ABODE (from "abide," to dwell, properly "to wait for ," to bide), generally, a dwelling. In English law this term has a more restricted meaning than domicile, being used to indicate the place of a man's residence or business, whether that be either temporary or permanent. The law may regard for certain purposes, as a man's abode, the place where he carries on business, though he may reside elsewhere; so that the term has come to have a looser significance than residence, which has been defined as "where a man lives with his family and sleeps at night" (R. v. Hammond, 1852, 17 Q.B. 772). In serving a notice of action, a solicitor's place of business may be given as his abode (Roberts v. Williams, 1835, 5 L.J.M.C. 23), and in more recent decisions it has been similarly held that where a notice was required to be served under the Public Health Act 1875, either personally or to some inmate of the owner's or occupier's "place of abode," a place of business was sufficient.

Categories: A-ABO | Law | House and furniture