Canadian Law Dictionary.
"F"

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Faint Hope Clause
The provision that allows an offender sentenced to more than 15 years before becoming eligible for full parole (e.g., a murderer) to have his or her parole eligibility reconsidered; a clause that allows for the possibility of the inmate being fully rehabilitated after 15 years.

Fair Market Value:
That hypothetical value of a piece of property, given a willing purchaser and a willing vendor, and a reasonable amount of time for the property to be exposed to sale.

Fee Simple:
Title to ownership without restriction or limitation.  For example ownership of land in fee simple means the land is owned out right as compared to a person who leased land.

Fee Tail:
A form of tenure under the feudal system that could only be transferred to a lineal descendant. If there were no lineal descendants upon the death of the tenant, the land reverted back to the lord.

Felony:
A serious crime for which the punishment is prison for more than a year or death. Crimes of less gravity are called misdemeanours. This term is no longer used in England or other Commonwealth countries but remains a major distinction in the United States.

Fiduciary:
Sometimes considered to be synonymous with the word Trustee.  A fiduciary holds certain rights which he or she must exercise for the benefit of the beneficiary.

Fieri Facias:
A writ of fieri facias commands a sheriff to take and sell enough property from the person who lost the law suit, to pay the debt owed by the judgment.

Force Majeure:
French for an act of God; an inevitable, unpredictable act of nature, not dependent on an act of man. Used in insurance contracts to refer to acts of nature such as earthquakes or lightning.

Financing Statement:
Form prescribed under the Personal Property Security Act setting out essential information such as the name of the debtor and the collateral; the secured party must file the financing statement at the Personal Property Registry to perfect a security interest by registration.

First Meeting of Creditors:
The meeting called by the Trustee in Bankruptcy to consider the affairs of the bankrupt or a debtor under a proposal.  NOTE: Under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, as amended on September 30, 1997, there is not a meeting of creditors required for simple personal bankruptcy cases, unless the Superintendent of Bankruptcy or creditors holding 25% of the proven claims request one.

Fixtures:
Those assets that are attached to or are part of a building, or are fixed to land.

Floating Charge:
A type of security interest that charges the debtor's property but does not specify particular assets or pieces of equipment until the security interest or instrument is crystallized.

Foreclosure:
That action that a lender will take to repossess and sell a piece of property for defaults in mortgage payments.

Franchise:
A franchise is a clone of a successful business. The franchisor has developed a system for reproducing his business (often right down to the last detail). As a franchisee, you rent the franchisor's trademark and method of doing business.

Franchise Agreement:
A franchise agreement is a contract which is entered into between the franchisor, and the franchisee (and any guarantors, or others) in which the relationship between the franchisor and franchisee (and others) is described, in detail.

Fraud:
Deceitful conduct designed to manipulate another person to give something of value by (1) lying, (2) by repeating something that is or ought to have been known by the fraudulent party as false or suspect or (3) by concealing a fact from the other party which may have saved that party from being cheated.

Freehold:
A special right granting the full use of real estate for an indeterminate time. It differs from leasehold, which allows possession for a limited time. There are varieties of freehold such as fee simple and fee tail.

Freeholder:
A person who owns freehold property rights (i.e. in a piece of real estate; either land or a building).

Fraudulent Preference:
Under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, this is the preferring by a debtor of one or more creditors over others by the payment to those creditors of some extraordinary amounts of money. Under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, the Trustee can, under certain circumstances, set aside fraudulent preferences up to three months prior to the date of bankruptcy in the case of arm's length parties and one year in the case of non-arm's length parties. The Provinces also have Acts that can set aside these transactions.

Functus Officio:
Latin: an officer or agency whose mandate has expired either because of the arrival of an expiry date or because an agency has accomplished the purpose for which it was created.

Fungibles:
Goods which are comprised of many identical parts.  For example, a bushel of grain, a barrel of apples or oil, which can be easily replaced by other identical goods.  One of the tests of whether items are fungible or not is whether they can be sold by weight or number.

Furiosi Nulla Voluntas Est:
A Latin expression that mentally impaired persons cannot validly sign a will.

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