Definition
The plural of INTROMISSION. In law, intromissions refers collectively to all dealings — in goods, stock, or cash — belonging to a principal that have come into the hands of an agent and for which the agent must render an account to the principal. The term captures the totality of transactions or receipts an agent handles on behalf of another, emphasizing the accounting obligation that attaches to each dealing.
The singular form, intromission, denotes a single such dealing or receipt. In practice, the plural predominates because agency relationships typically involve multiple transactions over time, all of which together constitute the agent's intromissions and define the scope of the duty to account.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of intromission; in general English, intromission refers to the act of inserting or introducing something, or to an instance of entry or interference.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Intromission — the act of sending in or of letting in; admission; also, in Scottish law, the act of intermeddling with the effects of another.
The legal meaning focuses narrowly on the fiduciary and accounting dimension of an agent's handling of a principal's property. The ordinary English sense of mere "insertion" or "introduction" carries none of this accountability weight, and a researcher encountering the term in historical legal documents should not import the common meaning. The Scottish law usage noted by Webster's is actually the closer cognate and historically important context.
Why It Matters in Research
The term is rare in modern American legal writing but appears with some frequency in older equity and agency materials, particularly those drawing on English and Scottish legal tradition. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should be alert to several navigational considerations.
First, the term is most likely to surface in historical chancery materials, probate records, and early equity treatises where an agent, executor, trustee, or factor was required to account for receipts. The word signals an accounting obligation — its presence in a document is a marker that the surrounding text concerns the duty to account rather than the nature of the underlying authority.
Second, the Scottish law connection is significant. Scottish legal practice used "intromission" and "intromitter" as technical terms of art with defined legal consequences — unauthorized intromission with a deceased's estate could expose an individual to liability as a vicious intromitter, a doctrine with no precise American parallel. Corpus materials touching Scottish law or early American law influenced by Scottish practice may use the term in this stricter, more punitive sense.
Third, because the term appears almost exclusively in older sources, researchers should expect archaic spellings and variant forms. Cross-referencing with ACCOUNT, FACTOR, and DUTY TO ACCOUNT will surface related materials that use more modern terminology for the same underlying concepts.
Fourth, the English law citation in Black's (29 Eng. Law & Eq. 391) points toward English equity practice, suggesting the term entered American legal vocabulary through the equity courts rather than the common law courts. This is useful for corpus navigation: look for the term in equity pleadings and chancery records, not in common law actions.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines intromissions as dealings in stock, goods, or cash of a principal coming into the hands of his agent, to be accounted for by the agent to his principal. The definition is concise and accurate but leaves significant context unstated.
What Black's captures: the core of the term is the combination of receipt and accountability. The agent does not merely receive property — the receipt triggers an obligation to account. The plural form signals that the law is concerned with the aggregate course of dealings, not any single transaction in isolation.
What Black's omits: the Scottish dimension is not mentioned, even though the term's richest historical usage lies there. In Scots law, intromission was a cornerstone concept in the law of executors and factors, and unauthorized intromission carried consequences well beyond a simple duty to account. Webster's 1913, by contrast, specifically flags the Scottish law usage, making it a useful supplement to Black's for researchers tracing the term's historical range.
Neither source addresses the term's relationship to modern agency doctrine. Contemporary American law has largely absorbed the concept into the general duty to account, and "intromissions" as a standalone term has receded from active use. A researcher finding it in a modern document should treat it as a deliberate archaism, likely in a context with historical continuity to older equity or Scottish practice.
Jurisdictional Note
The term carries its greatest technical weight in Scottish law, where intromission with the estate of a deceased without authority historically exposed the intromitter to the full extent of the estate's debts. American jurisdictions did not adopt this doctrine directly. In American and English practice, the term functions primarily as an accounting concept within agency and fiduciary law rather than as an independent basis for liability.