Definition
The state of relying upon, or being subject to, another person, entity, or condition. In law, DEPENDENCE carries meaning across several distinct contexts:
1. General legal usage: The condition of one legal relationship, obligation, or right being contingent upon another. A party's right to enforce a contract term may depend on prior performance of a corresponding obligation; the two are said to stand in a relation of dependence.
2. Contract law (dependent covenants): The quality of one contractual obligation being conditioned on the performance of another. Where covenants are dependent, a party who has not performed cannot compel the other's performance. This contrasts with independent covenants, which are enforceable without regard to the other party's performance.
3. Family and support law: The condition of a person who relies on another for financial support, care, or maintenance. A "dependent" in this sense is a person — typically a minor child, spouse, or disabled adult — whose needs are substantially met by another. The legal consequences of dependent status arise in tax law, benefits eligibility, workers' compensation, Social Security, and intestate succession.
4. Scots law (historical): Pendency — the state of a matter being undecided or pending before a tribunal. This usage is archaic and largely confined to historical Scottish legal materials.
5. Drug or substance dependence (regulatory and criminal law): A physiological or psychological reliance on a controlled substance, relevant in criminal sentencing, disability determinations, and professional licensing contexts.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The state of relying upon another; or an irresistible physical or psychological need, especially for a chemical substance.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act or state of depending; suspension from a support; subjection to the direction or disposal of another; inability to provide for oneself.
The common meaning of "dependence" captures reliance broadly — emotional, physical, or economic. Legal usage narrows this in important ways: in contract law, dependence describes a structural relationship between obligations, not persons. In tax and benefits law, "dependent" is a term of art with formal qualifying criteria that bear little resemblance to the everyday sense of relying on someone. A college student who is financially self-sufficient may still qualify as a tax dependent; an elderly parent who lives with a child may or may not qualify. Researchers should not assume the common meaning maps to any statutory definition.
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Common Confusion
DEPENDENCE vs. DEPENDENCY: In older statutes and legal writing, "dependency" and "dependence" are often used interchangeably. Modern practice tends to prefer "dependency" when describing a status (e.g., workers' compensation dependency claims) and "dependence" when describing a condition or relationship. The distinction is not uniform, and historical sources are inconsistent.
DEPENDENT COVENANTS vs. INDEPENDENT COVENANTS: A persistent source of confusion in contract disputes. Whether covenants are dependent or independent is a question of construction, not always signaled clearly by the contract's language. Courts have historically disagreed on the default rule, making jurisdiction-specific research essential.
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Core Elements
For dependence in the context of dependent covenants, courts generally examine:
1. Whether the obligations were intended to be exchanged simultaneously or sequentially.
2. Whether the failure of one party's performance so goes to the essence of the agreement that the other party should be excused.
3. The parties' intent as expressed in the contract language and surrounding circumstances.
For tax and benefits dependence, statutory definitions control. Elements typically include: a qualifying relationship (child, relative), residency requirements, income thresholds, and support tests. These vary by statute and must be verified against current law.
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Why It Matters in Research
The primary research trap with DEPENDENCE is that the term functions as both a descriptive condition and a statutory term of art in different areas of law — and these meanings do not travel between fields. A researcher working in tax law must use the Internal Revenue Code's definition of "dependent," which is precise and rule-bound. The same researcher should not assume that definition applies in workers' compensation, Social Security, or immigration law, where "dependence" or "dependent" may be defined differently or left to administrative interpretation.
Historical legal sources present a secondary trap: Burrill's entry for DEPENDENCE routes through Scottish procedural law, where the term means pendency — a matter in suspense before a court. This sense is entirely obsolete in American practice. Researchers encountering the term in historical Scots law materials or in American sources influenced by that tradition should be alert to this divergence.
The dependent covenants doctrine is a live area of contract research where historical sources remain relevant. The common law classification of covenants as dependent or independent established default rules that modern courts still apply when contracts are ambiguous. Burrill's treatment is useful as a baseline but must be supplemented with modern case law, as the doctrine's application has evolved in specific commercial contexts (leases, construction contracts, software licensing).
Tax researchers should move directly from this entry to the encyclopedia entries on the Child and Dependent Care Credit and Standard Deduction Dependents Limited, which address the operational consequences of dependent status in federal tax law. The Dependent Care Assistance entry is relevant for employer-provided benefits analysis.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary addresses DEPENDENCE primarily through two lenses: the Scottish procedural sense (pendency) and the contract law doctrine of dependent covenants. Burrill's treatment of dependent covenants is substantively sound and consistent with the common law rule — that where covenants are dependent, the plaintiff must allege and prove performance or readiness to perform before demanding the other party's performance. This principle remains good law in most American jurisdictions.
Burrill also touches on maritime law in an adjacent entry, where "dependence" connects to port departure warranties — a narrow but historically important context in marine insurance. This usage does not survive in modern maritime practice but may appear in older policy disputes and historical shipping records.
What Burrill does not address — because it postdates his work — is the statutory elaboration of "dependent" in tax and social welfare law, which became the dominant legal usage of the term through the twentieth century. Researchers relying solely on historical dictionaries will miss the most practically significant layer of the term's modern legal meaning.
Webster's 1913 preserves the older sense of dependence as subjection and suspension, which aligns with the feudal and common law background of the dependent covenants doctrine but does not illuminate modern statutory usage.
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Jurisdictional Note
The dependent covenants doctrine is a matter of state contract law, and its application in specific commercial contexts — particularly commercial leases — varies across jurisdictions. Some states have modified the common law rule by statute, particularly for residential tenancies. Federal law controls the definition of "dependent" for tax and Social Security purposes, but state law governs in workers' compensation and domestic relations matters.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Child and Dependent Care Credit — Tax Encyclopedia, tax_12
Standard Deduction Dependents Limited — Tax Encyclopedia, tax_172
Dependent Care Assistance — Tax Encyclopedia, tax_57
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