Restitution

“ If I have been right in what has gone before, there can be little room for controversy as to the fitness of the remedy. An action for restitution has for its aim to give back to a suitor what a judgment has taken from him. ”

“ This reparation for an injury that has been done to another is called restitution. There is a strict obligation in justice to make restitution as far as is possible to another whom one has injured; for justice requires that each one should have his own; but one who has been injured is deprived of his own so long as restitution has not been made; and so, in order that each one may have his own, in order that that equality may be preserved which justice prescribes, restitution is of strict obligation whenever commutative justice has been violated. ”

“ The chief end of restitution is, not that he who has more than his due may cease to have it, but that he who has less than his due may be compensated. Wherefore there is no place for restitution in those things which one man may receive from another without loss to the latter, as when a person takes a light from another's candle. ”

“ It would seem that restitution is not binding on those who have not taken. For restitution is a punishment of the taker. Now none should be punished except the one who sinned. Therefore none are bound to restitution save the one who has taken. ”

“ Whoever by provocation or ridicule, or by praise or flattery, causes another to commit an injury, or is the cause why reparation is not made for injustice committed, is himself bound to make restitution in the same way as one who is the cause of injustice by counsel. ”

“ If I have wronged any man I am willing to make him restitution. If, in a single instance, in the course of my command, I have done that which I cannot fully justify, justice requires that I should suffer for it. ”

“ So build and purchase, that the King may have money to pay his workmen. It seemeth ill-favouredly that you should have enough to build superfluously, and the King lack to pay his poor labourers. I have now preached two Lents. The first time I preached restitution. Restitution! quoth some; what should he preach of restitution? Let him preach of contrition, quoth they, and let restitution alone; we can never make restitution. Then I say, if thou wilt not make restitution, thou shalt go to the devil for it. ”

“ But for a first offender, even though he be of years, who has committed some breach of honesty, restitution seems the most effective way: the only reasonable plan for the prevention of demoralisation and the expense of prison. ”

“ Since, then, restitution is impossible, and not a shadow of hope exists that indemnification will be granted; we have only to determine whether we shall give up the property of which we have been plundered, or claim it with effect—claim it, and enforce the claim, by showing that we have the means of retaliation within our power. ”

“ Given that the ordinary meaning of "restitution" is restoring someone to a position he occupied before a particular event, see, e.g., Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1936 (1986) ; Black's Law Dictionary 1180 (5th ed.1979) , the repeated focus in § 3579 on the offense of which the defendant was convicted suggests strongly that restitution as authorized by the statute is intended to compensate victims only for losses caused by the conduct underlying the offense of conviction. ”

“ If the primary causes of the injustice make restitution, the rest will be free, whereas if the secondary causes who merely acted for others restore to the injured party, the primary causes will thereafter be bound to make restitution to them. ”

“ I am the late owner of this house. During my lifetime I took possession of another man's property—a farm—to which I had no right whatever; in fact, I was no better than a thief. If my wife does not make restitution and return the property to the right owner I shall go—to hell, from which I am not very far now, and so will my wife and family. But if she makes restitution we shall be saved, and all go to heaven. ”

“ One of the chief punishments of you men of ill-gotten wealth is that when you do repent you find that you have lost the power to make reparation or restitution. I admire your good intentions, Dan, but you can’t do anything. Those people were robbed of their precious pennies. It’s too late to remedy the evil. ”

“ The obligation in personam to make restitution persists and may be enforced by compelling a return of the property itself whenever and however it comes into his hands. Bovey v. Smith, 1 Vern. 60; Kennedy v. ”

“ It is held as probable that the choice of the confessor as intermediary for restitution has the consent of the injured party, and hence that, if the restitution perishes on the way through chance or the fault of a third party, there is no duty of second restitution. ”

“ Can there be such a difference, that he, who has expelled a man who has once entered, can be compelled to make restitution, but that he who has driven a person back when seeking to enter, cannot be compelled? 40See, I entreat you in the name of the immortal gods, what a law you are proceeding to establish for us,—what a condition for yourselves, and what a code for the whole state. ”

“ Restitution is the revealed will of God. If it is omitted, while we have it in our power to make it, guilt remains on the conscience, and spiritual progress is hindered. Even though it should be connected with difficulty, self-denial, and great loss, it is to be attended to. Should the persons who have been defrauded be dead, their heirs are to be found out, if this can be done, and restitution is to be made to them. ”

“ But with the sins here in question that firm purpose not only looks forward, but backward as well, not only guarantees against future ill-doing, but also repairs the wrong criminally effected in the past. This is called restitution, the undoing of wrong suffered by our neighbor through our own fault. The firm purpose to make restitution is just as essential to contrition as the firm purpose to sin no more ”

“ THE first root of restitution is the possession of another person's property without any just title. This possession may hitherto have been in good faith without any suspicion that the property belonged to somebody else, or it may have been in bad faith with the knowledge that someone else was the rightful owner, or in doubtful faith with doubts about the ownership. The obligations of the possessor of another's property will be different in these three cases. ”

“ If the amount of a fee is settled by law, an attorney who takes more than the legal sum does not necessarily incur the duty of restitution. All will depend on the character of the law, whether it is penal or preceptive, and if preceptive, whether it obliges in virtue of legal or of commutative justice. ”

“ When the thing to be restored appears to be grievously injurious to the person to whom it is to be restored, or to some other, it should not be restored to him there and then, because restitution is directed to the good of the person to whom it is made, since all possessions come under the head of the useful. ”

“ Inasmuch as detraction, calumny, and other sins of the like nature are contrary to justice, they will always leave the obligation of making restitution as far as possible for the unjust damage which they cause, as we saw above when treating of restitution. ”

“ Banishment Banishment from the city was the penalty for incest.156
Simple restitution Restitution may, perhaps, hardly be regarded as a penalty. Thus a man who was found in possession of lost property had to restore it. In case of loss caused by neglect or ill-treatment of hired property, or of goods deposited or intrusted, or by want of care in treating diseased limbs, restitution, goods for goods, ox for ox, ass for ass, et cetera, was ordered.157
Multiple restitution But restitution of many times the damage inflicted is a distinct penalty. ”

“ If a judgment is reversed for error, it is a settled principle of the common law coeval with its existence, that the defendant shall have restitution only of the money; the purchaser shall hold the property sold ”

“ If anyone steal another man's ox and kill or sell it, let him give two oxen in restitution. And four sheep for one stolen. If he i.e. the thief does not have anything to give in restitution, let him be sold himself to raise the money. ”

“ However, in conscience, it would seem that a possessor in good faith of another's property is released from all further obligation if he choose means for making restitution which are ordinarily safe and secure. ”

“ Restitution is owed for the property stolen. He who stole a serious amount but gave back part, retaining only what is light matter, is bound under venial sin to restore the rest. Confessors should urge restitution even of small amounts, when possible, in order to deter men from theft, and it may sometimes be useful to require children to seek a condonation from their parents for a similar reason. ”

“ Citizens of the United States, therefore, present themselves to this Court to demand restitution of a prize which they had made in violation of the most solemn stipulations of a treaty, and provisions of a law of their own country, and of which they have been dispossessed by their own associates in guilt. ”

“ The opposite party is entitled to restitution if he lost a right or was condemned because the lawyer unjustly took the case against him, or if he suffered other injuries because the lawyer employed foul means to his disadvantage. If a lawyer acts as the mandatary of his client in the use of injustice, the duty of restitution rests primarily on the client and secondarily on the lawyer (see 1783) ; if the lawyer alone is guilty, he is responsible for all the damage done. ”

“ The codifiers did not mean that a party who has recovered in ejectment shall be more immune from restitution than one in any other form of action. A different question would be here if the persons resisting restitution were not the immediate parties to the suit, but strangers acquiring an interest in the property in reliance on the judgment. As to strangers so situated the remedy of restitution has been excluded since ancient days. ”

“ There will, indeed, be the same roots of restitution which we treated of above, but difficulties arise as to who among the co-operators is bound to make restitution, and who is primarily bound. One may help another, or co-operate with another, in inflicting an injury in various ways. Nine ways are commonly enumerated: by counsel, by command, by consent, by provocation, by praise or flattery, by being partner in the sin, by silence, by concealment, by defending the ill done. ”

“ If the acquisition of the goods was unjust, because both giver and receiver acted against law and forfeited their rights to possession, the former has no claim to restitution, nor the latter to retention, and the goods ought to be devoted to alms. ”

“ The possessor of another man's property in bad faith must restore it to the owner at his own expense. If the individual property cannot be restored without very great expense, restitution may be made in money with the presumed consent of the owner. ”