Definition
APPOINTMENT carries distinct legal meanings depending on context. The two principal senses are (1) the selection of a person to fill an office or position of trust, and (2) the exercise of a power of appointment to direct the disposition of property.
1. Office and position. The act of designating a person to hold a public office, fiduciary role, or other position of trust and responsibility. The appointing authority — whether a court, executive officer, board, or governing instrument — names an individual to serve in a defined capacity. The person so designated is the appointee. Appointment differs from election in that it proceeds from a single vested authority rather than a popular vote. It differs from employment in that it typically carries a public or fiduciary character. A commission or other formal instrument regularly issued serves as conclusive evidence that an appointment has been made and confers authority on the appointee to act in that capacity.
2. Power of appointment. In property law, the exercise by a donee of a power granted by a prior instrument — the power of appointment — authorizing that person to direct how a designated property interest shall pass. When a donee executes an appointment under such a power, the designated property or interest is treated as if it had been originally limited in the way the appointment directs, as though the estate were created by the instrument that conferred the power, not by the appointment itself. The instrument by which the appointment is made may be a deed or, where the power permits, a will.
3. Secondary senses (narrower, context-specific). Courts and treatises also use appointment to describe: (a) the allocation of insurance premiums or purchase money among funds or interests held in trust; (b) the appropriation of a payment to a particular debt when multiple debts exist; and (c) in older usage, a stipulation or agreement between parties.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An arrangement for a meeting or engagement; the act of designating someone to hold a position; an office or post to which a person is named.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Designation of a person to hold office or discharge trust; arrangement for a meeting; stipulation or agreement; a decree or established order.
The gap between common and legal meaning is most acute in the property law sense. In ordinary usage, appointment means scheduling a meeting or naming someone to a job. In property law, it is a technical act of will or deed that directs the passage of a property interest pursuant to a pre-existing authority — a meaning the common language does not capture and that historical general dictionaries only partially acknowledge. Researchers reading equity materials must recognize that "an appointment" may refer to a formal legal instrument, not merely a selection.
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Common Confusion
Appointment is frequently conflated with election (the popular vote process), employment (a contractual relationship), and delegation (transfer of authority rather than selection of a person). In property law, the instrument of appointment is sometimes confused with the power of appointment itself — the power is the authority granted by the prior instrument; the appointment is the act or deed exercising it. These are distinct legal events with different operative effects.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
General power of appointment: A power that permits the donee to appoint the property to any person, including the donee or the donee's estate.
Special (or limited) power of appointment: A power restricted to a defined class of appointees specified in the creating instrument.
Testamentary appointment: An appointment made by will, effective only at death.
Inter vivos appointment: An appointment made by deed or other instrument effective during the appointing party's lifetime.
Judicial appointment: Designation of a person — such as a guardian, receiver, trustee, or expert — by a court rather than by a private instrument or executive authority.
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Why It Matters in Research
Multi-sense navigation. Because appointment operates in at least two major legal domains — public law (offices) and property law (powers) — the term's meaning in any given source depends entirely on context. A researcher working in equity reports must determine whether "appointment" refers to the instrument exercising a power over property or to an official designation. Conflating the two leads to fundamental misreading.
Historical property law sources. In older chancery materials and conveyancing treatises, appointment routinely appears as a near-synonym for the instrument itself — the deed of appointment — not merely the act. Burrill's entry makes this explicit: an appointment is "a deed or instrument executed in pursuance of a power." Researchers reading 18th- and 19th-century equity materials should expect the word to carry this instrumentality sense, which has receded in modern usage.
Relation back doctrine. In the property law context, the relation-back rule — that an appointed interest takes effect as if originally limited by the creating instrument — has significant consequences for priority, creditor claims, and future interests analysis. Historical sources discussing this doctrine use "appointment" to signify the triggering event. A researcher who misses the relation-back framework will misread the downstream effects.
Public law and constitutional research. In constitutional and administrative law research, appointment carries its own doctrinal weight, particularly in materials touching executive authority and the separation of powers. The corpus contains materials in which appointment in this public-law sense has been the subject of contested authority. Researchers should be alert to the jurisdictional and constitutional dimensions that attach to this sense but not to the property law sense.
Insurance and payment contexts. The second edition of Black's identifies appointment in the senses of allocating insurance proceeds and appropriating payments to debts. These uses are narrow and dated in modern practice but appear in older transaction documents and trust instruments. When encountered in 19th-century materials, they should not be read as references to either of the two principal meanings.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The five historical sources are substantially consistent on the two core meanings but differ in emphasis and completeness.
Burrill's Law Dictionary gives the fullest treatment of the property law sense, defining appointment as the deed or instrument executed under a power and citing Kent and Stephens. This is the most technically precise framing and correctly distinguishes the act from the power itself.
Rapalje & Lawrence captures both senses cleanly — office designation and property appointment under power — and notes the relation-back principle, tying the appointed interest to the original creating instrument. This is the most synthetic of the historical entries.
Black's (1st ed.) follows Washburn on Real Property for the chancery sense, emphasizing the limiting or substituting of a use in pursuit of a prior-granted power. The formulation is technically sound but narrow; Black's does not address the office sense in this fragment.
Black's (2nd ed.) supplements the earlier edition with secondary senses: insurance application statements, purchase money allocation, and payment appropriation. These extensions are accurate but reflect the flexibility of the term in transactional practice rather than its primary doctrinal significance.
Anderson's Dictionary of Law foregrounds the office-selection sense and notes that a regularly issued commission is conclusive evidence of appointment — a useful administrative law point absent from the property-focused sources. Anderson also raises the ballot/appointment distinction in municipal contexts, which anticipates later election-versus-appointment debates in public law.
What the historical sources collectively underemphasize: the constitutional dimensions of appointment in the public-law context, and the tax consequences that attach to powers of appointment in modern estate planning. Researchers using these dictionaries alone will have an incomplete picture of how appointment functions in 20th- and 21st-century contexts.
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Jurisdictional Note
The mechanics of judicial and public appointment vary significantly across jurisdictions. In the United States, federal constitutional doctrine governs the appointment of officers of the United States; state constitutions and statutes control appointment of state and local officials. For powers of appointment in property law, states follow either common law rules or statutory modifications, and the Uniform Powers of Appointment Act (adopted in a number of states) has standardized some aspects of the law without achieving universal adoption.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Guardianship of Minors — Parental Appointment, Testamentary Guardians, and Judicial Appointment (The Law Mind Trusts, Estates & Probate Encyclopedia)
Guardianship of Minors — Overview and Appointment (The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia)
Court-Appointed Experts — Rule 706 (The Law Mind Civil Procedure & Evidence Encyclopedia)
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