Choose \Choose\, v. t. [imp. Chose; p. p. Chosen, Chose
(Obs.); p. pr. & vb. n. Choosing.] [OE. chesen, cheosen,
AS. ce['o]san; akin to OS. kiosan, D. kiezen, G. kiesen,
Icel. kj[=o]sa, Goth. kiusan, L. gustare to taste, Gr. ?,
Skr. jush to enjoy. [root]46. Cf. Choice, 2d Gust.]
1. To make choice of; to select; to take by way of preference
from two or more objects offered; to elect; as, to choose
the least of two evils.
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Choose me for a humble friend. --Pope.
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2. To wish; to desire; to prefer. [Colloq.]
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The landlady now returned to know if we did not
choose a more genteel apartment. --Goldsmith.
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To choose sides. See under Side.
Syn: Syn. - To select; prefer; elect; adopt; follow.
Usage: To Choose, Prefer, Elect. To choose is the
generic term, and denotes to take or fix upon by an
act of the will, especially in accordance with a
decision of the judgment. To prefer is to choose or
favor one thing as compared with, and more desirable
than, another, or more in accordance with one's tastes
and feelings. To elect is to choose or select for some
office, employment, use, privilege, etc., especially
by the concurrent vote or voice of a sufficient number
of electors. To choose a profession; to prefer private
life to a public one; to elect members of Congress.
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Chose \Chose\, n.; pl. Choses. [F., fr. L. causa cause,
reason. See Cause.] (Law)
A thing; personal property.
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Chose in action, a thing of which one has not possession or
actual enjoyment, but only a right to it, or a right to
demand it by action at law, and which does not exist at
the time in specie; a personal right to a thing not
reduced to possession, but recoverable by suit at law; as
a right to recover money due on a contract, or damages for
a tort, which can not be enforced against a reluctant
party without suit.
Chose in possession, a thing in possession, as
distinguished from a thing in action.
Chose local, a thing annexed to a place, as a mill.
Chose transitory, a thing which is movable. --Cowell.
Blount.
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CHOSE, property. This is a French word, signifying thing. In law, it is
applied to personal property; as choses in possession, are such personal
things of which one has possession; choses in action, are such as the owner
has not the possession, but merely a right of action for their possession. 2
Bl. Com. 889, 397; 1 Chit. Pract. 99; 1 Supp. to Ves. Jr. 26, 59. Chitty
defines choses in actions to be rights to receive or recover a debt, or
money, or damages for breach of contract, or for a tort connected with
contract, but which cannot be enforced without action, and therefore termed
choses, or things in action. Com. Dig. Biens; Harr. Dig. Chose in
Action Chitty's Eq. Dig. b. t. Vide 1 Ch. Pr. 140.
2. It is one of the qualities of a chose in action, that, at common
law, it is not assignable. 2 John. 1; 15 Mass. 388; 1 Cranch, 367. But bills
of exchange and promissory notes, though choses in action, may be assigned
by indorsement, when payable to order, or by delivery when payable to
bearer. See Bills of Exchange.
3. Bonds are assignable in Pennsylvania, and perhaps some other states,
by virtue of statutory provisions.Inequity, however, all choses in action
are assignable and the assignee has an equitable right to enforce the
fulfilment of the obligation in the name of the assignor. 4 Mass. 511; 3
Day. 364; 1 Wheat. 236; 6 Pick. 316 9 ow. 34; 10 Mass. 316; 11 Mass. 157, n.
9 S. & R. 2441; 3 Yeates, 327; 1 Binn. 429; 5 Stew. & Port. 60; 4 Rand. 266;
7 Conn. 399; 2 Green, 510; Harp. 17; Vide, generally, Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.
4. Rights arising ex delicto are not assignable either at law or in
equity.
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