ACCIDENT, an unforeseen occurrence, particularly if it be of a calamitous character. This is the most common use of the word.
In logic: (d) Whatever does not really con stitute an essential part of a person or thing; as the clothes one wears, the saddle on a horse, etc. (b) The qualities or attributes of a person or thing, as opposed to the substance. Thus bitterness, hardness, etc., are attributes, and not part of the substance in which they inhere. (c) That which may be absent from anything, leaving its essence still unimpaired. Thus a rose might be white without its ceasing to be a rose, because color in the flowers of that genus is not essential to their character.
Accidents, in logic, are of two kinds, sepa rable and inseparable. If walking be the acci dent of a particular man, it is a separable one, for he would not cease to be that man though he stood still; while, on the contrary, if Spaniard is the accident connected with him, it is an inseparable one, since he never can cease to he, ethnologically considered, what he was born (Whately's
In grammar, a property attached to a word which nevertheless does not enter into its essen tial definition. Each species of word has its
accidents: thus those of the noun substantive are gender, declension and number. Compari son in an adjective is also an accident.
In law, an event which under the circum stances is unusual and unexpected by the person to whom it happens. It is the happening of an event without the concurrence of the will of the person by whose agency it was caused, or the happening of an event without any human agency. If a house should be burned in conse quence of a fire made for the purpose of cook ing, or warming the house, this would be an accident of the first kind. If the house should be set on fire by lightning, this would be an accident of the second kind. (1 Fonblanque, Eq. 374, 375 n.). The best test of liability for the consequence of an accident turns upon the fact whether the person causing the accident was guilty of negligence or not. If he was guilty of negligence he would be liable unless the person injured was guilty of contributory negligence.
In heraldry, an additional note or mark on a coat of armor, which may be omitted or re tained without altering its essential character.