VES - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

VESAuthored

The Law Mind • 782 words

Definition

"Ves" as a standalone legal term does not carry an independent definition in modern law. It appears in legal literature almost exclusively as a prefix fragment or abbreviation, most commonly as the first syllable of VESTED (from the Latin vestire, to clothe or invest) and in compound terms such as VESSEL. Burrill's Law Dictionary treats "ves-" material across two distinct legal contexts:

1. Vested (interests, rights, estates): A right or interest is vested when it has become fixed, absolute, and no longer contingent on any future condition. A vested remainder, for example, is a future interest in land that will take effect in possession upon the natural termination of a prior estate, without depending on any condition precedent beyond the ending of that prior estate. Kent's Commentaries at volume 4, page 202 is the classical authority Burrill cites for the vested remainder: the interest must be ready to take effect in possession the moment the particular estate is spent.

2. Vessel: A craft designed for navigation on water. Burrill notes, citing Jacobsen's Sea Laws, that "vessel" is a term of larger import than many of its apparent synonyms — it covers a broader class of watercraft than narrower terms like "ship" or "boat," a distinction that carries practical weight in admiralty and maritime law.

Because "ves" has no standalone legal meaning, researchers encountering it in a source should treat it as a truncated form and resolve it by context — almost always toward "vested" in property and equity materials, and toward "vessel" in admiralty materials.

Common Confusion

Researchers should not conflate the abbreviation "ves." with the substantive legal terms it represents. In older equity and conveyancing texts, "ves." most often abbreviates "vested," not "vessel." Context (property/equity vs. admiralty) resolves the ambiguity in virtually all cases. Separately, the terms VESTED REMAINDER and CONTINGENT REMAINDER are themselves frequently confused; see those entries.

Why It Matters in Research

The truncation matters because historical legal manuscripts, abridgments, and printed dictionaries frequently abbreviated terms, and "ves." with a period or superscript was a common shorthand in older equity and conveyancing texts. A researcher working in digitized historical sources may encounter "ves. remainder" or "ves. interest" as clipped forms of "vested remainder" or "vested interest." Misreading or failing to expand the abbreviation can cause the researcher to miss the controlling distinction between vested and contingent interests — a distinction with enormous consequences in future-interests analysis, rule against perpetuities questions, and estate planning history.

In admiralty materials, "ves." abbreviating "vessel" similarly appears in older shipping registers, Lloyd's records, and maritime pleadings. The significance of the vessel/ship distinction — flagged by Burrill via Jacobsen — is not merely taxonomic: regulatory obligations, admiralty jurisdiction, and liability frameworks historically turned on whether a given watercraft qualified as a "vessel" under the applicable statute or treaty.

Researchers should also be alert to the fact that digitized full-text search for "ves" will return enormous noise (hits for "vested," "vessel," "vesting," "vest," and Latin vestments of all kinds). Precision searching requires expanding the term before querying.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary does not define "ves" as an independent headword. The entry in the source material appears to be a printed artifact of the dictionary's layout — the headword "VES" sits at the top of a page (page 585–586) that bridges two distinct substantive discussions: one on vested remainders (citing Kent's Commentaries vol. 4, p. 202) and one on the term "vessel" (citing Jacobsen's Sea Laws). This is a column-head or page-head entry, not a substantive definition.

The passage on "vessel" is instructive on its own terms. Burrill quotes Jacobsen to the effect that the popular conception of "vessel" is indefinite, but that as a legal term of art it is broader than "ship" — a distinction that runs throughout admiralty treatises of the 18th and 19th centuries. Other historical dictionaries (Bouvier, Black's early editions) handle "vessel" as a full headword with admiralty and statutory definitions. Burrill's treatment, though fragmentary as presented, aligns with the general tradition.

The vested remainder passage is similarly consistent with the broader historical dictionary tradition. Burrill's citation to Kent is the standard reference. Blackstone's Commentaries, Kent's Commentaries, and later American authorities all distinguish vested from contingent remainders on the same functional ground: whether the future taker is ascertained and the interest ready to take effect the moment the preceding estate falls.

No historical dictionary reviewed treats "ves" as a term of independent legal significance. Its appearance as a headword in Burrill reflects typography, not legal doctrine.

VESmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870

(585) and facere, to make.] In old pleading. (586) between the terms themselves, vessel seems terest [in lands or tenements] to take effect to be the one of larger import, as it unin possession, after a particular estate is doubtedly is in popular acceptation. "To spent. 4 Kent's Com. 202. -Vested rethe term vessel generally," observes M. Jacobsen, "we affix but a very indefinite idea; originating in the infancy of commerce, from L. 1. § 6, D. de exercitoria mainders (or remainders executed, whereby a present interest passes to the party, though to be enjoyed in futuro,) are where the estate is invariably fixed, to remain to 169. actione, [Dig. 14. 1. 1. 6.] in which all a determinate person, after the particular vessels are termed ships, and this want of estate is spent. As if A. be tenant for precision still prevails in the law, and twenty years, remainder to B. in fee; here among its professors." Jacobsen's Sea B.'s is a vested remainder, which nothing Laws, citing Stypmann Jus Marit. pars. can defeat or set aside. 2 Bl. Com. 168, iii. cap. 148. Straccha, pars. i-2. Casaregis disc. i-29. By the English statute of 5 & 6 Will. IV. "ship" is declared to comprehend every description of vessel navigating on the sea, and "steam vessels" employed in carrying passengers or goods are trading ships. Under the term vessel, it was said by Mr. J. Patteson, in a late English case, a boat would, in common parlance, be included. 4 Carr. & P. 559. See Id. 569. Vessel occurs as a L. Fr. word in the old books. Des neyes hors de meer en nostre royalme cheys hors de vessel, volons ausi que le vessel, et, &c. Britt. c. 1.