Also known as: maintenance
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A duty or right to preserve, repair, or support property, proceedings, or persons. The obligation requires reasonable efforts to keep the subject matter in safe or proper condition or to provide financial support during a specified period.
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Monica Morgan, a shareholder of Mercury Industries, files a derivative suit alleging mismanagement. The board of qualified directors meets, conducts a reasonable inquiry, and determines in good faith that continuing the suit would harm the corporation. The court grants the motion and dismisses the proceeding.
Miguel Mendoza owns a commercial building and hires an independent contractor to repair the roof. After the work, Mendoza fails to inspect the premises. A visitor falls through an unrepaired weak spot and suffers injury. Mendoza faces liability for failing to verify the safe condition of the property.
Momentum Capital holds a senior mortgage on an office building owned by Maurice Marshall. A junior mortgagee first obtains a receiver who collects rents and pays for maintenance and repairs. When Momentum Capital later secures appointment of its own receiver, the senior receiver takes priority over remaining rents.
Mariam Mansour, a resident of State A, purchases a life insurance policy from an out-of-state insurer. The insurer solicits and maintains the policy with her. When a dispute arises over a claim, the forum state exercises specific jurisdiction because the suit arises directly from the insurer's deliberate contact of maintaining the contract.
Mustafa Mahmoud and Megan Moore sign a separation agreement providing for property division and maintenance payments. The court finds the maintenance terms unconscionable given the parties' economic circumstances. It orders the parties to submit a revised agreement or issues its own orders for maintenance and support.
After Monarch Pharmaceuticals founder Mosaic Retail dies, his surviving spouse and minor children receive a reasonable allowance from the estate for their maintenance during administration. The payments continue for up to one year or until the estate can discharge allowed claims, whichever occurs first.
A court must dismiss the proceeding if a determination is made in good faith after a reasonable inquiry by qualified directors or another authorized group that continuing the suit would not serve the corporation's best interests.
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Yes. The landowner who owes a duty of reasonable care to keep land safe remains subject to liability if the landowner fails to exercise reasonable care to determine whether the property is safe after the contractor completes the work.
…for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people." Roth v. United States, 354 U. S. 476, 484. "The maintenance of the opportunity for free political discussion to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes may be obtained by lawful means, an opportunity…
…the purposes of “preventing the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, . . . promoting domestic felicity, and . . . securing the maintenance and education of children.” 1 An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). An influential 19th-century treatise defined marriage as “a civil status, existing in one man and one…
…its right of way at Hughestown in that State. He claimed that the accident occurred through negligence in the operation, or maintenance, of the train; that he was rightfully on the premises as licensee because on a commonly used beaten footpath which ran for a short distance alongside the tracks; and that he was struck by…
…that decisions concerning construction on the landmark site are made with due consideration of both the public interest in the maintenance
…between direct and indirect effects of intrastate transactions upon interstate commerce as "a fundamental one, essential to the maintenance of our constitutional system." Id. , at 548. Activities that affected interstate commerce directly were within Congress' power; activities that affected interstate commerce indirectly were…
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The senior mortgagee's request takes priority. The junior receiver may retain rents collected before the senior receiver is appointed after paying taxes and reasonable maintenance expenses, but must account to the senior receiver for later rents.
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The court may reject the agreement and either request a revised version or issue its own orders governing disposition of property, maintenance, and support after considering the parties' economic circumstances.
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The surviving spouse and minor children the decedent was obligated to support, plus children actually supported by the decedent, are entitled to a reasonable allowance for maintenance during estate administration, subject to a one-year limit when the estate is insolvent.
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