed by a fiduciary (such as a lawyer or corporate officer) to the beneficiary (such as a lawyer's client or a shareholder); a duty to act with the highest degree of honesty and loyalty toward another person and in the best interests of the other person (such as the duty that one partner owes to another). See FIDUCIARY; FIDUCIARY RELATIONSHIP.

gross neglect of duty.

See DESERTION.

house-duty.

Hist. English law. A tax first imposed in 1851 on inhabited houses. 14 & 15 Vict., ch. 36 (repealed 1924). ( This tax replaced the window tax, which levied a duty on houses with more than six windows. See window tax under TAX.

imperfect duty

1. A duty that, though recognized by law, is not enforceable against the person who owes it. 2. A duty that is not fit for enforcement but should be left to the discretion and conscience of the person whose duty it is.

implied duty of cooperation

A duty existing in every contract, obligating each party to cooperate with, or at least not to wrongfully hinder, the other party's performance. Breach of this implied duty excuses performance.

implied duty of cooperation.

See DUTY (1)

import duty

1. A duty on the importation of a product. 2. A duty on the imported product. - Also termed duty on import.

intervention duty

Maritime law. A shipowner's obligation to remedy hazardous working conditions for longshore workers, even though the shipowner did not create the condition, when the shipowner knows of a nonobvious condition arising in an area that cannot be avoided by the longshore workers in performing their duties. Cf. ACTIVE-OPERATIONS DUTY; TURNOVER DUTY.

jury duty

1 The obligation to serve on a jury. 2. Actual service on a jury. - Also termed jury service

legacy duty

1 A tax on a legacy, often with the provision that the rate increases as the relationship of the legatee becomes more remote from the testator. - Also termed collateral inheritance tax. 2. Hist. A tax imposed on personal property (other than a leasehold) passing by will or through intestacy.

legal duty

A duty arising by contract or by operation of law; an obligation the breach of which would be a legal wrong <the legal duty of parents to support their children>.

moral duty

See DUTY (1)

natural duty

See moral duty under DUTY (1;

negative duty

A duty that forbids someone to do something; a duty that requires someone to abstain from something. - Also termed passive duty.

no-duty

n. Liberty not to do an act. Also termed liberty not.

no-duty doctrine

1. Torts. The rule that a defendant who owes no duty to the plaintiff is not liable for the plaintiff's injury. 2. The rule that the owner or possessor of property has no duty to warn or protect an invitee from known or obvious hazards.

noncontractual duty

A duty that arises independently of any contract.