Inlaw,sequestration is the act of removing, separating, or seizing anything from the possession of its owner under process of law for the benefit ofcreditors or the state.[1]
TheLatinsequestrare, to set aside or surrender, a late use, is derived from sequester, a depositary or trustee, one in whose hands a thing in dispute was placed until the dispute was settled; this was a term of Romanjurisprudence (cf.Digest L. 16,110). By derivation it must be connected withsequi, to follow; possibly the development in meaning may be follower, attendant, intermediary, hence trustee. In English "sequestered" means merely secluded, withdrawn.[1]
In law, the term "sequestration" has many applications; thus it is applied to the act of a belligerent power which seizes the debts due from its own subject to the enemy power; to awrit directed to persons, "sequestrators", to enter on the property of the defendant and seize the goods.[1]
There are also two specific and slightly different usages in term ofthe Church of England; to the action of taking profits of a benefice to satisfy the creditors of the incumbent; to the action of ensuring church and parsonage premises are in good order in readiness for a new incumbent and the legal paperwork to ensure this.[1]
As the goods of the Church cannot be touched by alay hand, the writ is issued to the bishop, and the bishop issues the sequestration order to thechurch wardens who collect the profits and satisfy the demand. Similarly when a benefice is vacant the church wardens take out sequestration under the seal of the Ordinary and manage the profits for the next incumbent.[1]
InScots law,bankruptcy is known assequestration and sequestration allows a trustee-in-sequestration to take over a sequestrated individual's estate by order of the localSheriff Court for the benefit of the creditors' unpaid debts.[1]
TheAssets Recovery Agency (ARA) was established in theUnited Kingdom under theProceeds of Crime Act 2002 to reduce crime by sequestering the proceeds of crime; its powers includecivil recovery through theHigh Court.[2] The ARA was later merged with theSerious Organised Crime Agency.[3]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sequestration".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 659.
