Also known as: merger rules · merger doctrine
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
An inchoate offense such as solicitation or attempt merges into the completed felony when the principal crime is accomplished by the defendant or another actor. The completed felony becomes the sole punishable offense. The inchoate conduct is absorbed and does not support a separate conviction.
An inchoate offense such as solicitation or attempt merges into the completed felony when the principal crime is accomplished by the defendant or another actor. The completed felony becomes the sole punishable offense. The inchoate conduct is absorbed and does not support a separate conviction.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A contract for the sale of real property merges into the deed upon delivery at closing and is extinguished. Contractual promises relating to title are discharged. Promises concerning the physical condition of the property remain enforceable absent clear intent to merge them into the deed.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A contract for the sale of real property merges into the deed upon delivery at closing and is extinguished. Contractual promises relating to title are discharged. Promises concerning the physical condition of the property remain enforceable absent clear intent to merge them into the deed.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Musa Mensah shoved a security guard to the ground while stealing a laptop from a restricted hangar. The shove supplied the force element that elevated the taking into robbery. Under the merger doctrine the misdemeanor battery merged into the completed felony, so only the robbery conviction stands.
Michael Miller agreed with two others to steal customer data and later directed a technician to write access scripts. The technician completed the theft. Miller's conspiracy liability survived because conspiracy does not merge into the completed offense, while any solicitation merged and could not support a separate conviction.
Madison Meyers recruited seasonal workers to steal pesticide and cut a fence to aid the plan. The workers later completed the theft without her. Her solicitation merged into the completed offense, leaving only liability for the theft itself.
Conspiracy does not merge into the completed felony. It remains a separate offense that can be punished in addition to the substantive crime. Solicitation and attempt, by contrast, merge when the target offense is completed.
Supporting sources
The misdemeanor merges into the felony. The defendant may be convicted only of the felony because the lesser offense is absorbed into the greater one when both arise from the same transaction.
Supporting sources
Mohan Malhotra sold an office building to Mosaic Retail under a contract that required a cooling-system upgrade before closing. The deed delivered at closing made no mention of the upgrade. After closing the buyer could not enforce the contractual promise because the contract merged into the deed.
Promises concerning the physical condition of the property survive unless the parties clearly intended merger. Promises relating to title are extinguished by the merger of the contract into the deed.
Supporting sources
A merger clause reinforces that the contract is extinguished upon delivery of the deed. It prevents enforcement of terms not restated in the deed unless an exception such as fraud or a collateral agreement applies.
Supporting sources
…offense in one provision, § 1951, manifested an intent not to punish commission of two offenses cumulatively. Unlike the merger doctrine, petitioner’s position does not question that the Government could charge a conspiracy even when the substantive crime that was its object had been completed. His concern is with the…