DEPARTURE, maritime1 law. A deviation2 from the course of the voyage insured. 2. A departure is justifiable3 or not justifiable it is justifiable ill consequence of the stress of weather, to make necessary repairs, to succor4 a ship in distress5, to avoid capture, of inability to navigate6 the ship, mutiny of the crew, or other compulsion. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 1189.
DEPENDENCY. A territory distinct from the country in which the supreme7 sovereign, power resides, but belonging rightfully to it, and subject to the laws and regulations which the sovereign may think proper to prescribe. It differs from a colony, because it is not settled by the citizens of the sovereign or mother state; and from possession, because it is held by other title than that of mere9 conquest: for example, Malta was considered a dependency of Great Britain in the year 1813. 3 Wash. C. C. R. 286. Vide act of congress, March 1, 1809, commonly called the non-importation law.
DEPENDENT CONTRACT. One which it is not the duty of the contractor10 to perform, until some obligation contained in the same agreement has been performed by the other party. Ham. on Part. 17, 29, 30, 109.
DEPONENT, witness. One who gives information, on oath or affirmation, respecting some facts known to him, before a magistrate11 he who makes a deposition12.
DEPOPULATION. In its most proper signification, is the destruction of the people of a country or place. This word is, however, taken rather in a passive than an active one; we say depopulation, to designate a diminution13 of inhabitants, arising either from violent causes, or the want of multiplication14. Vide 12 Co. 30.
DEPORTATION15, civil law. Among the Romans a perpetual banishment16, depriving the banished17 of his rights as a citizen; it differed from relegation18 (q. v.) and exile. (q. v.). 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 125 note; Inst. 1, 12, 1 and 2; -Dig. 48, 22, 14, 1.
TO DEPOSE19, practice. To make a deposition; to give testimony20 as a witness.
TO DEPOSE, rights. The act of depriving an individual of a public employment or office, against his will. Wolff, §1063. The term is usually applied21 to the deprivation22 of all authority of a sovereign.
DEPOSIT, contracts. Usually defined to be a naked bailment23 of goods to be kept for the bailor, without reward, and to be returned when he shall require it. Jones' Bailm. 36, 117; 1 Bell's Com. 257. See also Dane's Abr. ch. 17, aft. 1, §3; Story on Bailm. c. 2, §41. Pothier defines it to be a contract, by which one of the contracting parties gives a thing to another to keep, who is to do so gratuitously24, and obliges himself to return it when he shall be requested. Traite du Depot25. See Code Civ. tit. 11, c. 1, art. 1915; Louisiana Code, tit. 13, c. 1, art. 2897.
2. Deposits, in the civil law, are divisible into two kinds; necessary and voluntary. A necessary deposit is such as arises from pressing necessity; as, for instance, in case of a fire, a shipwreck26, or other overwhelming calamity27; and thence it is called miserabile depositum. Louis. Code 2935. A voluntary deposit is such as arises without any such calamity, from the mere consent or agreement of the parties. Dig. lib. 16, tit. 3, §2.
3. This distinction was material in the civil law, in respect to the remedy, for in voluntary deposits @ the action was only in simplum; in the other in duplum, or two-fold, whenever the depositary was guilty of any default. The common law has made no such distinction, and, therefore, in a necessary deposit, the remedy is limited to damages co-extensive with the wrong. Jones, Bailm. 48.
4. Deposits are again divided by the civil law into simple deposits, and sequestrations; the former is when there is but one party depositor (of whatever number composed), having a common interest; the latter is where there are two or more depositors, having each a different and adverse28 interest. See Sequestration.
5. These distinctions give rise to very different considerations in point of responsibility and rights. Hitherto they do not seem to have been incorporated in the common law; though if cases should arise, the principles applicable to them would scarcely fail of receiving general approbation29, at least, so far as they affect the rights and responsibilities of the parties. Cases of judicial30 sequestration and deposits, especially in courts of chancery and admiralty, may hereafter require the subject to be fully8 investigated. At present, there have been few cases in which it has been necessary to consider upon whom the loss should fall when the property has perished in the custody31 of the law. Story on Bailm. §41-46.
6. There is another class of deposits noticed by Pothier, and called by him irregular deposits. This arises when a party having a sum of money which he doe's not think safe in his own hands; confides32 it to another, who is to return him, not the same money , but a like sum when he shall demand it. Poth. Traite du Depot, ch. 3, §3. The usual deposit made by a person dealing33 with a bank is of this nature. The depositor, in such case, becomes merely a creditor34 of the depositary for the money or other thing which he binds35 himself to return.
7. This species of deposit is also called an improper36 deposit, to distinguish it from one that is regular and proper, and which latter is sometimes called a special deposit. 1 Bell's Com. 257-8. See 4 Blackf. R. 395.
8. There is a kind of deposit which may, for distinction's sake, be called a quasi deposit, which is governed, by the same general rule as common deposits. It is when a party comes lawfully37 to the possession of another person's property by finding. Under such circumstances, the finder seems bound to the same reasonable care of it as any voluntary depositary ex contractu. Doct. & Stu. Dial. 2, ch. 38; Story on Bailm. §85; and see Bac. Abr. Bailm. D. See further, on the subject of deposits, Louis. Code, tit. 13; Bac. Abr. Bailment; Digest, depositi vel contra; Code, lib. 4, tit. 34; Inst. lib. 3, tit. 15, §3; Nov. 73 and 78; Domat, liv. 1, tit. 7, et tom. 2, liv. 3, tit. 1, s. 5, n. 26; 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 1053, et seq.
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