About to

About to

What does About to mean in American Law?

The definition of About to in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

An expression used to indicate extreme imminence; an occurrence just on the point of happening. Its use leads to ambiguity when the indicated occurrence itself is too complex a happening to be instantaneously accomplished. Someone “about to” contract, for instance, may be actually in the precontractual bargaining phases of a relationship, or already on the point of eliciting the magic “I accept your offer.” Someone about to “remove property” may have just decided to do so, or just hired a truck, or just lifted up the first item for loading, or just completed loading, or just started the loaded truck-and so on. Thus “about to” must be taken to mean little

more than “very soon,” with legal significance dependent upon its specific context.


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