Acquired

What does Acquired mean in American Law?

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

In ordinary language, acquire refers both broadly and loosely to the inception of a particular relationship between a person (including a juridical person, like a corporation) and property such that the former owns or has rights to use the latter. The term is not particularly specific as to the exact moment [the] relationship commences, exactly what must happen to render the property “acquired,” what kinds of relationships are included, or what kinds of property may be involved. And all of these imprecisions may cause difficulty in legal contexts. For instance, if something of legal importance (e.g., tax liability) turns on the exact time property was “acquired,” since acquisition may involve several steps and substantial elapsed time, some context-specific rules will have to be evolved, e.g., “property is acquired

for tax purposes when reduced to possession, even if full payment has not yet been made.” Or, despite the breadth of the ordinary meaning of acquired, embracing as it does all methods of gaining ownership or control over all forms of things of value, the word still might be used such that a statute making all property “acquired” after marriage community property would not include property “acquired” as compensation for tort, or by inheritance. In brief, the more particular legal meaning of acquired in any particular legal context will have to be determined not in general terms but with respect to the context; the term in law is not necessarily used to the full extent of its ordinary language ambit.

Nonetheless when “acquired” is used in law it is clear that something broader than “purchased,” “inherited,” “earned,” etc. is intended. And it is often quite clear what describing something as “acquired” is meant to distinguish it from: something already possessed. Hence one speaks of a person’s “acquired characteristics” to distinguish them from his inborn, genetically determined ones, and by easy extension, one might use “acquired property” to distinguish it from that already owned at the relevant legal moment, e.g., marriage.