Legal Definitions - ad excambium

Ad excambium is a Latin legal phrase meaning "for exchange" or "for compensation." It refers to a situation where one item, typically land or property, is given in place of another, often to balance a transaction or provide an equivalent substitute.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of ad excambium:

• Land Swap for Public Use: A county government needs a specific plot of privately owned land to complete a new road extension. Instead of purchasing the land with money, the county offers the landowner a different, equally valuable parcel of undeveloped land that the county already owns, located in a desirable area. The landowner agrees to this arrangement, transferring their original plot to the county in return for the new parcel.

  Explanation: The new parcel of land provided by the county is given ad excambium – in exchange for – the landowner's original plot, which is needed for the road project.

• Conservation Easement Exchange: A landowner has a large tract of forest land that a local environmental trust wishes to protect with a conservation easement, which would restrict future development. In return for the landowner granting this easement, the trust offers to transfer ownership of a smaller, but highly productive, agricultural field they own to the landowner, which better suits the landowner's farming operations.

  Explanation: The agricultural field is provided ad excambium – as compensation or exchange – for the landowner agreeing to the conservation easement on their forest land.

• Property Rights Adjustment: Two neighboring property owners discover that a fence between their properties was mistakenly built several feet onto one owner's land, effectively giving the other owner a small strip of land they don't legally own. To resolve this without moving the fence, the owner who gained the extra land offers to grant a permanent access easement across their property to the other owner, providing a more convenient route to a public road, which the other owner values more than the small strip of land.

  Explanation: The permanent access easement is granted ad excambium – in exchange for – the other owner formally relinquishing their claim to the small strip of land that was mistakenly enclosed by the fence.