accord and satisfaction
- noun
- /əˈkɔrd ənd ˌsætɪsˈfækʃən/
- Jargon
:
acuerdo y satisfacción
- By accepting a reduced payment as accord and satisfaction, the creditor gave up the right to sue for the remaining amount.
Examples
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The parties reached an accord and satisfaction to settle the disputed payment out of court.
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The contract dispute ended with accord and satisfaction, satisfying both parties without further litigation.
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The parties reached an accord and satisfaction after lengthy negotiations.
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An accord and satisfaction can prevent further legal action.
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The debt was settled through accord and satisfaction, allowing both the debtor and creditor to move on without additional claims.
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After months of negotiations, they finally agreed to an accord and satisfaction to resolve the outstanding balance.
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Resolving the issue by establishing an accord and satisfaction helped avoid a costly legal battle.
Surface Forms
Morphology
accord + and + satisfaction
The parts 'accord' (an agreement) and 'satisfaction' (a fulfillment or discharge) give a general hint of an agreement to resolve something, so a learner might grasp a broad sense of 'agreement + fulfilment'. However, the phrase is a specialized legal term referring specifically to settling a debt by accepting less than owed with discharge of further claims, a nuance not fully predictable from everyday meanings and likely unfamiliar to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Accord and satisfaction comes from the simple idea of a deal: one person makes an accord (an agreement) and the other accepts a smaller payment as satisfaction (a payment that ends the debt). So, if the person owed money accepts that smaller payment, they 'give up' the right to ask for more and the debt is finished.
