Also known as: impedient · impedients · impediment
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person who hinders another in the exercise of a right or privilege. Historically the term identified the defendant in a fine of conveyance.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
The Harbor Port Authority intentionally delayed issuing docking clearance to Bluewave Shipping's vessel. Captain Lopez responded by sending small boats for supplies. When deckhand Miller was injured during one run, the Authority's conduct positioned it as the impediens whose interference triggered the crew's normal remedial efforts.
Terry's undissolved prior ceremonial marriage created an impediment that prevented Colin and Terry from forming a valid common law marriage in State A. Once the defect was cured after the move, the parties could no longer rely on the earlier period because Terry as impediens had blocked capacity throughout cohabitation.
San Francisco officials enforced the laundry ordinance only against Chinese operators like Yick Wo. The discriminatory application made the city the impediens that prevented lawful business operation, leading the Court to invalidate the selective enforcement.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission adopted generic rules that limited Vermont Yankee's opportunity to contest specific safety issues. The agency's procedural choices operated as the impediens that curtailed meaningful public participation in licensing decisions.
Tennessee's legislative districts left urban voters like those represented by Baker with grossly diluted votes. The state's refusal to reapportion positioned it as the impediens that blocked equal participation in elections.
Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation, which owned the town of Chickasaw, prohibited distribution of religious literature on its streets. The company's property rules made it the impediens that prevented Marsh from exercising First Amendment rights in a public forum.
The term denotes the person who hinders another. In medieval conveyancing practice the defendant in a fine was sometimes labeled the impediens.
Supporting sources
When a defendant acts as the impediens by intentionally or negligently blocking another's rights or privileges, the injured party's normal efforts to overcome the obstruction are treated as part of the original causal chain rather than superseding causes.
In most states removal of the impediens cures the bar and validates the marriage from the date the hindering person is eliminated, provided the other elements of common law marriage were already present.
…interest “in the generality of cases, we must searchingly examine the interests that the State seeks to promote . . . and the impediment to those objectives that would flow from recognizing the claimed Amish exemption”). Failure to reduce the competing interests to the same plane of generality tends to distort the weighing…