PROFITS

1. The advance in the price of goods sold beyond the cost of purchase. The gain made by the sale of produce or manu- factures, after deducting the value of the la- bor, materials, rents, and all expenses, to- gether with the interest of the capital em- ployed. Webster. The usual, ordinary, and correct meaning of the word "profits" is the excess of receipts over ex- penditures; that is, net earnings. 15 Minn. 519, (Gil. 428.) 2. The benefit, advantage, or pecuniary gain accruing to the owner or occupant of land from its actual use; as in the familiar phrase "rents, issues, and profits," or in the expression "mesne profits." 3. A division sometimes made of incor- poreal hereditaments; as distinguished from 'easements," which tend rather to the con- venience than the profit of the claimant. 2 Steph. Comm. 2. PROFITS À PRENDRE. These, which are also called "rights of common," are rights exercised by one man in the soil of another, accompanied with participation in the profits of the soil thereof; as rights of pasture, or of digging sand. Profits à prendre differ from easements, in that the former are rights of profit, and the latter are mere rights of convenience without profit. Gale, Easem. 1; Hall, Profits à Prendre, 1.

1. The advance in the pricé of goods sold beyond the cost of purchase. The gain made by the sale of produce or manufactures, after deducting the value of the labor, materials, rents, and all expenses. together with the interest of the capital employed. Webster. See Providence Rubber Co. v. Goodyear, 9 Wall. 805, 19 L. Ed. 828; Mundy v. Van Hoose, 104 Ga. 292, 30 S. BE. 783; Hinckley v. Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Co., 121 U. S. 264, 7 Sup. Ct. 875, 30 L. E& 967; Prince v. Lamb, 128 Cal. 120, 60 Pac. 689; Maryland Ice Co. v. Arctic Ice Mach. Mfg. Co., 79 Md. 103, 29 Atl. 69. & The benefit, advantage, or pecuniary gain accruing to the owner or occupant of land from its actual use; as in the familiar phrase “rents, issues, and profits,” or in the expression “mesne profits.” — 3. A division :sometimes made of incorporeal hereditaments; ss ‘distinguished from “easements,” which tend rather. to the ‘con venience than the profit of the claimant. 2 Steph. Comm. 2. i —Mesne profits. Intermediate profits; that is, profits which have been accruing between two given periods. Thus, after a party. has recovered the land itself in an action of ejectment, he frequently brings another action for the purpose o recovering the profits which have been accruing or arising out of the land between the time when his title to the possession accrued or was raised and the time of his recovery in the action of ejectment, and such an action is thence termed an “action for mesne profits.” Brown.—Mesne profits, action of. An ac tion of trespass brought to recover profits derived from land, while the possession of it has been improperly withheld; that is, the yearly value of the premises. Worthington v. Hiss, 70 Md. 172, 16 Atl. 534; Woodhull v. Rosenthal, 61 N. Y. 394: Thompson v. Bower, 60 Barb.:(N. Y.).477.<Net profits. Theoretically all profits are ‘“‘net.” But as the expression “cross profits” is sometimes used to describe the mere excess of present value over former yalue, or of returns from sales over prime cost, the phrase “net profits” is appropriate to de rcribe the gain which remains after the further deduction of all expenses, charges, costs. allowance for depreciation, et¢.—Profit and loss. The gain or loss arising from goods bought or sold, or from carrying on any other business, former of which, in book-keeping, is placed on the creditor’s side; the latter on the debtor's side.—Profits a prendre. These, which are also called “rights of common.” are rights exercised by one man in the soil of another, accompanied with participation in the’ profits of the soil thereof; as rights of pasture, or of digging sand. Profits &@ prendre differ from easements, in that the former are rights profit. and the latter are mere rights of convenience without profit. Gale, Eascem. 1: Hall, Profits A Prendre, 1. See Payne v. Sheets, 75. Vt. 335, 55 Atl. 656; Black v. . Elkhorn

The advance in the price of goods sold beyond the cost of purchase. See 84 N. Y. 23. The gain made by the sale of produce or manufactures, after deducting the value of the labor, materials, rents, and all expenses, together with the interest of the capital employed. An excess of the value of returns over the value of advances. The excess of receipts over expenditures; that is, net earnings. 15 Minn. 519. The receipts of a business, deducting current expenses; it is equivalent to net re- ceipts. 94 U. S. 500; 5 Super. Ct. Pa. 276. This is a word of very extended signifi- cation. In commerce, it means the advance in the price of goods sold beyond the cost of purchase. In distinction from the wages of labor, it is well understood to imply the net return to the capital of stock employed, after deducting all the expenses, including not only the wages of those employed by the capitalist, but the wages of the capi- talist himself for superintending the em- ployment of his capital or stock. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nat. b. i. c. 6, and M'Cul- loch's Notes; Mill, Polit. Econ. c. 15. After indemnifying the capitalist for his outlay, there commonly remains a surplus, which is his profit, the net income from his capital. 1 Mill, Polit. Econ. c. 15. The word profit is generally used by writers on political economy to denote the difference between the value of advances and the value of returns made by their employment. The profit of the farmer and the manu- facturer is the gain made by the sale of produce or manufactures, after deducting the value of the labor, materials, rents, and all expenses, together with the interest of the capital employed,-whether land, buildings, machinery, instruments, or money. The rents and profits of an estate, the income or the net income of it, are all equivalent expressions. The income or the net income of an estate means only the profit it will yield after deducting the charges of management; 5 Me. 202; 35 id. 420. Under the term profit is comprehended the produce of the soil, whether it arise above or below the surface: as, herbage, wood, turf, coals, minerals, stones; 23 S. E. Rep. (W. Va.) 666; also fish in a pond or running water. Profits are divided into profits à prendre, or those taken and en- joyed by the mere act of the proprietor himself, and profits à vendre, namely, such as are received at the hands of and ren- dered by another. Hamm. N. P. 172. Profits are divided by writers on political economy into gross and net, -gross profits being the whole difference between the value of advances and the value of returns made by their employment, and net profits being so much of that difference as is at- tributable solely to the capital employed. The remainder of the difference, or, in other words, the gross profits minus the net profits, has no particular name; but it represents the profits attributable to in- dustry, skill, and enterprise. See Malthus, Political Econ.; M'Culloch, Political Econ. 563. But the word profit is generally used in a less extensive signification, and presupposes an excess of the value of re- turns over the value of advances. It was said by Jessel, M. R., that there is no such thing as gross profits." See 10 App. Cas. 446. Where a life insurance company issued participating policies" for an increased premium, agreeing at the end of every five years to give two-thirds of the "gross profits" of such policies to the policy holders, it was held that this two- thirds constituted" annual profits or gains" of the company and were assessable to in- come tax; 10 Арр. Саз. 438, per Lords Blackburn and Fitzgerald, Lord Bramwell dissenting. The case seems to disregard the nature of the return of that portion of the premium charged in advance and sub- sequently ascertained to have been ex- cessive, which the companies curiously call "dividends." See DIVIDENDS; NET PROFITS; OPERATING EXPENSES. Using profit in this more limited and popular sense, persons who share profits do not necessarily share losses; for they may stipulate for a division of gain, if any, and yet some one or more of them may, by agreement, be entitled to be indemnified against losses by the others: so that whilst all share profits, some only bear losses. Persons who share gross returns share prof- its in the sense of gain; but they do not by sharing the returns share losses, for these fall entirely on those making the ad- vances. Moreover, although a division of gross returns is a division of profits if there are any, it is so only incidentally, and be- cause such profits are included in what is divided: it is not a division of profits as such; and under an agreement for a divi- sion of gross returns, whatever is returned must be divided, whether there be profit or loss, or neither; 1 Lindl. Part. 8, 17. These considerations have led to the dis- tinction between agreements to share prof- its and agreements to share gross returns, and to the doctrine that, whilst an agree- ment to share profits creates a par

plural of profit

plural of Profit

third-person singular simple present indicative of profit