FORFEITURE5

"Legal Lexicon":
By forfeiture is also understood the neglect of an obligor to fulfil his obligation in proper time: as when one has entered into a bond for a penal sum, upon condition to pay a smaller at a particular day and he fails to do it, there is then said to be a forfeiture. Again, when a party becomes bound in a certain sum by a recognizance to pay a certain sum, with a condition that he will appear at court to answer or prosecute a crime and he fails to do it, there is a forfeiture of the recognizance. Courts of equity and now courts, of law, will relieve from the forfeiture of a bond; and upon a proper case shown, criminal courts will in general relieve from the forfeiture of a recognizance to appear.
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