appropriation

The act of appropriating or setting apart; prescribing the destination of a thing; designating the use or application of a fund. McKenzie Const. Co. v. City of San Antonio, Tex.Civ.App., 50 S.W.2d 349, 352.

In tort law, the act of making a thing one's own or exercising or making use of an object to subserve one's own interest. When the act is wrongful, a tort is committed.

In governmental accounting, an expenditure authorized for a specified amount, purpose, and time.

See also appropriate

- misappropriation

@ appropriation of land

The act of selecting, devoting, or setting apart land for a particular use or purpose, as where land is appropriated for public buildings, military reservations, or other public uses. Taking of private property for public use in the exercise of the power of eminent domain. In this sense it may refer merely to physical occupation and contemplate payment prior thereto, in centra-distinction to "taking," referring to a legal taking and presupposing payment after damages are due.

See condemnation

- eminent domain

- expropriation

@ appropriation of payments

The application of a payment to the discharge of a particular debt. Thus, if a creditor has two distinct debts due to him from his debtor, and the latter makes a general payment on account, without specifying at the time to which debt he intends the payment to apply, it is optional for the creditor to appropriate (apply) the payment to either of the two debts he pleases

@ appropriation of water

An appropriation of water flowing on the public domain consists in the capture, impounding, or diversion of it from its natural course or channel and its actual application to some beneficial use private or personal to the appropriator, to the entire exclusion (or exclusion to the extent of the water appropriated) of all other persons.

To constitute a valid appropriation, there must be an intent to apply the water to some beneficial use existing at the time or contemplated in the future, a diversion from the natural channel by means of a ditch or canal, or some other open physical act of taking possession of the water, and an actual application of it within a reasonable time to some useful or beneficial purpose. In re Manse Spring and Its Tributaries, Nye County, 60 Nev. 262, 108 P.2d 311, 314; State of Neb. v. State of Wyo., 325 U.S. 589, 65 S.Ct. 1332, 1349, 89 L.Ed. 1815.

It follows water to its original source whether through surface or subterranean streams or through percolation, Justesen v. Olsen, 86 Utah 158, 40 P.2d 802, 809;

and entitles appropriator to continuing right to use water to extent of appropriation, but not beyond that reasonably required and actually used. State of Arizona v. State of California, Ariz. & Cal., 298 U.S. 558, 56 S.Ct. 848, 852, 80 L.Ed. 1331.

Public law.

The act by which the legislative department of government designates a particular fund, or sets apart a specified portion of the public revenue or of the money in the public treasury, to be applied to some general object of governmental expenditure, or to some individual purchase or expense. Authority given by legislature to proper officers to apply distinctly specified sum from designated fund out of treasury in given year for specified object or demand against state. State ex rel. Murray v. Carter, 167 Okl. 473, 30 P.2d 700, 702.

The legislative designation of a certain amount of money as being set apart, allotted, or assigned for a specific purpose. Purpose of a general appropriation bill is to fund programs that have been separately authorized by other legislation. Colorado General Assembly v. Lamm, Colo., 704 P.2d 1371, 1382.

A specific appropriation is an act of the legislature by which a named sum of money has been set apart in the treasury, and devoted to the payment of a particular demand

@ appropriation bill

A measure before a legislative body authorizing the expenditure of public moneys and stipulating the amount, manner, and purpose of the various items of expenditure. Appropriation bills in Congress must originate in the House. U.S.Const. Art. I, Sec. 7.

See also appropriation (public law)

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