Definition
A condition compulsory is a condition in a legal instrument — most commonly a lease or conveyance — that expressly requires a party to perform a specific act, with a stated consequence (typically forfeiture or voidance) if the act is not performed. The hallmark of this type of condition is its express, mandatory character: it does not merely describe what a party may do, but commands what a party must do, and attaches a defined legal consequence to non-performance.
The classic illustration found across historical sources is a lease provision requiring a tenant to pay a sum of money on a specified day, on pain of the lease becoming void. The condition does not simply create a debt — it makes timely performance a structural requirement of the continued existence of the legal relationship itself.
Common Confusion
Condition compulsory is sometimes conflated with condition precedent or condition subsequent, but the classification works on a different axis. Condition precedent and condition subsequent describe when a condition operates (before or after a right vests); condition compulsory describes the mandatory character of what is required. A condition compulsory is typically, though not always, structured as a condition subsequent — the right (such as a leasehold) already exists and is defeated by non-performance — but the terms are not synonymous and should not be used interchangeably in historical analysis.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering this term in historical documents should understand that it is a term of art drawn from the older English law of conveyancing and estates, most prominently treated in Sheppard's Touchstone of Common Assurances (cited in both Black's and Burrill's). It is rarely encountered in modern American legal writing under this exact label, but the underlying concept persists in modern doctrine under different vocabulary: conditions subsequent, forfeiture clauses, and time-is-of-the-essence provisions all carry forward the core logic of the condition compulsory.
The primary research trap is anachronism in reverse — modern sources will not use this term, but historical lease disputes, equity proceedings to relieve against forfeiture, and early treatise discussions of landlord-tenant law will. When tracing a historical dispute about whether a lease was rendered void by non-payment, the condition compulsory is the doctrinal category being applied, even if courts of equity often intervened to soften its strict operation.
A secondary research connection: courts of equity historically scrutinized conditions compulsory with particular care, because strict enforcement could result in forfeiture disproportionate to the breach. This tension between law and equity is foundational to understanding why the term appears more often in equity treatises and chancery proceedings than in common law reports.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Burrill's Law Dictionary are in near-complete agreement on this term — both define it as a condition expressly requiring a thing to be done, and both use the identical lease-and-payment illustration drawn from Sheppard's Touchstone of Common Assurances (p. 118). This convergence reflects that the term was well settled in the English conveyancing tradition and carried into American legal usage without meaningful alteration.
What both historical sources omit is any discussion of the equitable dimension: the doctrine of relief against forfeiture, which English and American courts of equity developed precisely to mitigate the harsh consequences of a condition compulsory being technically breached. Neither dictionary acknowledges that strict enforcement of a condition compulsory was frequently contested in chancery, or that equity would sometimes grant relief — particularly for penalty-type conditions — where the forfeiture was grossly disproportionate to the harm from non-performance. Researchers relying solely on the dictionary definition will have an incomplete picture of how these conditions actually operated in practice.
The Sheppard citation is genuine. Sheppard's Touchstone of Common Assurances (various editions, 17th century onward) was a standard reference in English and early American conveyancing practice, and its taxonomy of conditions — including the condition compulsory — was widely adopted in legal dictionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia: Differing Site Conditions — Type I (Misrepresentation) and Type II (Unusual Conditions) (realestate_98) [general conditions in property instruments context]
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Probation — Conditions, Revocation, and Procedure (criminal_221) [for modern mandatory-condition analogues in a different doctrinal context]