Legal Definitions - deodand

The term deodand refers to a historical legal concept, abolished in England in 1846, where an object or animal that caused a person's death was forfeited to the Crown. This forfeiture was not based on human fault or negligence, but rather on the idea that the "guilty" object itself should be given to God (hence "deodand," from Latin "deo dandum," meaning "to be given to God"), with the Crown acting as the recipient. The value of the forfeited item was often used for charitable purposes, such as alms for the poor or masses for the deceased's soul.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a deodand:

• Imagine a blacksmith working in his forge. A heavy anvil, used daily, accidentally topples over, fatally crushing an apprentice. Under the law of deodand, the anvil itself would be declared a deodand and forfeited to the Crown. This demonstrates how the object directly involved in a fatal accident, regardless of human intent or negligence, was considered "at fault" and subject to confiscation.

• Consider a farmer tending his fields with a team of horses. One of the horses, startled by a sudden noise, rears up and fatally kicks the farmer. In this scenario, the horse responsible for the death would be declared a deodand. It would then be seized by the Crown, highlighting the principle that an animal causing a death was treated as the instrument of the fatality and thus forfeited.

• Picture a construction site in a medieval town where a large stone block, being hoisted into place for a new building, slips from its ropes and falls, killing a passerby below. The stone block, as the direct cause of death, would be declared a deodand. This illustrates that even inanimate objects, when they were the instrument of a fatal accident, were subject to forfeiture, emphasizing the focus on the object rather than human culpability.