USUAL - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

USUALAuthored

The Law Mind • 887 words

Definition

Habitual, ordinary, or customary; conforming to established practice or common usage in a given context. In legal instruments and proceedings, "usual" describes conduct, conditions, terms, or covenants that are recognized as standard within a particular trade, relationship, or course of dealing — not merely what a party subjectively expects, but what is objectively established by common practice.

The term frequently appears in:

1. Contracts and leases — "usual covenants," "usual terms," or "usual conditions" refer to those terms recognized by law or custom as standard incidents of a particular type of agreement.

2. Agency and employment — "usual authority" or "usual course of business" describes the scope of implied powers recognized in a given trade or occupation.

3. Procedure — "usual place of abode" or "usual place of business" defines the locations where substitute service of process is legally effective.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The typical state of something; a specific good or service (such as a drink) that someone habitually orders.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Such as is in common use; occurring in ordinary practice or the ordinary course of events; customary, ordinary, habitual, common.

The ordinary and legal meanings are closely aligned in substance, but the legal deployment of "usual" carries a heavier freight. In everyday speech, "usual" is relative to an individual's habits. In legal contexts, "usual" is measured against an objective external standard — the recognized practice of a trade, profession, or established course of dealing between parties. What is usual to one party is irrelevant unless it corresponds to what is objectively customary in the relevant context.

Common Confusion

"Usual" is sometimes used interchangeably with "ordinary," "customary," and "reasonable," but these are not synonyms in legal analysis. "Customary" typically refers to an established community or trade practice. "Ordinary" often invokes a standard of prudent or normal conduct. "Reasonable" imports a normative judgment. "Usual" is primarily descriptive — it asks what is actually done as a matter of habit or established practice, without necessarily endorsing that practice as prudent or sufficient.

Why It Matters in Research

The term "usual" is a moving target because it borrows its content from context. A covenant described as "usual" in a 19th-century English lease may differ materially from what American courts in the same era treated as usual, and both may differ from modern usage. Researchers working with older instruments — particularly conveyances, leases, and commercial contracts — must determine what courts in the relevant jurisdiction and period recognized as the standard package of "usual covenants." Do not assume consistency across time or across jurisdictions.

In agency law, "usual authority" connects directly to apparent and implied authority doctrine. Research on the scope of an agent's usual authority must trace how courts in the relevant period and jurisdiction defined the ordinary powers attached to a given role. This varies considerably between wholesale and retail trades, between different professional roles, and between common law and civil law-influenced jurisdictions.

In procedure, "usual place of abode" for service of process has generated substantial litigation. Historical sources treat this as synonymous with domicile or ordinary residence, but courts have not always agreed, and the distinction matters when a party has multiple residences or has recently moved.

Be alert to instruments that use "usual" as a shorthand for a recognized set of terms — "with the usual covenants," "on the usual conditions" — without spelling those terms out. When researching disputes over such instruments, the operative question is what a court in that time and place would have read into the shorthand. Secondary sources, trade custom evidence, and contemporaneous form books become essential.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) defines "usual" as "habitual; ordinary; customary; according to usage or custom; commonly established, observed, or practised." The entry is concise and accurate as a baseline, but it does not develop the critical distinction between subjective habit and objective trade or professional custom, which is where litigation actually arises.

Rapalje & Lawrence does not carry a standalone entry for "usual" in the available excerpt; the surrounding material concerns "use and occupation" and related doctrines. This is not surprising — "usual" functions more as a qualifying adjective in legal instruments than as a term of art with independent doctrinal content, and older dictionaries frequently omit such connective terms in favor of noun-centered entries. Researchers should not infer absence of legal significance from absence of a dictionary entry.

Both sources reflect the 19th-century common law baseline in which "usual" was a well-understood shorthand for objectively recognized practice, without requiring enumeration. Modern instruments tend to spell out what was formerly left to custom, which means the need to interpret "usual" as a standalone operative term arises most often in disputes over older documents.

Jurisdictional Note

American courts and English courts have not always agreed on what constitutes "usual covenants" in leases and conveyances. In procedure, the definition of "usual place of abode" for service purposes varies by state statute and has been interpreted inconsistently even within jurisdictions. Researchers should treat "usual" as jurisdiction-specific whenever it appears as an operative term in an instrument or statute.

USUALmain

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

Habitual; ordinary; customary ; according to usage or custom; commonly established, observed, or practised. See Chicago & A. R. Co. v. Hause, 71 Ill. App. 147; Kellogg v. Curtis, 69 Me. 214, 81 Am. Rep. 273; Tescher v Merea, 118 Ind. 586, 21 N.

USUALmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

(1317) tract to pay for the use of the land. The action does not lay against a mere wrongdoer or trespasser. Smith & S. L. & T. 181. USE AND OCCUPATION, CHANGE IN, (in an insurance policy). 59 Me. 582. USE AND WEAR ONLY EXCEPTED, REASONABLE, (in a covenant). 2 Campb. 449. USE, FOR HER, (a devise to a wife). 2 Day (Conn.) 28. USE, FOR THE, (a bequest). 5 Wheel. Am. C. L. 556. USE, FREE, (of lands, a devise of, passes the interest in them). 1 East 37. USE OF, (in a deed). 107 Mass. 290, 324. USE OF PERSONAL PROPERTY, (in a will). 1 Stockt. (N. J.) 260. USE OF SAID SEMINARY, FOR THE, (in a conveyance). 20 Ind. 398. USE OF THE NEWLY-INTENDED ROAD, THE FREE, (in a covenant). 5 Taunt. 548. USE OF THE TIMBER, (grant of). 11 Rich. (S. C.) 621. USE, PAY TO B. OR HIS ORDER FOR MY, (indorsed on a bill of exchange). 8 Barn. & C. 622; 5 Bing. 525. USE PORTS, (in an insurance policy). 48 Barb. (N. Y.) 469; 48 N. Y. 624; 35 Super. (Ν. Υ.) 247. USE, PUBLIC, (in the constitution). 18 Wend. (Ν. Υ.) 60. USE, SEPARATE, (of a married woman, when a devise is for). 5 Ves. 540. USED, (not synonymous with "belonging to"). 1 Chit. Gen. Pr. 214. 304, 305. (in an indictment). 7 Allen (Mass.) USED AND ENJOYED, (in a lease). 5 Barn. & Ald. 830. C. 96. & USED, HERETOFORE, (in a lease). 2 Barn. USED, OCCUPIED AND ENJOYED, (in surrender of lease). L. R. 3 Ex. 161. USED OR ENJOYED, (in a deed). 1 Chit. Gen. Pr. 157. (in a grant). 1 Dowl. & Ry. 506, 508. USEFUL.-This word as used in the patent laws requiring an invention to be "useful" means such an invention as may be applied to some beneficial use, in contradistinction to one which is injurious to the morals, health, or good order of society. See the cases referred to below. USEFUL, (in patent law). 2 Blatchf. (U. S.) 279, 290; 1 Mas. (U. S.) 182, 186, 302; 4 McLean (U. S.) 565; 5 Id. 44; 4 Wash. (U. S.) 9; 14 Pick. (Mass.) 217; Fess. Pat. 59. USEFUL CLAUSES, (in an agreement). 1 Meriv. 459, 467, 473. USEFUL INVENTION, (what constitutes). Baldw. (U. S.) 303. USER is the same thing as the ordinary sense of the word. 21. "use" in See USE,

USUALa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Such as is in common use; such as occurs in ordinary practice, or in the ordinary course of events; customary; ordinary; habitual; common. Consultation with oracles was a thing very usual and frequent in their times. Hooker. We can make friends of these usual enemies. Baxter. -- U"su*al*ly, adv.  -- U"su*al*ness, n.

usualnoun

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.

The typical state of something, or something that is typical. | A specific good or service (e.g. a drink) that someone typically orders.

usualadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Most commonly occurring; typical.

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