Xpand Claimz

Contract

A legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties.

Promisor

The party to a contract making a promise.

Promisee

The party to a contract to whom a promise is made.

Privity of contract

The relationship that exists between the parties to a contract.

Third-party beneficiary

A person who is not a party to a contract but who benefits from it and has a legal right to enforce the contract if it is breached by either of the contracting parties.

Breach of contract

The failure, without legal excuse, to fulfill a contractual promise.

Offeror

The party to a contract who promises to give something in return for a promise or an act by another party.

Offeree

The party to a contract who makes a promise or acts in return for something offered by another party

Uniform Commercial Code

A code of laws that govern commercial transactions in the United States.

Bilateral contract

A contract in which each party promises a performance

Unilateral contract

A contract in which only one party makes a promise or undertakes the requested performance.

Executed contract

A contract that has been completely performed by both parties

Executory contract

A contract that has not been completely performed by one or both of the parties

Express contract

A contract whose terms and intentions are explicitly stated.

Implied contract

A contract whose terms and intentions are indicated by the actions of the parties to the contract and the surrounding circumstances.

Implied-in-fact contract

A contract that is not express but that the parties presumably intended, either by tacit understanding or by the assumption that it existed.

Implied-in-law contract

An obligation that is not an actual contract but that is imposed by law because of the parties’ conduct or some special relationship between them or because one of them would otherwise be unjustly enriched.

Voidable contract

A contract that one of the parties can reject (avoid) based on some circumstance surrounding its execution

Void contract

An agreement that, despite the parties' intentions, never reaches contract status and is therefore not legally enforceable or binding.

Mutual assent

The act of two or more parties coming together to agree to the terms of a contract.

Fraud

An intentional misrepresentation resulting in harm to a person or an organization.

Representation

A statement of alleged fact.

Material fact

A fact that is significant to a decision or matter at hand.

Rescission

A legal act of canceling something (like a contract) and making it void.

Unilateral mistake

A perception by one party to a contract that does not agree with the facts.

Bilateral mistake

A perception by both parties to a contract that does not agree with the facts.

Duress

The use of restraint, violence, threats of violence, or wrongful pressure to compel a party to act contrary to his or her wishes or interests.

Undue influence

The improper use of power or trust to deprive a person of free will and substitute another's objective, resulting in lack of genuine assent to a contract.

Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)

A model code that has been adopted in whole or in part by each state and whose purpose is to provide a consistent legal basis for business transactions throughout the United States and its territories.

Parol evidence rule

A provision that prevents the terms of a contract from being modified by evidence of oral or other agreements after the contract has been written.

Statute of frauds

A law to prevent fraud and perjury by requiring that certain contracts be in writing and contain the signature of the party responsible for performing that contract.

Real property (realty)

Tangible property consisting of land, all structures permanently attached to the land, and whatever is growing on the land.

Assignment

The transfer of rights or property

Assignor

The party to a contract who makes an assignment.

Assignee

The individual or entity to whom property, rights, or interests have been transferred.

Third-party beneficiary contract

A contract between two parties that benefits a third party.

Creditor beneficiary

A third-party beneficiary owed a debt that is to be satisfied by performance of a contract.

Donee beneficiary

A third-party beneficiary who receives the benefit of a contract’s performance as a gift from the promisee, with the intent of the contracting parties.

Incidental beneficiary

A third-party beneficiary who has no contractual rights but benefits from a contract even though that is not the intent of the parties to the contract

Discharge

The act of ending a contract, agreement, or obligation.

Tender

An offer to perform one’s duties under a contract.

Novation

The act of substituting a contract with another contract, an obligation with another obligation, or a party with another party or adding an obligation.

Accord and satisfaction

An agreement to substitute performance other than that required in a contract and the carrying out of that agreement

Condition precedent

An event that must occur before a duty of performance arises in a contract.

Condition concurrent

An event that must occur at the same time as another condition in a contract.

Condition subsequent

An event that, if it occurs, discharges a duty of performance in a contract.

Repudiation

A party’s refusal to meet obligations under a contract.

Anticipatory breach

A party’s unequivocal indication before contract performance is due that he or she will not perform when performance is due.

Material breach of contract

Violation of the agreement that would justify a nonbreaching party's termination of the contract.

Compensatory damages

A payment awarded by a court to reimburse a victim for actual harm.

Consequential damages

A payment awarded by a court to indemnify an injured party for losses that result indirectly from a wrong such as a breach of contract or a tort.

Punitive damages (exemplary damages)

A payment awarded by a court to punish a defendant for a reckless, malicious, or deceitful act to deter similar conduct; the award need not bear any relation to a party’s actual damages.

Bad faith

An insurer’s intentional or reckless act (extreme or outrageous in nature) or denial of coverage without proper cause, often causing emotional distress and resulting in extracontractual and/or punitive damages.

Extracontractual damages

A payment awarded by a court that exceeds the usual contract damages for a breach of contract.

Mitigation of damages

A duty owed by an injured party to a claim to take reasonable measures to minimize or avoid additional injury or loss.

Liquidated damages

A reasonable estimation of actual damages, agreed to by contracting parties and included in the contract, to be paid in the event of a breach or for negligence.

Specific performance

A court-ordered equitable remedy requiring a party to perform a certain act, often—but not always—as a result of breach of a contract.

Injunction

A court-ordered equitable remedy requiring a party to act or refrain from acting.

Conditional contract

A contract that one or more parties must perform only under certain conditions.

Utmost good faith

An obligation to act in complete honesty and to disclose all relevant facts.

Misrepresentation

A false statement of a material fact on which a party relies

Incontestable clause

A clause that states that the insurer cannot contest the policy after it has been in force for a specified period, such as two years, during the insured’s lifetime.

Contestable period

A period during which an insurer can challenge the validity of a life insurance policy

Contract of adhesion

Any contract in which one party is put in a “take-it-orleave-it” position and must either accept the contract as written by the other party or reject the contract entirely

Contract of indemnity

A contract in which the insurer agrees, in the event of a covered loss, to pay an amount directly related to the amount of the loss.

Principle of indemnity

The principle that insurance policies should provide a benefit no greater than the loss suffered by an insured.

Valued policy

A policy in which the insurer pays a stated amount in the event of a specified loss (usually a total loss), regardless of the actual value of the loss.

Binder

A temporary written or oral agreement to provide insurance coverage until a formal written policy is issued.

Direct-action statute

A law that permits a negligence victim to sue an insurer directly or to sue both the insurer and wrongdoer jointly

Waiver

The intentional relinquishment of a known right.

Consideration

Something of value or bargained for and exchanged by the parties to a contract.

Election

The voluntary act of choosing between two alternative rights or privileges.

Nonwaiver agreement

A signed agreement indicating that during the course of investigation, neither the insurer nor the insured waives rights under the policy.

Reservation of rights letter

An insurer's letter that specifies coverage issues and informs the insured that the insurer is handling a claim with the understanding that the insurer may later deny coverage should the facts warrant it.

Title

The legal ownership of property; the highest right to property that a person can acquire.

Intellectual property rights

The legal entitlement attached to the expressed form of an idea or of other intangible subject matter.

Copyright

The legal right granted by a government entity to a person or an organization for a period of years to exclusively own and control an original written document, piece of music, computer code, or other form of expression.

Patent

The right granted by a government entity to an inventor or applicant for a limited time period to exclusively own and control a new, useful, and nonobvious invention.

Accession

An increase or addition to property

Confusion

In property law, the intermingling of goods belonging to different owners

Gift

The voluntary and gratuitous transfer of property without consideration.

Bailor

The owner of the personal property in a bailment.

Bailee

The party temporarily possessing the personal property in a bailment.

Bailment

The temporary possession by one party (the bailee) of personal property owned by another party (the bailor) for a specific purpose, such as cleaning or repair.

Lien

A creditor’s legal right or interest in another’s property, usually lasting until satisfaction of the specific debt or duty that the right/interest secures.

Possessory lien

A bailee’s right to retain possession of a bailor’s property as security for the payment of a debt or performance of some other act.

Fee simple estate

A full ownership interest in property with the unconditional right to dispose of it.

Life estate

An interest in which a person, called a life tenant, is entitled to possession of real property and to all income the land produces for the duration of that person’s or someone else’s life; the interest terminates on the death of the life tenant (or of the other person during whose life the life tenant possesses the property) and does not pass to his or her estate.

Tenancy

A right to possession or ownership, or both, of property.

Joint tenancy

A concurrently owned and undivided interest in an estate that transfers to a surviving joint tenant upon the death of the other.

Tenancy by the entirety

A joint tenancy between husband and wife.

Tenancy in common

A concurrent ownership of property, in equal or unequal shares, by two or more joint tenants who lack survivorship rights.

Community property

Property owned or acquired by both spouses during a marriage by their communal efforts. Each spouse has an undivided one-half interest in it.

Cooperative ownership

Ownership, usually of real property such as an apartment building, by a corporation, the stockholders of which receive long-term proprietary leases to a portion of the property and a proportional vote in its affairs based on the number of shares owned.

Condominium

A real estate development consisting of a group of units, in which the air space within the boundaries of each unit is owned by the unit owner, and all remaining real and personal property is owned jointly by all the unit owners.

Adverse possession

The claim of ownership of land by possession that is exclusive, open, hostile, unpermitted, and continuous for a statutory period.

Lateral support

A property owner’s right to have land supported by the land adjacent to it

Subjacent support

A property owner’s right to have land supported by the earth below it.

Improvements and betterments

Alterations or additions made to the building at the expense of an insured who does not own the building and who cannot legally remove them.

Trade fixtures

Fixtures and equipment that may be attached to a building during a tenant's occupancy, with the intention that they be removed when the tenant leaves.