TO REPUDIATE¹. To repudiate a right is to express in a sufficient manner, a determination not to accept it, when it is offered.

2. He who repudiates² a right cannot by that act transfer it to another. Repudiation³ differs from renunciation in this, that by the former he who repudiates simply declares that he will not accept, while he who renounces⁵ a right does so in favor of another. Renunciation is however sometimes used in the sense of repudiation. See To Renounce⁴; Renunciation; Wolff, Inst. 339.

REPUDIATION. In the civil law this term is used to signify the putting away of a wife or a woman betrothed⁶.

2. Properly divorce is used to point out the separation of married persons; repudiation, to denote the separation either of married people, or those who are only affianced. Divortium est repudium et separatio maritorum; repodium est renunciatio sponsalium, vel etiam est divortium. Dig. 50, 16, 101, 1. Repudiation is also used to denote a determination to have nothing to do with any particular thing; as, a repudiation of a legacy⁷, is the abandonment of such legacy, and a renunciation of all right to it.

3. In the canon law, repudiation is the refusal to accept a benefice which has been conferred upon the party repudiating⁸.

REPUGNANCY, contracts. That which in a contract, is inconsistent with something already contracted for; as, for example, where a man by deed grants twenty acres of land, excepting one, this latter clause is repugnant, and is to be rejected. But if a farm or tract⁹ of land is conveyed by general terms, in exception of any number of acres, or any particular lot, it is not repugnant, but valid¹⁰. 4 Pick. 54; Vide 3 Pick. 272; 6 Cowen, 677.

REPUGNANCY, pleading. Where the material facts stated in a declaration or other pleading, are inconsistent one with another for example, where in an action of trespass¹¹, the plaintiff declared for taking and carring away certain timber, lying in a certain place, for the completion of a house then lately built; this declaration was considered bad, for repugnancy; for the timber could not be for the building of a house already built. 1 Salk. 213.

2. Repugnancy of immaterial facts, and what is merely redundant¹², and which need not have been put into the sentence, and contradicting what was before alleged¹³, will not, in general, vitiate the pleading. Gilb. C. P. 131; Co. Litt. 303 b; 10 East, R. 142; 1 Chit. Pl. 233. See Lawes, Pl. 64; Steph. Pl. 378; Com. Dig. Abatement¹⁴ H 6; 1 Vin. Ab. 36; 19 Id. 45; Bac. Ab. Amendment¹⁵, &c. E 2 Bac. Ab. Pleas, Ac. I 4 Vin. Ab. h. t.