spoliation

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spo·li·a·tion

(spō′lē-ā′shən)

1. The act of despoiling or plundering.

2. Law Unauthorized alteration or destruction of a legal document, such as a contract or will.

[Middle English spoliacioun, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin spoliātiō, spoliātiōn-, from spoliātus, past participle of spoliāre, to despoil; see spoil.]

spo′li·a′tor n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

spoliation

(ˌspəʊlɪˈeɪʃən)

1. the act or an instance of despoiling or plundering

2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the authorized seizure or plundering of neutral vessels on the seas by a belligerent state in time of war

3. (Law) law the material alteration of a document so as to render it invalid

4. (Law) English ecclesiastical law the taking of the fruits of a benefice by a person not entitled to them

[C14: from Latin spoliātiō, from spoliāre to spoil]

ˈspoliatory adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

spoliation

Church Law. the taking of property by an incumbent upon resignation or any other departure. See also ships; theft; war.

spoliation

[ˌspəʊlɪˈeɪʃən] N → despojo m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

spoliation

n (liter) → Plünderung f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

Of all the reminders that she had ever received that her people were socially extinct there was none so forcible as this spoliation.

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In trickery, evasion, procrastination, spoliation, botheration, under false pretences of all sorts, there are influences that can never come to good.

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He believed almost with devoutness in the plot which he had detected for the spoliation of Lord Wetherby's summer-house, that plot of which he held Lord Dawlish to be the mainspring.

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The whole business of the human race, between London and Dover, being spoliation, Mr Dorrit was waylaid at Dartford, pillaged at Gravesend, rifled at Rochester, fleeced at Sittingbourne, and sacked at Canterbury.

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The theory of Free Trade is only applicable to systems of exchange, not to systems of spoliation. Our system is one of spoliation, and if we don't abandon it, we must either return to Protection or go to smash by the road I have just mapped.

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Such was the greed of the fellow, that his mind had shot beyond halves, two-thirds, three-fourths, and gone straight to spoliation of the whole.

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Yet the spoliation on the spot was emphasized and even put first in the demand.

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He was like a man counting the cost of an unlucky speculation--irritated, depressed--exasperated with himself and with others, with the fortunate, with the indifferent, with the callous; yet the wrong done him appeared so cruel that he would perhaps have dropped a tear over that spoliation if it had not been for his conviction that men do not weep.

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He stood responsible for all the spoliations of the camp, the precious goblet among the number, and Mr.

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at 1064-65 (noting a few jurisdictions recognizing a separate cause of action for spoliation).

Spoliation in a digital world: proposing a new standard of culpability in Massachusetts for an adverse inference instruction

Spoliation is "the destruction or significant alteration of evidence, or the failure to preserve property for another's use as evidence in pending or reasonably foreseeable litigation." The courts have authority and discretion to impose a range of sanctions for spoliation of evidence.

Where duty rules: cases reveal courts taking a harder line against the destruction of electronic evidence, a trend that underscores the importance of keeping records

"Otherwise, a judge or jury can deem failure to preserve electronic records "willful spoliation." "Adverse jury inference instructs the jury to assume the spoliation of documents presumes they were harmful to the defendant's case."

Noun	1.	spoliation - (law) the intentional destruction of a document or an alteration of it that destroys its value as evidence destruction, devastation - the termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or no longer exists law, jurisprudence - the collection of rules imposed by authority; "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order"
	2.	spoliation - the act of stripping and taking by force despoilation, despoilment, despoliation, spoilation, spoil pillaging, plundering, pillage - the act of stealing valuable things from a place; "the plundering of the Parthenon"; "his plundering of the great authors"