AFFINITAS AFFINITATIS. That connexion between two persons which has neither consanguinity1 nor affinity2; as, the connexion between the hushand's brother and the wife's sister. This connexion is formed not between the parties themselves, nor between one of spouses3 and the kinsmen4 of the other, but between the kinsmen of both. Ersk. Inst. B, 1, tit. 6, s. 8.
AFFINITY. A connexion formed by marriage, which places the hushand in the same degree of nominal5 propinquity to the relations of the wife, as that in which she herself stands towards them, and gives to the wife the same reciprocal connexion with the relations of the hushand. It is used in contradistinction to consanguinity. (q. v.) It is no real kindred.
2. Affinity or alliance is very different from kindred. Kindred are relations. by blood; affinity is the tie which exists between one of the spouses with the kindred of the other; thus, the relations, of my wife, her brothers, her sisters, her uncles, are allied6 to me by affinity, and my brothers, sistors, &c., are allied in the same way to my wife. But my brother and the sister of my wife are not allied by the ties of affinity: This will appear by the following paradigms7
My wife's father ---| | | | | -----------------| | | | |-- are all allied to me. Ego8 ----- My Wife 0 My wife's sister ---| | | 0 My wife's niece ---| My wife's father, ---| My Father | |My brother | | |and my wife's | | |sister are |---------------| |----------| |not allied | | | | |to each other My brother Ego ---- My wife, My wife's sister, |
3. A person cannot, by legal succession, receive an inheritance from a relation by affinity; neither does it extend to the nearest relations of hushand and wife, so as to create a mutual9 relation between them. The degrees of affinity are computed10 in the same way as those of consanguinity. See Pothier, Traite du Mariage, part 3, ch. 3, art. 2, and see 5 M. R. 296; Inst. 1, 10, 6; Dig. 38, 10, 4, 3; 1 Phillim. R. 210; S. C. 1 Eng. Eccl. R. 72; article Marriage.
TO AFFIRM, practice. 1. To ratify11 or confirm a former law or judgment12, as when the supreme13 court affirms the judgment of the court of common pleas. 2. To make an affirmation, or to testify under an affirmation.
AFFIRMANCE. The confirmation14 of a voidable act; as, for example, when an infant enters into a contract, which is not binding15 upon him, if, after attaining16 his full age, he gives his affirmance to it, he will thereafter be bound, as if it had been made when of full age. 10 N. H. Rep. 194.
2. To be binding upon the infant, the affirmance must be made after arriving of age, with a full knowledge that it would be void without such confirmation. 11 S. & R. 305.
3. An affirmance may be express, that is, where the party declares his determination of fulfilling the contract; but a more acknowledgment is not sufficient. Dudl. R, 203. Or it may be implied, as, for example, where an infant mortgaged his land and, at full age, conveyed it, subject to the mortgage. 15 Mass. 220. See 10 N. H. Rep. 561.
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