Definition
A Latin term from medieval and early modern legal usage meaning to be charged with, burdened by, or made liable for payments, encumbrances, or occasional penalties. The term appears primarily in property and conveyancing contexts, describing the condition of an estate or interest that is subject to some charge, obligation, or contingent liability running with the land or tenure. It is closely associated with the law of estates, particularly where a freehold or entailed estate carries conditions, reserved payments, or potential penalties that attach to ownership or possession.
Why It Matters in Research
Occasionari is a term of art confined almost entirely to historical legal Latin and will not appear in modern statutory or case law without being quoted directly from an older instrument or treatise. Researchers encountering it will do so in one of three contexts: transcribed deeds or conveyances from the medieval or early modern period, treatises on the law of real property and estates tail, and annotations or digests that cross-reference older Latin forms to their doctrinal categories.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry is sparse and cross-referential, pointing researchers immediately to ESTATE TAIL (§ 9) and FREEHOLD (§ 3) rather than treating occasionari as a self-contained doctrine. This is the correct instinct: the term describes a condition or quality of an estate rather than a freehold doctrine or an estate type in its own right. Researchers should treat the cross-references as the substantive entry and occasionari as a search key that unlocks the relevant passages in estate and tenure law.
One trap worth noting: the Rapalje & Lawrence entry runs occasionari into a passage on the word "occasioned" as used in New York insurance policy litigation (22 N.Y. 441, 447), and then immediately into an international law note on occupancy as title to newly-discovered territory. These are entirely distinct entries that appear to have been compressed or run together in the printed source. The insurance and international law passages have no connection to occasionari. Researchers using the Rapalje & Lawrence dictionary in its original printed form should be alert to this typographic compression and not read the insurance or occupancy passages as elaborations of the Latin term.
Because occasionari appears in instruments governed by English real property law before the American reception of the common law, researchers working on colonial-era or early republic conveyances may encounter it in documents that were later interpreted by American courts. In that context, the applicable interpretive framework is the English law of estates as it stood at the time of the instrument, not modern American property law.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence define occasionari as "to be charged or loaded with payments or occasional penalties," a terse formulation that captures the passive and burdensome character of the term. The definition's brevity reflects the term's function: it is descriptive shorthand in Latin conveyancing rather than a doctrine requiring extended treatment. No competing historical dictionary definition is available in the Law Mind corpus for this term, so Rapalje & Lawrence stands as the sole authoritative source on the shelf.
The cross-reference structure in Rapalje & Lawrence (directing readers to ESTATE TAIL and FREEHOLD) suggests the compilers viewed occasionari as a subordinate term — one that glosses a condition found within those larger doctrinal categories rather than standing alone. Historical legal dictionaries more generally do not treat it as an independent head term; where it appears, it is typically in the context of glossing Latin phrases in transcribed instruments or explaining terminology in older English real property treatises.
Jurisdictional Note
As a Latin term of art in English real property law, occasionari has no distinct American jurisdictional variants. Its relevance in American legal research is historical and document-specific, arising wherever instruments drafted under English common law forms are being interpreted.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: ESTATE TAIL; FREEHOLD; ESTATES IN LAND (Historical Forms)