Definition
"Return a" is not a standalone legal term but rather a truncated phrase fragment that appears as a headnote prefix in Rapalje & Lawrence's legal dictionary, introducing two distinct propositions:
1. RETURN A HIS BOND (in the context of wills): The act of returning a bond to a testator or obligor does not, by itself, operate as a release of the underlying obligation. The physical redelivery of the instrument is not equivalent to a legal discharge of the debt or duty it secures.
2. RETURN AND HIRE OF A NEGRO (historical, contract law): A category of contract recognized in early American case law governing the temporary engagement and return of an enslaved person — a practice that generated enforceable contractual obligations under the law of the antebellum United States.
These two sub-entries share only the prefix "return a" as an artifact of the alphabetical organization of the source dictionary and do not constitute a unified legal concept.
---
Common Confusion
The truncated heading "Return a" reflects a historical dictionary formatting convention, not a legal term of art. Researchers encountering this entry in Rapalje & Lawrence should understand they are reading the tail end of a phrase — likely "Return a his bond" and "Return and hire of a negro" — that has been split by alphabetical indexing. Neither sub-entry should be read as a general statement about returns of instruments or contracts. Conflating the physical return of a written instrument with legal release is a recurring error in property and debt law and is precisely what the bond sub-entry cautions against.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Two separate research traps exist here, one doctrinal and one historical.
On the bond sub-entry: researchers working with testamentary instruments, debt instruments, or obligation law in equity should note the persistent distinction between physical custody of a document and legal extinguishment of the obligation it represents. The proposition cited to 3 Ves. 231 (Vesey Junior's Chancery Reports) reflects an equity court principle that survives in modern form: surrender of an instrument is evidence of intent to release, but not conclusive proof of release. This matters when reconstructing estate disputes or tracing debt obligations through probate records.
On the return and hire sub-entry: this entry is historically significant and requires careful handling. The reference to 4 Wheeler's American Common Law Cases reflects an era when contracts involving enslaved people were treated as ordinary commercial agreements in American courts. Researchers in legal history, slavery studies, or antebellum contract law will find this category of case law concentrated in Southern and border state reporters and in early federal circuit decisions. The legal framework built around these transactions — hire terms, liability for injury, return obligations, and dispute resolution — constituted a substantial body of doctrine that was largely expunged from mainstream legal dictionaries after the Civil War. Rapalje & Lawrence, published in the post-war period, retains the entry as a historical record. Researchers should not assume modern contract doctrine on bailment or hire directly maps onto this category; the legal personhood of the subject was denied, producing anomalous doctrinal results that should not be imported into general contract analysis.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence is the sole historical dictionary source here, and its treatment is minimal — essentially two citation-anchored propositions without elaboration. The bond sub-entry points to English Chancery authority (Vesey Junior), reflecting the equity origins of the rule. The contract sub-entry points to Wheeler's American Common Law Cases, a practitioner's digest of early American decisions, suggesting this was a recognized transactional category in domestic commercial practice.
No other historical dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus address either sub-entry directly. The bond proposition aligns with general equity doctrine on release by delivery that appears in Abbott, Bouvier, and Black in various editions, though none use this precise heading. The hire-of-enslaved-persons category is conspicuously absent from most post-war legal dictionaries, making Rapalje & Lawrence's retention of it an artifact of its compilation period.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia contains entries on return-related penalties (Information Return Penalties, tax_113; Frivolous Return Penalty, tax_81; Tax Return Preparation Duties and Penalties, tax_191) but these address tax filing returns — a wholly distinct legal concept from the instrument-return and hire-contract propositions above. No encyclopedia cross-reference is applicable to this entry.
---