Definition
1. Bailment (property law). A deposit in its classical legal sense is a bailment in which one person (the depositor) delivers personal property to another (the bailee or depositary) for safekeeping, without reward to the bailee, with the obligation to return the identical property on demand. The defining features are gratuitousness, a trust relationship, and return of the specific thing entrusted.
2. Banking (commercial law). The delivery of money or negotiable instruments to a bank or financial institution for credit to an account. A general bank deposit transfers ownership of the funds to the bank, which incurs a debt to the depositor for an equivalent sum. A special deposit requires return of the specific money or instruments deposited, preserving the depositor's ownership and creating a bailment rather than a debtor-creditor relationship.
3. Real property / leasehold. A sum of money paid by a tenant to a landlord at the inception of a lease, held as security against breach of the lease terms, damage to the premises, or unpaid rent. Often called a security deposit. Distinct from advance rent, which it superficially resembles.
4. Procedural / evidentiary. The placing of funds, documents, or other property into the custody of a court or neutral third party pending resolution of a dispute. Also used colloquially to describe the transcript of deposition testimony, though this usage is not strictly accurate.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To lay down or place something; to put money into a bank account; to entrust assets to another's care; sometimes used as collateral.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To lay up or away for safekeeping; to lodge in someone's hands for safekeeping; to commit to the custody of another.
The common and legal meanings are closely related, but the common language flattens a critical legal distinction: in everyday speech, putting money "in the bank" is simply a deposit, with no implication about ownership of those funds. In law, that transaction most often creates a debtor-creditor relationship, not a bailment — the bank owns the money and owes you an equivalent sum. The colloquial sense implies your property is being kept safe; the legal reality is that it has typically been transferred.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Regular deposit (depositum). The classical form: gratuitous, specific property returned. Also called a naked bailment or depositum in the civil law tradition.
Irregular deposit. A deposit of fungible goods — most commonly money — where the depositary may return equivalent goods or a like sum rather than the identical items. A standard bank account operates on this principle. Bouvier treats this as identical to an irregular deposit.
Special deposit. A bank deposit in which the specific coins, bills, or instruments delivered must be returned intact. Creates a bailment, not a debt. Historically significant in cases of bank insolvency, where special depositors could claim property rather than standing as general creditors.
Quasi deposit. Arises by operation of law when a person comes lawfully into possession of another's property by finding it. No consensual delivery; the obligation to return is imposed by law.
Security deposit. A sum held by a landlord or contracting party as security for performance. Governed heavily by statute in most jurisdictions and treated as held in trust for the depositor under many modern frameworks.
Court deposit (deposit in custodia legis). Funds or property placed with the court pending litigation, interpleader, or satisfaction of a judgment.
Why It Matters in Research
The general-versus-special deposit distinction is one of the most consequential in banking law research and one of the easiest to overlook in older sources. Before deposit insurance regimes, whether a deposit was "general" or "special" determined whether a depositor was a creditor (and therefore took nothing in an insolvent bank) or a bailor (and could reclaim specific property). Nineteenth-century litigation on this point is voluminous, and the terms are used inconsistently across jurisdictions and time periods.
Researchers working in landlord-tenant law should treat "deposit" and "security deposit" as functionally distinct from their common-law bailment roots. Modern security deposit law is almost entirely statutory, with specific rules on segregation, interest, itemization, and return deadlines that vary sharply by state. Historical sources — including Bouvier and Story — offer no guidance on this body of law; it developed largely in the second half of the twentieth century.
In UCC Article 4 research, "deposit" has a technical meaning tied to the bank-collection process. Article 4 governs the relationship between depositary banks, collecting banks, and payor banks. The moment of deposit, encoding, and provisional credit settlement all have defined legal consequences that diverge from the intuitive meaning of "depositing a check."
A corpus trap: Burrill and early Black's treat deposit primarily as a subspecies of bailment and devote most analysis to the civilian depositum. Researchers looking for commercial banking doctrine will find those sources thin. Conversely, modern banking treatises will not illuminate the property-return obligations that still arise in special deposit or quasi-deposit contexts.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources are in substantial agreement on the core definition: a deposit is a gratuitous bailment for safekeeping, with return of the specific thing. Burrill traces the term directly to the civilian depositum, notes that Lord Holt and Sir William Jones preferred the Latinized form, and observes that Story broke with that convention by using the English word. This is a minor point of terminology, not substance.
Bouvier and Black's (both editions) track Story's Bailments closely, reproducing his framework of regular, irregular, and quasi deposit without meaningful divergence. The convergence on Story is notable: these dictionaries are, in significant part, glossing a single treatise.
What the historical dictionaries do not address: the regulatory security deposit (a modern creation), deposit insurance, the UCC bank-collection framework, or the debtor-creditor analysis that now governs most consumer banking. They also give minimal treatment to the procedural deposit in custodia legis. Researchers must supplement historical sources with modern statutory and regulatory materials for any practical banking or landlord-tenant question.
Jurisdictional Note
Security deposit law is almost entirely state-regulated and varies significantly in deposit limits, interest requirements, holding-in-trust obligations, and return deadlines. Some states require separate escrow accounts; others do not. The historical common-law bailment framework has largely been displaced by statute in this context. For banking deposits, federal law (including FDIC deposit insurance rules and UCC Article 4 as enacted in each state) provides a more uniform but still variable framework.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Landlord-Tenant — Security Deposits (State Regulations) (The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia)
Negotiable Instruments — Bank Deposits and Collections, UCC Article 4 (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia)
Negotiable Instruments — Types: Notes, Drafts, Checks, Certificates of Deposit (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia)