Accession

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Origin

French accession, Latin accēssiōn-em a going to, joining, increase, n. of action < accēdĕre, accēssum: see accede v. It has partly occupied the ground of the earlier

Definitions

  • 1a : increase by something added
b : acquisition of additional property (as by growth or increase of existing property)
  • 2: something added : acquisition
  • 3: the act of assenting or agreeing
  • 4a : the act of becoming joined : adherence
b : the act by which one nation becomes party to an agreement already in force between other powers
  • 5a : an act of coming near or to : approach, admittance
b : the act of coming to high office or a position of honor or power <her accession to power>

Description

Accession has different definitions depending upon its application. In Property law, it is a mode of acquiring property that involves the addition of value to property through labor or the addition of new materials. In English Common law, the added value belonged to the original property's owner. In Modern Common law, if the property owner allows the accession through bad faith, the adder of value is entitled to damages or title to the property. If the individual who adds value to the owner's chattel (personal property) is a trespasser or does so in bad faith, the owner retains title and the trespasser cannot recover labor or materials. The owner of the chattel may seek conversion damages for the value of the original materials plus any consequential damages. Alternatively, the owner may seek replevin (return of the chattel). However, the owner may be limited to damages if the property has changed its nature by accession. For example, if a finder discovers a gemstone and in good faith believes it to be abandoned and then cuts it and integrates it into a work of art, the true owner may be limited to recovery of damages for the value of the gemstone, but not of the final art piece by way of replevin. The remedies and application of the law vary by legal jurisdiction.

In law governing business and political relationships, Accession refers to an act by which one entity with power becomes party to engagements already in force between other entities.

The following has been retained, but may need further clarification.

Accession might also be (from Lat. accedere, to go to, approach), in law, a method of acquiring property adopted from Roman law (see: accessio), by which, in things that have a close connection with or dependence on one another, the property of the principal draws after it the property of the accessory, according to the principle, accessio cedet principali. Accession may take place either in a natural way, such as the growth of fruit or the pregnancy of animals, or in an artificial way. The various methods may be classified as (i) land to land by accretion or alluvion; (2) moveables to land (fixtures); (3) moveables to moveables; (4) moveables added to by the art or industry of man; this may be by specification, as when a new "species" or thing is made out of a pre-existing thing (e.g. when wine is made out of grapes), or by confusion (when two things are inseparably mixed together and one cannot tell which is the principal and which is the accessory), or commixture, which is the mixing together of substances but where the mixture is separable. In the case of industrial accession ownership is determined according as the natural or manufactured substance is of the more importance, and, in general, compensation is payable to the person who has been dispossessed of his property.[1]