The right, ability, or authority to perform an act. An ability to generate a change in a particular legal relationship by doing or not doing a certain act.
In a restricted sense, a liberty or authority that is reserved by, or limited to, a person to dispose of real or Personal Property, for his or her own benefit or for the benefit of others, or that enables one person to dispose of an interest that is vested in another.
n. the right, authority and ability to take some action or accomplish something, including demanding action, executing documents, contracting, taking title, transferring, exercising legal rights, and many other acts.
POWER. This is either inherent or derivative. The former is the right,
ability, or faculty of doing something, without receiving that right,
ability, or faculty from another. The people have the power to establish a
form of government, or to change one already established. A father has the
legal power to chastise his son; a master, his apprentice.
2. Derivative power, which is usually known, by the technical name of
power, is an authority by which one person enables another to do an act for
him. Powers of this kind were well known to the common law, and were divided
into two sorts: naked powers or bare authorities, and powers coupled with an
interest. There is a material difference between them. In the case of the
former, if it be exceeded in the act done, it is entirely void; in the
latter it is good for so much as is within the power, and void for the rest
only.
3. Powers derived from, the doctrine of uses may be defined to be an
authority, enabling a person, through the medium of the statute of uses, to
dispose of an interest, vested either in himself or another person.
4. The New York Revised Statute's define a power to be an authority to
do some act in relation to lands, or the creation of estates therein, or of
charges thereon, which the owner granting or reserving such power might
himself lawfully perform.
5. They are powers of revocation and appointment which are frequently
inserted in conveyances which owe their effect to the statute of uses; when
executed, the uses originally declared cease, and new uses immediately arise
to the persons named in the appointment, to which uses the statute transfers
the legal estate and possession.
6. Powers being found to be much more convenient than conditions, were
generally introduced into family settlements. Although several of these
powers are not usually called powers of revocation, such as powers of
jointuring, leasing, and charging settled estates with the payment of money,
yet all these are powers of revocation, for they operate as revocations, pro
tanto, of the preceding estates. Powers of revocation and appointment may be
reserved either to the original owners of the land or to strangers: hence
the general division of powers into those which relate to the land, and
those which are collateral to it.
7. Powers relating to the land are those given to some person having an
interest in the land over which they are to be exercised. These again are
subdivided into powers appendant and in gross.
8. A power appendant is where a person has an estate in land, with a
power of revocation and appointment, the execution of which falls within the
compass of his estate; as, where a tenant for life has a power of making
leases in possession.
9. A power in gross is where a person has an estate in the land, with a
power of appointment, the execution of which falls out of the compass of his
estate, but, notwithstanding, is annexed in privity to it, and takes effect
in the appointee, out of an interest vested in the appointer; for instance,
where a tenant for life has a power of creating an estate, to commence after
the determination of his own, such as to settle a jointure on his wife, or
to create a term of years to commence after his death, these are called
powers in gross, because the estate of the person to whom they are given,
will not be affected by the execution of them.
10. Powers collateral, are those which are given to mere strangers, who
have no interest in the laud: powers of sale and exchange given to trustees
in a marriage settlement are of this kind. Vide, generally, Powell on
Powers, assim; Sugden on Powers, passim; Cruise, Dig. tit. 32, ch. 13; Vin.
Ab. h.t.; C om. Dig. Poiar; 1 Supp. to Ves. jr. 40, 92, 201, 307; 2 Id. 166,
200; 1 Vern. by Raithby, 406; 3 Stark. Ev. 1199; 4 Kent, Com. 309; 2 Lilly's
Ab. 339; Whart. Dig. h.t. See 1 Story, Eq. Jur. Sec. 169, as to the
execution of a power, and when equity will supply the defect of execution.
11. This classification of powers is admitted to be important only with
reference to the ability of the donee to suspend, extinguish or merge the
power. The general rule is that a power shall not be exercised in derogation
of a prior grant by the appointer. But this whole division of powers has
been condemned' as too artificial and arbitrary.
12. Powell divides powers into general and particular. powers. General
powers are those to be exercised in favor of any person whom the appointer
chooses. Particular powers are those which are to be exercised in favor of
specific objects. 4 Kent, Com. 311, Vide, Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.; Mediate
powers; Primary powers.