ACCORDING

8 definitions found across Law Mind sources

ACCORDINGAuthored
The Law Mind • 909 words
Definition
A preposition and adjective used in legal instruments to indicate conformity, consistency, or agreement with a specified standard, instrument, or authority. In legal drafting, "according to" signals that a right, obligation, or action is to be measured, interpreted, or performed in conformity with something else — a statute, contract, judgment, or established rule. It does not create independent obligations; it locates and defines them by reference. The term appears most frequently in three functional roles: 1. In instruments and pleadings: "According to the terms of the agreement" means the terms govern; the phrase incorporates by reference the governing standard. 2. In judgments and orders: "According to law" or "according to equity" signals the applicable legal framework under which relief is granted or denied. 3. In evidentiary and procedural contexts: "According to" introduces the source of a factual assertion, attribution, or construction — as in "according to the affidavit of..."
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Accordingly; correspondingly. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Agreeing; in agreement or harmony; harmonious. ("This according voice of national wisdom." — Burke.) In ordinary English, "according to" conveys attribution or agreement in a general, informal sense. In legal instruments, precision matters: "according to" is not merely attributive but operative. When a deed conveys property "according to the plat," the plat becomes the controlling legal description. When a statute requires that something be done "according to law," the phrase is a term of art directing the reader to substantive legal requirements, not a loose expression of general conformity. Researchers should resist reading the term as merely introductory.
Common Confusion
Anderson's Dictionary of Law cross-references "BY" and "SECUNDUM" as related or comparable terms. This is instructive. In Latin-based legal documents and older English instruments, "secundum" (literally "according to" or "following") performs the same incorporating function. Researchers encountering "secundum legem" (according to law) or "secundum formam statuti" (according to the form of the statute) in historical sources should treat these as functional equivalents of the modern "according to" construction. Conflating "according to" with "by" can mislead: "by the terms of the contract" tends to invoke the contract as a source of authority, while "according to the terms" tends to invoke it as a measuring standard. The distinction is subtle but surfaces in contract interpretation disputes.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a function word, not a substantive legal concept, which means it almost never appears as a headword in modern legal research tools — yet it does real interpretive work in instruments, statutes, and judgments. Corpus researchers will encounter it constantly but are rarely given guidance on its operative force. Key traps: — In historical sources (pre-20th century), "according to" frequently appears in Latin form ("secundum") in court records, writs, and pleadings. Researchers working with original documents or early reporters need to recognize the equivalence. — In contract interpretation, courts have treated "according to" as an incorporation-by-reference phrase. Whether it fully incorporates external documents or merely references them as interpretive context is a live issue in drafting disputes. — In equity practice, the phrase "according to equity and good conscience" is a term of art signaling the court's broad discretionary jurisdiction, distinct from legal standards. Rapalje & Lawrence's entry — which opens on accident and equitable relief — reflects this: equity courts acted "according to" principles that differed structurally from law courts, and the phrase marked which regime applied. — Statute-referencing uses ("according to law," "according to the statute") were the standard way older instruments and pleadings incorporated statutory requirements without quoting them. A researcher reading a 19th-century deed or bond should understand that "according to law" is not decorative — it may import specific statutory conditions, limitations, or formalities that governed at the time of execution.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence do not define "according" directly. The entry fragment in the source material shifts immediately to equity practice around accident — suggesting the headword may have been "ACCIDENT" and "according" appeared incidentally in the surrounding text. This is a common artifact of dictionary corpus extraction and researchers should be alert to it: function words embedded in longer doctrinal discussions are often captured as apparent headwords when they are not. Anderson's Dictionary of Law acknowledges the term but dispatches it with a cross-reference to "BY" and "SECUNDUM," confirming that the significant legal content lies in those parallel terms. This is the honest approach: the word's legal weight derives not from an independent definition but from its structural role in a larger phrase. Neither source provides a substantive independent definition, which itself is informative. Historical legal dictionaries treated "according" as a term whose meaning was fixed by ordinary usage and required no special legal gloss — a signal that its operative force was understood contextually by practitioners of the period.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Discharge — Accord and Satisfaction (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia): Relevant where "according" appears in the context of accord — the agreement by which parties resolve a disputed obligation. "Accord and satisfaction" is a distinct doctrine, but its formation depends on the parties acting "according to" the terms of the accord before satisfaction is complete.
Related Terms
Accord and Satisfaction Secundum (Latin equivalent) By (parallel preposition in legal instruments) According to Law (standard phrase; see equitable jurisdiction) Incorporation by Reference Construction of Instruments Terms of Art
ACCORDINGmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
(11) an unknown cause, or without human agency, or without the concurrence of the will of him who causes it. 1. In Equity practice. Where by reason of an accident a party cannot obtain justice at law, chancery will give retief, provided the party asking it has not been guilty of laches, negligence or bad faith. Thus the forfeiture of a bond, where the breach was the result of an accident, may be prevented; recovery on instruments accidentally lost permitted on the plaintiff giving a bond of indemnity, (Snell. Eq. 335) and many other species of relief granted, in cases where a court of law would be unable to interfere. If the remedy at law exists, and is adequate, equity will not give relief. 2. In England, a similar jurisdiction was given to the common law courts, so far as relates to negotiable instruments, by stat. 17 and 18 Vict. c. 125, § 87. So, if an annuity was directed by a will to be secured by an investment in public stock, and an investment was accordingly made, sufficient at the time for the purpose, but afterwards the stock was reduced by act of parliament, so that it became insufficient, equity would decree the deficiency to be made up out of the residuary estate. (Snell Eq. 342.) Since the Judicature Acts, of course, relief is given in such cases in all the divisions of the High Court. Jud. Act, 1873, 2 24. 13. Insurance against accident.--- See INSURANCE. 2. Works. Where a railway company takes land compulsory, in England, it is bound, under the 68th section of the Railways Clauses Act, 1845, to construct all gates, bridges, roads, fences, &c., necessary to make good any interruptions caused by the railway passing through the land; these are called accommodation works. Hodge Railw. 361. ACCOMMODATION, (acceptance of bill for). 8 Pick. (Mass.) 155. (endorsement of note for). 7 Mass. 449. ACCOMMODATION BILL, (drawer to indemnify acceptor against costs). 7 Bing. 217. ACCOMMODATION NOTE, (what is). 10 Johns. (N. Y.) 198; 12 Wend. (N. Y.) 523; 4 Moo. & P. 839. (assignment for payment of). 7 Serg. (position of party buying, as to defence & R. (Pa.) 462. of usury). 1 Hill (N. Y.) 9. (to firm; transferred by partner for his sole benefit). 23 Wend. (N. Y.) 311. ACCOMMODATION PAPER, (defined). 71 Me. 273; 55 Pa. St. 73. See also BILL OF EXCHANGE;
ACCORDINGmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
Compare BY, 3; SECUN-
ACCORDINGp.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Agreeing; in agreement or harmony; harmonious. "This according voice of national wisdom." Burke. "Mind and soul according well." Tennyson. According to him, every person was to be bought. Macaulay. Our zeal should be according to knowledge. Sprat.
ACCORDINGadv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Accordingly; correspondingly. [Obs.] Shak.
accordingadv
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC 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.
Accordingly; correspondingly.
accordingverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC 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.
present participle and gerund of accord
accordingadj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC 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.
Agreeing; in agreement or harmony; harmonious.

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