PROCURE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

PROCUREAuthored

The Law Mind • 1102 words

Definition

To procure is to bring about, cause, contrive, or effect a result — often through the actions of another. The term carries distinct weight depending on legal context:

Criminal law. To procure is to instigate, initiate, or cause an act to be done, typically through another person. One who procures a crime is criminally liable even without personally committing the act. Procurement is broader than solicitation in some jurisdictions and overlaps with concepts of aiding, abetting, and accessory liability.

Real property and brokerage law. A broker "procures" a buyer or transaction when the broker's efforts are the procuring cause — the originating, efficient cause that produces the result. This is distinct from merely participating in a transaction. Whether a broker has procured a sale determines entitlement to commission.

General law. To procure means to obtain, acquire, or bring into existence — by purchase, arrangement, or contrivance — for oneself or for another. Bouvier's captures the core: "to contrive, effect, or bring about; to cause."

Prostitution law. To procure, in the context of human trafficking and prostitution statutes, means to obtain a person for the purpose of prostitution, or to arrange such services for another. This sense appears in criminal codes as a distinct offense, often called "procuring" or "pandering."

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To acquire or obtain; to cause to come about; to induce someone to do something; to obtain a person as a prostitute for someone else.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "To bring into possession; to cause to accrue to, or to come into possession of; to acquire or provide for one's self or for another; to gain; to get; to obtain by any means."

The common meaning — simply to obtain or acquire — does not capture the legal weight of the term. In law, procure implies active instigation or causation, not mere receipt. The distinction matters most in criminal contexts: one who procures a crime has done more than obtain a result; they have set it in motion through another. Bouvier's flags this precisely: "There is a clear legal distinction between procuring an act to be done and suffering it to be done."

Common Confusion

Procure vs. solicit. Both involve inducing another to act, but solicitation typically requires a direct request to commit a specific crime. Procurement is broader — it encompasses any instigation, contrivance, or causation, including indirect means. A person may procure a crime without making an explicit verbal request.

Procure vs. abet. Abetting generally involves encouragement or assistance during commission of the act. Procurement focuses on the initiation — bringing the act about in the first place. The two may overlap, but procurement is more naturally associated with the planning or instigation phase.

Procuring cause vs. proximate cause. In real estate commission disputes, "procuring cause" is a specialized term of art. It asks which broker set in motion the chain of events that led to the completed transaction. This is related to but analytically distinct from proximate cause in tort, which asks about foreseeability and directness of harm.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers face three distinct clusters of case law under this single term, and conflating them produces noise.

First cluster — criminal procurement and accessory liability. Pre-20th century sources treat procurement as a general principle of criminal complicity. Researchers tracing accessory liability, conspiracy, or solicitation doctrines will find procurement cases interleaved without consistent indexing. Black's (2nd Ed.) places this squarely in criminal law but the principle applies to civil analogies as well.

Second cluster — broker commission disputes. The phrase "procuring cause" is the operative standard in most U.S. jurisdictions for determining which broker earns a commission when multiple agents are involved in a transaction. This is heavily litigated. Corpus researchers should connect this entry directly to the Law Mind Real Estate Encyclopedia entry on broker commission disputes, which addresses the ready, willing, and able buyer standard alongside procuring cause analysis.

Third cluster — prostitution and trafficking statutes. Modern criminal codes have largely replaced the common-law term "procuring" with statutory language (pandering, trafficking, promotion of prostitution), but older case law and some surviving statutes still use procure. Researchers working with late 19th or early 20th century criminal materials will encounter procurement as the primary charge. The Anderson's entry is corrupted in the source material and unhelpful on this point — researchers should not rely on it for this context.

Watch for jurisdictional variation in how courts distinguish procurement from mere facilitation — the line matters for both criminal liability and civil commission claims, but courts draw it differently.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (2nd Ed.) and Bouvier's are in agreement on the core: procure means to bring about or cause, particularly through contrivance or the agency of another. Black's emphasis on criminal law reflects the term's most litigated application at the time of publication. Bouvier's adds the important distinction between procuring and suffering (permitting) an act — a difference with real legal consequence, as passive tolerance does not carry the same liability as active instigation.

Anderson's entry is textually corrupted in the available source and cannot be synthesized here. The passage as reproduced conflates two unrelated entries (bankruptcy procedure and proclamation), and the portion specifically addressing procurement is incomplete. Researchers should treat Anderson's as unavailable on this term.

Neither Black's nor Bouvier's addresses the real estate procuring cause doctrine with any specificity — that body of law developed substantially in 20th-century case law and is not captured by these historical dictionaries. Researchers should not expect historical dictionary sources to be useful anchors for commission dispute research.

Jurisdictional Note

The procuring cause standard in real estate brokerage is applied in most U.S. jurisdictions but with significant variation in how courts define the causal chain required. Some states have codified commission entitlement rules that modify or replace common-law procuring cause analysis. In criminal law, most modern penal codes have displaced the common-law term with statutory definitions of solicitation, facilitation, or trafficking — but procurement language survives in older precedent and some statutes.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Broker Commission Disputes — Procuring Cause, Ready Willing and Able Buyer, and MLS Cooperation (Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia)

PROCUREmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

In criminal law, and in analogous uses elsewhere, to “procure” is to initiate a proceeding to cause a thing to be done; to instigate; to contrive, bring about, effect, or cause. See U. S. v. Wilson, 28 Fed. Cas. 710; Gore v. Lloyd, 12 Mees. & W. 480; Marcus v. Bernstein, 117 N. C. 31, 23 8. BE. 388; Rosenbarger v. State, 154 Ind. 425, 56 N. E. 914; Long v. State, 23 Neb. 33, 36 N. W. 310.

PROCUREmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

A bankrupt procures the seizure of his property when the initiation of A notice publicly given of anything whereof the king thinks fit to advise his ❘ the proceeding comes from him, when he is subjects.5 Made under the great seal and published, so that the people may be apprised of its existence and do as it commands. A proclamation by the President relieving parties, who had been transacting business in ignorance of it, from penalties, may take effect when signed by the President and sealed with the seal of the United States, officially tested. Publication in newspapers may not be requisite. A proclamation is a crying aloud; making publicly known; official notice given the public. One may proclaim, as of old, by the sound of a trumpet, by voice, by print, or by posting. A proclamation may be published in the newspapers, or scattered by writing, or in any other demonstrative manner. Publicity is an important ingredient. It cannot be published by mere deposit in a place to which the public have no access." A proclamation by the President, reserving lands from sale, is his official public announcement of an order of that effect. No particular form of announce1 Tilghman v. Proctor, 102 U. S. 728, ante; 12 F. R. 615, 618; 20 Blatch. 471; 22 Cent. Law J. 294 (1886), cases. 2 Watson v. Bishop, 69 Ga. 53 (1882). 3 Pro'shěn; a law-French term. 4 [1 Bl. Com. 270. 5 [Cowell, Law Dict. Lapeyre v. United States, 17 Wall. 191, 195-96 (1872), Swayne, J.; Chase, C. J., Clifford, Davis, and Strong, JJ., concurring. Lapeyre v. United States, supra, Hunt, Miller, Field, and Bradley, JJ., dissenting. the person who begins to procure, when he caused the thing to be done, in the ordinary sense of the word.3 But signing, however reluctantly and under pressure, a warrant to confess judgment, under a stipulation that the warrant should not unnecessarily be put in force, is "suffering" a taking. Decisions on "procuring" have no application on "suffering." See further SUFFER; PREFERENCE. To "procure a female to have illicit carnal connec tion with any man" refers to intercourse with another than the "procurer" or "procuress." See ABDUC

PROCUREmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

To contrive, effect, or bring about; to cause. 23 Neb. 45. There is a clear legal distinction be tween procuring an act to be done and suffering it to be done. 2 Ben. 196.

PROCUREv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To bring into possession; to cause to accrue to, or to come into possession of; to acquire or provide for one's self or for another; to gain; to get; to obtain by any means, as by purchase or loan. If we procure not to ourselves more woe. Milton. To contrive; to bring about; to effect; to cause. By all means possible they procure to have gold and silver among them in reproach. Robynson (More's Utopia) . Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall. Shak. To solicit; to entreat. [Obs.] The famous Briton prince and faery knight, . . . Of the fair Alma greatly were procured To make there longer sojourn and abode. Spenser. To cause to come; to bring; to attract. [Obs.] What unaccustomed cause procures her hither Shak. To obtain for illicit intercourse or prostitution.

PROCUREv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To pimp. Shak. To manage business for another in court. [Scot.]

procureverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To acquire or obtain. | To obtain a person as a prostitute for somebody else. | To induce or persuade someone to do something. | To contrive; to bring about; to effect; to cause. | To solicit; to entreat. | To cause to come; to bring; to attract.

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