Also known as: warrant · warrants · warranted · warranting · guarantee · authorize · justify
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
To justify or authorize a particular legal claim, entry, or conduct. The justification must rest on existing law, consent, probable cause, or other recognized legal basis rather than on fraud, limited permission, or insufficient evidence.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Wren Wallace gave Whitney White permission to enter the garage only during daylight hours to retrieve tools. When Whitney arrived after midnight and forced the side door, the limited consent did not authorize the nighttime entry. The court treated the forced entry as a trespass because the permission did not extend to that time.
Wanda Williams conveyed land to Watershed Pharmaceuticals by general warranty deed. When a prior lien surfaced, the covenants in the deed warranted that Watershed would have good title free of encumbrances arising before the conveyance. Watershed could therefore recover damages from Wanda for breach of the warranty against encumbrances.
Officers presented an affidavit showing that Wren Wright had sold controlled substances from her home on three occasions. The magistrate found the facts established probable cause and issued a warrant describing the house and the items to be seized. The warrant therefore authorized the subsequent search.
Wellesley Media filed a complaint asserting a novel extension of trade-secret law. Counsel certified that the legal contentions were warranted by existing precedent or by a good-faith argument for changing the law. The court accepted the filing because the argument met the Rule 11 standard.
Windham Technologies sent Wendy Wu a signed letter stating it would sell its software license for $50,000 if she accepted by Friday. The letter manifested willingness to bargain in a way that justified Wendy in understanding that her assent would conclude the deal. The communication therefore constituted an offer.
After her lease ended, Winona Walsh remained in the apartment for six weeks. Willowbrook Capital, the incoming tenant, incurred extra moving and storage costs that Winona could reasonably have foreseen. The landlord recovered those special damages from Winona because her holdover caused the loss.
No. Consent limited to certain times does not authorize the defendant to use force to enter at other times. The entry remains a trespass.
Supporting sources
…not power to issue a mandamus to a Secretary of State of the United States, it being an exercise of original jurisdiction not warranted by the Constitution. Congress have not power to give original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court in other cases than those described in the Constitution. An act of Congress repugnant to the…