Forfeiture
A forfeiture is a cancellation in contract law. Most commonly a forfeiture is a legal action whereby a contract purchaser following default loses all his interest in the property.
In litigation forfeiture has a different meaning. Forfeiture in a trial is the failure to make the timely assertion of a right. This is contrasted with waiver, which is the intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right. This distinction is important, because a right that is waived is lost on appeal unless there is proof that the waiver was defective, but a right that is forfeited may be the subject of an assertion of plain error on appeal (for overturning the trial decision).[1]
The standard for forfeiture of arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court has been explained by it as follows:
| “ | Carrigan raises two additional arguments in his brief: that Nevada's catchall provision unconstitutionally burdens the right of association of officials and supporters, and that the provision is unconstitutionally vague. Whatever the merits of these arguments, we have no occasion to consider them. Neither was decided below: The Nevada Supreme Court made no mention of the former argument and said that it need not address the latter given its resolution of the overbreadth challenge, 126 Nev. at 282, n. 4, 236 P. 3d, at 619, n. 4. Nor was either argument raised in Carrigan's brief in opposition to the petition for writ of certiorari. Arguments thus omitted are normally considered waived, see this Court's Rule 15.2; Baldwin v. Reese, 541 U.S. 27, 34, 124 S. Ct. 1347, 158 L. Ed. 2d 64 (2004), and we find no reason to sidestep that Rule here.[2] | ” |
