Definition
In legal usage, "running" functions primarily as a modifier describing how a legal right, obligation, period, or condition operates — specifically, that it moves, extends, or attaches continuously or passes along with something else. The term carries distinct meanings depending on context:
1. RUNNING WITH THE LAND: A covenant, easement, or burden is said to "run with the land" when it binds or benefits not just the original parties but also their successors in interest. The obligation or right travels automatically with ownership of the property, rather than remaining personal to the grantor or grantee.
2. RUNNING OF A STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS: A limitations period is said to be "running" from the moment it begins to tick — typically from the accrual of a cause of action — until it is tolled, interrupted, or expires. Courts frequently speak of when a period "begins to run," "stops running," or "runs out."
3. RUNNING ACCOUNT: A continuous, open account between parties reflecting ongoing transactions, credits, and debits without final settlement at each step. Relevant to determining when a limitations period begins to run on commercial obligations.
4. RUNNING DAYS: In admiralty and charter party practice, consecutive calendar days counted without interruption, including Sundays and holidays, as distinguished from "working days."
5. RUNNING OBJECTION: A trial practice term for a standing objection entered on the record to preserve error without requiring counsel to object repeatedly to a sustained line of testimony or evidence.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The present participle and gerund of "run" — moving rapidly on foot, or the act of running.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Moving by running; successive, one following another without break; flowing or cursive; continuous and keeping along in step.
The Webster's definition is notably instructive here: the ordinary sense of "successive without break or interruption" maps directly onto the legal sense of running periods and running accounts. The divergence lies in the legal term's technical precision — "running" in law connotes formal attachment or continuous operation with defined legal consequences, not mere continuity in the colloquial sense.
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Common Confusion
Running with the land is frequently confused with personal covenants that merely bind the original contracting parties. The distinction is consequential: a covenant that fails to run — because it lacks the required privity, intent, or touch-and-concern — dies with the original covenantor and cannot be enforced against a subsequent purchaser. Researchers encountering disputes about covenant enforcement must first determine whether the running analysis was even reached.
"Running" of a limitations period is sometimes confused with its "accrual." Accrual is the triggering event; running describes the active passage of time thereafter. Tolling suspends the running without eliminating the period already elapsed.
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Why It Matters in Research
The word "running" almost never appears as a standalone entry in legal indexes or digests. Researchers must search under the noun it modifies — "covenants," "statute of limitations," "account," "days," "objection." This means a search for "running" alone in historical reporters or digests will return scattered, incomplete results.
For property research, the doctrine of covenants running with the land underwent significant doctrinal refinement in the twentieth century, culminating in the Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes (2000), which relaxed or eliminated some traditional common law requirements. Historical sources — including Rapalje & Lawrence era treatises — will reflect the stricter common law framework requiring horizontal privity, vertical privity, intent, and touch-and-concern. A researcher working in jurisdictions that have adopted the Restatement approach will find those older sources partially obsolete on the privity requirements specifically.
For limitations research, whether a period is "running" or has been tolled is often the dispositive issue in historical litigation records. Courts in different eras treated discovery rules, fraudulent concealment, and minority differently, affecting when running was deemed to have begun.
In admiralty contexts, the distinction between running days and working days in charter parties can determine demurrage liability. Historical charter party forms varied considerably, and the term "running" was not always defined within the instrument itself.
The running objection, while procedurally significant at trial, is a relatively modern formalization. Do not expect to find it labeled as such in nineteenth-century trial records.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence does not carry a dedicated entry for "running" as a standalone legal term, which itself reflects how the word functioned in historical legal usage — as a modifier embedded in larger doctrines rather than an independent term of art. The absence is informative: researchers using that dictionary must approach the concept through the principal noun (covenant, account, limitations).
Webster's 1913 is more useful here than many specialized legal dictionaries, because its definition of "running" as "successive; one following the other without break or intervention" captures the conceptual core shared across the legal uses — continuity without interruption. This ordinary-language sense directly underlies the legal meaning in both the limitations and covenant contexts.
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Jurisdictional Note
The requirements for a covenant to run with the land vary meaningfully between jurisdictions that follow the traditional common law privity requirements and those that have adopted or been influenced by the Restatement (Third) approach. In equity, the parallel doctrine of equitable servitudes has always imposed fewer requirements, which is why many older cases resolved running covenant questions on equitable rather than legal grounds.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Real Covenants — Running with the Land (Horizontal and Vertical Privity) — The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia
Motor Vehicle and Transportation Torts — Hit-and-Run and Phantom Vehicle Doctrines — The Law Mind Torts & Personal Injury Encyclopedia
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