ACCORD - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

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ACCORDAuthored

The Law Mind • 1086 words

Definition

Accord is an agreement between parties to a dispute by which one party agrees to give, and the other to accept, something different from — or less than — what is claimed or owed, in full satisfaction of an existing right of action. The accord is the agreement itself; it does not extinguish the underlying claim until it is performed. Performance of the accord is called satisfaction. The combined operation of both is what discharges the original claim entirely.

Accord appears most frequently in the phrase accord and satisfaction, which is the completed transaction: the accord (agreement) plus the satisfaction (performance). In that completed form, accord and satisfaction operates as an absolute bar to any further action on the original claim.

In international law, accord carries the separate meaning of a formal agreement between sovereign states — essentially a treaty or compact — though this usage does not implicate the contractual doctrine described above.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Agreement or concurrence of opinion, will, or action; harmony; also, an agreement between parties in controversy by which satisfaction for an injury is stipulated.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Agreement or concurrence of opinion, will, or action; harmony of mind; consent; also harmony of sounds, agreement in pitch and tone.

In ordinary English, accord broadly means agreement or harmony — two people are "in accord" when they agree on something. The legal term is considerably more specific: it describes a structured contractual arrangement where a disputed or existing obligation is to be discharged by substitute performance, and it carries precise doctrinal consequences about when the underlying claim is extinguished. The common usage captures none of that conditional, substitutionary character.

Core Elements

For an accord to be legally operative as a bar to further action, the following must generally be present:

AN EXISTING CLAIM OR RIGHT OF ACTION: There must be an underlying obligation, injury, or dispute — a debt, a breach, or a legal wrong for which one party has a recognized remedy.

A MUTUAL AGREEMENT TO SUBSTITUTE PERFORMANCE: Both parties must agree that a different or lesser performance will be tendered by one and accepted by the other in full satisfaction of the existing claim. The agreement must be definite as to terms.

CONSIDERATION: The accord must be supported by consideration. Where the underlying debt is undisputed and liquidated, acceptance of a lesser sum has historically required some additional element to be enforceable — a nuance the historical sources engage with directly.

PERFORMANCE (SATISFACTION): The accord alone does not discharge the original claim. The agreed substitute performance must actually be rendered and accepted. Until then, the original cause of action remains alive.

Why It Matters in Research

The most critical navigational point is the distinction between the accord (the agreement) and the satisfaction (the performance). Historical sources and older cases sometimes use "accord" loosely to mean the completed transaction, when technically only the combination of accord and satisfaction extinguishes the claim. A researcher reading historical pleadings or opinions must attend carefully to which stage of the transaction is being described.

The plea of accord and satisfaction was historically available in personal actions but not in real actions — a limitation Bouvier flags directly and which will appear in early common law pleading materials. Researchers working in pre-twentieth-century sources should expect this restriction to shape how the defense was framed procedurally.

A second research trap involves the effect of an unperformed accord. Under classical common law, an unperformed accord was not itself a bar to the original action — the plaintiff could sue on the original claim if the accord was breached. Some jurisdictions later permitted suit on the accord itself as an independent contract. Researchers tracing the development of this doctrine will find inconsistency in older authorities and should verify which rule applied in the jurisdiction and period under study.

The corpus connection to satisfaction is essential: the Bouvier entry for SATISFACTION in equity introduces a distinct but related concept — the extinguishment of a right by donation with implied intent to satisfy an existing claim. This equitable doctrine, particularly in the context of legacies and portions, overlaps terminologically with accord and satisfaction but operates on different principles. Researchers should not conflate the two.

The Anderson entry retrieved under this term concerns accomplices rather than accord, and should be disregarded as a retrieval artifact.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier and Burrill agree on the core structure: accord is an agreement between an injuring party and an injured party to make satisfaction, which when performed bars further action on the original claim. Both sources anchor the definition to personal injury and breach contexts — Burrill's illustrative example of a party who contracts to build a house or deliver a horse and fails gives the doctrine its practical grounding in everyday breach situations.

Burrill adds the phrase "Fr. & Eng." at the opening, a reminder that the term passed directly from French legal vocabulary into English common law, which explains its appearance in early common law pleading. Bouvier's cross-reference to Blackstone's Commentaries (3 Bl. Com. 15) and Bacon's Abridgment places the doctrine squarely in the classical common law tradition. The citation to 2 Greenleaf on Evidence signals that accord and satisfaction was a matter of proof as well as pleading — parties had to establish both the agreement and the performance.

What the historical sources do not address: they say little about the consideration problem in the context of liquidated debts, nothing about the modern treatment of accord as an independent enforceable contract in some jurisdictions, and nothing about accord in international law. Researchers needing those dimensions must look beyond the shelf sources.

Jurisdictional Note

The availability and effect of accord and satisfaction is governed by state common law and varies in detail across jurisdictions, particularly on the question of whether acceptance of a check marked "payment in full" constitutes a binding accord and satisfaction when the underlying debt is disputed. The Uniform Commercial Code addresses this in the context of negotiable instruments. Federal courts apply the law of the relevant state when accord and satisfaction arises as a defense in diversity cases.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Discharge — Accord and Satisfaction (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia)

ACCORDmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

In Contracts. An agree- ment between two parties to give and ac- cept something in satisfaction of a right of action which one has against the other, which when performed is a bar to all actions upon this account; generally used in the phrase "accord and satisfaction." 2 Greenl. Ev. 28; 8 Bla. Com. 15: Bacon, Abr. Accord; 5 Md. 170. It may be pleaded to all actions except real actions; Bacon, Abr. Accord (B): 50 Miss. 257. It must be legal. An agreement to drop a criminal prosecution, as a satisfaction for an assault and imprisonment, is void; 5 East 294; 14 Ia. 429; 99 Mass. 1. See 2 Wils. 841; Cro. Eliz. 541. It must be advantageous to the creditor, and he must receive an actual benefit there- from which he would not otherwise have had: 2 Watts 325; 2 Ala. 476; 8 J. J. Marsh 497; 83 Ind. 529. Restoring to the plaintiff his chattels, or his land, of which the defendant has wrongfully dispossessed him, will not be any consideration to sup- port a promise by the plaintiff not to sue him for those injuries; Bacon, Abr. Accord, A; 1 Stra. 426; 2 Litt. Ky. 49; 5 Day 360; 1 Root 426; 1 Wend. 164; 14 id. 116. The payment of a part of the whole debt due is not a good satisfaction, even if accepted; 2 Greenl. Ev. § 28; 2 Pars. Contr. 199:4 Mod. 88; 8 Bingh. N. C. 454; 10 M. & W. 367; 12 Price, Ex. 183; 1 Zabr. 391; 5 Gill 189; 20 Conn. 559; 70 N. C. 573; 6 Heisk. 1:1 Metc. 276; 27 Me. 362, 370; 2 Strobh. 203; 15 B. Monr. 566; 38 N. J. L. 358; 70 N. C. 578; 118 Mass. 482; 2 Pa. Dist. R. 497; otherwise, however, if the amount of the claim is disputed; Cro. Eliz. 429; 3 M. & W. 651; 5 B. & Ald. 117; 1 Ad. & Ε. 106; 21 Vt. 223; 4 Gill 406; 4 Denio 166; 65 Barb. 161; 43 Conn. 455; 56 Ga. 494;52 Miss. 494; 13 Metc. n. 551; 56 Vt. 609; 67 Barb. 398; 141 Mass. 502; 49 Mo. App. 556; or contingent; 14 B. Monr. 451; or there are mutual demands; 6 El. & B. 691; and if the negotiable note of the debtor, 15 М. & W. 23, or of a third person, 2 Metc. 283; 20 Johns. 76; 14 Wend. 116; 13 Ala. 353; 4 B. & C. 506; 51 Ala. 349, for part, be given and received, it is sufficient; or if a part be given at a different place, 29 Miss. 139, or an earlier time, it will be sufficient, 18 Pick. 414; and, in general, payment of part suffices if any additional benefit be re- ceived: 30 Vt. 424; 26 Conn. 392; 27 Barb. 485; 4 Jones 518; 4 Iowa 219; 44 Conn. 541. Acceptance by several creditors, by way of composition of sums respectively less than their demands, held to bar actions for the residue; 37 Iowa 410. And the re- ceipt of specific property, or the perform- ance of services, if agreed to, is sufficient, whatever its value; 19 Pick. 273; 5 Day 360; 51 Ala. 349; provided the value be not agreed upon; 65 Barb. 161; but both delivery and acceptance must be proved; 1 Wash. C. C. 328; 3 Blackf. 354; 1 Dev. & B. 565; 8 Pa. 106; 16 d. 450 ; 4 Eng. L. & Eq. 185. It must be certain. An agreement that the defendant shall relinquish the possession of a house in satisfaction, etc., is not valid, unless it is so agreed at what time it shall be relinquished; Yelv. 125. See 4 Mod. 88: 2 Johns. 342; 3 Lev. 189; 2 Iowa 553; 1 Hempst. 315: 102 Mass. 140. It must be complete. That is, everything must be done which the party undertakes to do: Comyns, Dig. Accord, B. 4; T. Raym. 203 Cro. Eliz. 46; 9 Co. 79, b; 14 Erg. L. & Eq. 296; 2 Iowa 553; 5 Ν. Η. 16: 5 Johns. 386; 16 id. 86; 1 Gray 245; 8 Ohio 393; 7 Blackf. 582; 14 B. Monr. 470; 2 Ark. 45; 44 Me. 121; 29 Pa. 179; 8 M1. 188; 50 Тех. 113; 64 Mc. 563; but this performance may be merely the substitu- tion of a new undertaking for the old by way of novation if the parties so intended; 2 Pars. Contr. 194 n.; 24 Conn. 613; 23 Barb. 546; 7 Md. 259; 16 Q. B. 1039; it is a question for the jury whether the agree- Iment or the performance was accepted in satisfaction; 16 Q. B. 1039; and in some cases it is sufficient if performance be ten- dered and refused; 2 Greenl. Ev. § 31; 2 B. & Ad. 328: 3 id. 701. An accord with tender of satisfaction is not sufficient, but it must be executed; 3 Bingh. N. C. 715: 16 Barb. 398: 23 Wend. 341; 56 III. 96; 44 Me. 121: 37 Barb. 483; 151 Pa. 415; 5 R. I. 219: but where there is a sufficient consid- eration to support the agreement, it may be that tender, though unaccepted, would bar an action; Story, Contr. § 1357; 3 Johns, Cas. 243. Satisfaction without ac- cord is not sufficient; 9 M. & W. 596; nor is accord without satisfaction; 3 B. & C. 257. Where there is a dispute as to the value of the services and a check is sent for part with a statement that it was to be in full satisfaction, the debt, which was unliqui- dated, was satisfied by the retention of the check; 138 N. Y. 231. It must be by the debtor or his agent; 3 Wend. 66; 2 Ala. 84; and if made by a stranger, will not avail the debtor in an ac- tion at law; Stra. 592; 3 T. B. Monr. 302; 6 Johns. 37. See 6 Qhio St. 71. His remedy in such a case is in equity; Cro. Eliz. 541; 8 Taunt. 117; 5 East 294. In case of a dis- puted

ACCORDmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

Fr. & Eng. An agreement, consent, or concurrence. An agreement between a party injuring and a party injured, to make satisfaction for the injury; which, when performed, is a bar of all actions upon this account.* 3 Steph. Com. 373. As if a man contract to build a house, or deliver a horse, and fail in it, this is an injury for which the sufferer may have his remedy by action; but if the party injured accepts a sum of money, or other thing as a satisfaction, this is a redress of that injury, and entirely takes away the action." 9 Co. 79. 3 Chitty's Bl. Com. 16, and note. Blount. Bac. Abr. Accord. Com. Dig. Accord. U. S. Dig. Accord and satisfaction. Defined by Finch, an agreement between the parties themselves, upon a satisfaction executed." Law, b. 2, c. 19. ACCORD, abbr. of Accordant, (q. v.) Agreeing, agreed. "Denison, J. accord." 1 W. Bl. 418. "The To ACCORD. In practice. To agree or concur, as one judge with another. "I accord." Eyre, C. J. 12 Mod. 7. rest accorded." 7 Id. 360.

ACCORDmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

SATISFACTION, In Equity. The donation of a thing, with the intention, expressed or implied, that such donation is to be an extinguish- ment of some existing right or claim in the donee. See LEGACY; CUMULATIVE LEGACY.

ACCORDn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Agreement or concurrence of opinion, will, or action; harmony of mind; consent; assent. A mediator of an accord and peace between them. Bacon. These all continued with one accord in prayer. Acts i. 14. Harmony of sounds; agreement in pitch and tone; concord; as, the accord of tones. Those sweet accords are even the angels' lays. Sir J. Davies. Agreement, harmony, or just correspondence of things; as, the accord of light and shade in painting. Voluntary or spontaneous motion or impulse to act; -- preceded by own; as, of one's own accord. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap. Lev. xxv. 5. Of his own accord he went unto you. 2 Cor. vii. 17. An agreement between parties in controversy, by which satisfaction for an injury is stipulated, and which, when executed, bars a suit. Blackstone. With one accord, with unanimity. They rushed with one accord into the theater. Acts xix. 29.

ACCORDv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To make to agree or correspond; to suit one thing to another; to adjust; -- followed by to. [R.] Her hands accorded the lute's music to the voice. Sidney. To bring to an agreement, as persons; to reconcile; to settle, adjust, harmonize, or compose, as things; as, to accord suits or controversies. When they were accorded from the fray. Spenser. All which particulars, being confessedly knotty and difficult can never be accorded but by a competent stock of critical learning. South. To grant as suitable or proper; to concede; to award; as, to accord to one due praise. "According his desire." Spenser.

ACCORDv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To agree; to correspond; to be in harmony; -- followed by with, formerly also by to; as, his disposition accords with his looks. My heart accordeth with my tongue. Shak. Thy actions to thy words accord. Milton. To agree in pitch and tone.

accordnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Agreement or concurrence of opinion, will, or action. | A harmony in sound, pitch and tone; concord. | Agreement or harmony of things in general. | A distinctive mixture of fragrances or the odor thereof. | An agreement between parties in controversy, by which satisfaction for an injury is stipulated, and which, when executed, prevents a lawsuit. | An international agreement. | Voluntary or spontaneous impulse to act.

accordverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To make to agree or correspond; to suit one thing to another; to adjust. | To bring (people) to an agreement; to reconcile, settle, adjust or harmonize. | To agree or correspond; to be in harmony; to be concordant. | To agree in pitch and tone. | To grant as suitable or proper; to concede or award. | To give consent. | To arrive at an agreement.

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