Also known as: voluntary abandonments · voluntarily abandon · voluntarily abandoned · abandonment
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
3 senses
An affirmative defense to a charge of attempt that arises when the actor abandons the effort or prevents commission of the crime under circumstances showing a complete and voluntary renunciation of criminal purpose. Renunciation is not voluntary if motivated by increased risk of detection or by a decision to postpone or transfer the criminal effort.
A natural parent's willful act or course of conduct that implies conscious disregard of parental obligations toward a child. Such conduct permits waiver of the parent's consent to adoption after notice and hearing when the conduct amounts to abandonment or desertion contrary to the child's best interest.
The relinquishment of a vested right to continue a nonconforming use or the surrender of a leasehold interest. The right to a nonconforming use may be lost through abandonment, and a landlord may accept a tenant's abandonment as an offer of surrender that terminates the lease for future rent.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
An affirmative defense to a charge of attempt that arises when the actor abandons the effort or prevents commission of the crime under circumstances showing a complete and voluntary renunciation of criminal purpose. Renunciation is not voluntary if motivated by increased risk of detection or by a decision to postpone or transfer the criminal effort.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Vivian Velez mixed a restricted pesticide into grain and carried the bucket toward the cattle pens with the timer already set to release the mixture automatically. She dumped the grain into a waste pit only after a supervisor approached. Under the traditional common law rule the later dumping supplies no defense once the overt act of carrying the prepared mixture toward the target has occurred.
Vaughn Valentine drilled into a warehouse floor intending to steal inventory but then stopped, left the site, and called police to report the planned burglary before any goods were taken. Because the decision reflected a complete and voluntary renunciation rather than fear of detection, the Model Penal Code affirmative defense applies and bars attempt liability.
No. Once the defendant has crossed the line from preparation to an overt act with the required intent, subsequent abandonment or withdrawal provides no defense under the majority and traditional common law rule.
Supporting sources
The defendant must prove that he abandoned the effort or prevented commission under circumstances manifesting a complete and voluntary renunciation of criminal purpose. Renunciation is involuntary if motivated by increased probability of detection or by a decision merely to postpone or transfer the criminal effort.
Supporting sources
A natural parent's willful act or course of conduct that implies conscious disregard of parental obligations toward a child. Such conduct permits waiver of the parent's consent to adoption after notice and hearing when the conduct amounts to abandonment or desertion contrary to the child's best interest.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Veronica Varela never registered with the putative father registry, provided no financial support, and made no visits after learning of the pregnancy. When the mother consented to adoption by a third party, the court waived the father's consent after notice and hearing because his total inaction constituted abandonment contrary to the child's best interest.
Valerie Viera never lived with or supported her newborn, never admitted paternity formally, and never sought custody or visitation. Because these omissions showed no actual manifestations of parental responsibility, the court held that her consent to adoption was unnecessary after proper notice.
Abandonment permits waiver when the parent engages in a willful course of conduct implying conscious disregard of parental obligations. The court must give notice and a hearing to the nonconsenting parent before consent may be waived on this ground.
Supporting sources
An unmarried father's right to veto adoption depends on actual manifestations of parental responsibility such as support, visitation, and willingness to assume custody. Complete failure to manifest such responsibility constitutes abandonment that eliminates any right to notice or consent.
Supporting sources
The relinquishment of a vested right to continue a nonconforming use or the surrender of a leasehold interest. The right to a nonconforming use may be lost through abandonment, and a landlord may accept a tenant's abandonment as an offer of surrender that terminates the lease for future rent.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Violet Vang operated a nonconforming auto-repair shop that became unlawful under new zoning. After she closed the business, removed all equipment, and left the building vacant for the statutory period without any intent to resume, the vested right to continue the nonconforming use was lost through abandonment.
Valor Capital vacated its leased warehouse, returned the keys, and ceased all rent payments. The landlord accepted the implicit offer of surrender by taking possession and reletting the space, thereby terminating the lease and limiting the tenant's liability to rent accrued before acceptance plus any damage caused by the abandonment.
The vested right to continue a nonconforming use is lost when the owner discontinues the use for the statutory period with intent not to resume. Protection of preexisting rights does not prevent loss through voluntary abandonment.
Supporting sources
The landlord may accept the tenant's offer of surrender inherent in the abandonment and terminate the lease, leaving the tenant liable only for rent accrued before acceptance and damage caused by the abandonment. The landlord has no duty to mitigate by reletting unless the lease or local law imposes one.
Supporting sources
…discussion of the original understanding and our first century and a half of case law does not necessarily require a wholesale abandonment of our more recent opinions. It simply reveals that our substantial effects test is far removed from both the Constitution and from our early case law and that the Court's opinion should…
…who happen at the time to be Members of this Court.[^maj-9] That history counsels caution and restraint. But it does not counsel abandonment
…considered in the resolution of these factual questions will remedy problems of the statement's unreliability. In my view, the abandonment
…debts had been abandoned for more than a century. That the practice was intermitted, is certainly no very clear proof of an abandonment
…review of a legislatively mandated sentence, rather than a sentence imposed in the exercise of judicial discretion, warrant abandonment