The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abandonment

ABANDONMENT, the act of abandoning, giving up, or relinquishing.

In commerce it is the relinquishment of an interest of claim. Thus, in certain circumstances, a person who has insured property on board a ship may relinquish to the insurers a remnant of it saved from a wreck, as a preliminary to calling upon them to pay the full amount of the insurance effected.

The principle is also applicable in fire insurance, and often under stipulations in life policies in favor of creditors. The chief object of abandonment being to recover the whole value of the subject of the insurance, it is necessary only where the subject itself, or portions of it, or claims on account of it, survive the peril which caused the loss. At once upon receiving information of a loss the assured must elect whether to abandon, and not delay for the purpose of speculating on the state of the markets.

The English law is more restricted than the American, by not making the loss over half the value conclusive of the right to abandon, and by judging the right to abandon by the circumstances at the time of action brought, and not by the facts existing at the time of the abandonment. By commencing full repairs the right of abandonment is waived. An abandonment may be oral or in writing. When acted upon by another party, the effect of abandonment is to devest all the owner's rights.

In criminal law abandonment is the intentional desertion of a dependent by one under a legal duty to maintain him. A parent or guardian of the person of an infant is guilty of a misdemeanor if the child is injured through the act of the guardian, and of murder is death results. The offense is now defined in nearly all States. Consult Bishop ‘Commentaries on Criminal Law’ (Boston 1895); Wharton, A., ‘Treatise on Criminal Law’ (San Francisco 1912).