(Donatio), an act or contract whereby a man transfers to another either the property or the use of the whole or a part of his effects as a free gift.

A donation, to be valid and complete, supposes a capacity both in the donor and the donee; and requires consent, acceptance, and delivery; and by the French law registry also.

DONATION Mortis Causa, in Law, a disposition of property made by a person in his last sickness, who apprehending his dissolution near, delivers, or causes to be delivered to another, the possession of any personal goods, to keep in case of his decease. If the donor dies, this gift needs not the consent of his executor; but it shall not prevail against creditors; and it is accompanied with this implied trust, that, if the donor lives, the property shall revert to himself, being only given in prospect of death, or mortis causa. This method of donation seems to have been conveyed to us from the civil lawyers, who borrowed it from the Greeks.