appointment
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appointment
nomination to an interest in property under a deed or will.APPOINTMENT, chancery practice. The act of a person authorized by a will or
other instrument to direct how trust property shall be disposed of,
directing such disposition agreeably to the general directions of the trust.
2. The appointment must be made in such a manner as to come within the
spirit of the power. And although at law the rule only requires that some
allotment, however small, shall be given to each person, when the power is
to appoint to and among several persons; the rule in equity differs, and
requires a real and substantial portion to each, and a mere nominal
allotment to one is deemed illusory and fraudulent. When the distribution is
left to discretion, without any prescribed rule, Is to such of the children
as the trustee shall think proper, he may appoint to one only; 5 Ves. 857;
but if the words be, 'amongst' the children as he should think proper, each
must have a share, and the doctrine of illusory appointment applies. 4 Ves.
771 Prec. Ch. 256; 2 Vern. 513. Vide, generally, 1 Supp. to Ves. Jr. 40, 95,
201, 235, 237; 2 Id. 1 27; 1 Vern. 67, n.; 1 Ves. Jr. 31 0, n.; 4 Kent, Com.
337; Sugd. on Pow. Index, h.t.; 2 Hill. Ab. Index, h.t.; 2 Bouv. Inst. n.
1921, et seq.
APPOINTMENT, government, wills. The act by which a person is selected and
invested with an office; as the appointment of a judge, of which the making
out of his commission is conclusive evidence. 1 Cranch, 137, 155; 10 Pet.
343. The appointment of an executor, which is done by nominating him as such
in a will or testament.
2. By appointment is also understood a public employment, nearly
synonymous with office. The distinction is this, that the term appointment
is of a more extensive signification than office; for example, the act of
authorizing a man to print the laws of the United States by authority, and
the right conveyed by such an act, is an appointment, but the right thus
conveyed is not an office. 17 S. & R. 219, 233. See 3 S. & R. 157; Coop.
Just. 599, 604.