FORFEITURE, for'fit-fire, a legal penalty, by which an owner is absolutely'deprived of his property for crime or other unlawful act. This applies to personal as well as real property, and forfeiture may be a decree of civil as well as criminal courts. The penalty is of feudal origin. The lord owed protection to the life and property of the vassal; the latter owed fealty and service to his lord. When the vassal failed to yield these, he lost the shelter of the law, became an outlaw, and incapable of hold ing property. Loyalty to the feudal relation being the condition on which life and property were secured to him, when he failed in loyalty he had no longer any claim on life or property.
Treason was punished by forfeiture long be fore the Norman Conquest in 1066. After that period forfeiture became the ordinary penalty for felony, which was styled petty treason; while treason or disloyalty in regard to the sovereign was called high treason. Forfeiture was accompanied by what was styled corruption of blood. This was the sentence of legal bas tardy passed on the offender so that he could neither inherit nor bequeath property.
Felony in the United States has never been considered ground for forfeiture. The Federal and State laws have modified all precedents in the matter of forfeiture, which they restrict within very narrow limitations. (See ATTAIN
DER). During the War with Germany there was frequent agitation in the United States for the forfeiture of German property in this country. The German ships in Hoboken were seized by the United States government and put into service; they were not, however, forfeited to the stockholders.
In England civil forfeiture may be incurred by tortious alienation, by wrongful disclaimer, by alienation in mortmam (see Moarmaix), by breach of condition, and by the commission of waste. (See WASTE). In Scotland civil for feiture may arise either from statutory enact ment, at common law, or by agreement. In the United States civil forfeiture is only imposed for acts of waste committed by tenants for life or years, or for breach of contract in violating the conditions on which lands were granted. Some States have abolished even this degree of forfeiture. By particular statutes enacted by Congress smuggling, or importing goods on fraudulent invoices involve confiscation, and forfeiture of the entire invoice (see It4ivotca), or the balance wrongly imported. Piracy has always entailed confiscation or forfeiture of the piratical