SATISFACTION (

See also:

• LAT

Lat. salisfacerc, to satisfy)  , reparation for an injury or offence; payment, pecuniary or otherwise, of a debt or obligation; particularly, in law, and equitable doctrine of much importance . It may operate either as between strangers or as between father and child . As between strangers: it was laid down in Talbot v . Duke of Shrewsbury, 1714, Pr . Ch . 394, that where a debtor bequeaths to his creditor a legacy as great as, or greater than the debt, the legacy shall be deemed a satisfaction of the debt . This rule, however, has fallen under a consider-able amount of discredit, and very small circumstances are required to rebut the presumption of satisfaction . If the debt was incurred after the execution of the will, there is no satisfaction, nor is there where the will giving the legacy contains a direction to pay debts . As between parent and child, the doctrine operates (a) in the satisfaction of legacies by portions, and (b) of portions by legacies . In the case of (a), it has been laid down that where a parent, or one acting in loco parentis, gives a legacy to a child, without stating the purpose for which he gives it, it will be understood as a portion; and if the father afterwards advance a portion on the marriage, or preferment in life, of that child, though of less amount, it is a satisfaction of the whole, or in part . This application of the doctrineis based on the maxim that " equality is equity," as is also the rule (b) that where a legacy bequeathed by a parent, or one in loco parentis, is as great as, or greater than, a portion or provision previously secured to the child, a presumption arises that the legacy was intended by the parent as a complete satisfaction . In each of the above cases, of course, the presumption may be rebutted by evidence of the testator's intentions .

In

theology, the doctrine of satisfaction is the doctrine that the sufferings of Christ are accepted by the divine justice as a substitute for the punishment due for the sins of the world (see ATONEMENT) .