VACANCY. A place which is empty. The term is principally applied to cases where an office is not filled.

2. By the constitution of the United States, the president has the power to fill up vacancies that may happen during the recess of the senate. Whether the president can create an office and fill it during the recess of the senate, seems to have been much questioned. Story, Const. §1553. See Serg. Const. Law, ch. 31; 1 Breese, R. 70.

VACANT POSSESSION, estates. An estate which has been abandoned by the tenant; the abandonment must be complete in order to make the possession vacant, and therefore if the tenant have goods on the premises, it will not be so considered. 2 Chit. Rep. 17 7; 2 Str. 1064; Bull. N. P. 97; Comyn on Landl. & Ten. 507, 517.

VACANT SUCCESSION. An inheritance for which the heirs are unknown.

VACANTIA, BONA, civil law. Goods without an owner. Such goods escheat.

TO VACATE. To annul, to render an act void; as to vacate an entry which has been made on a record when the court has been imposed upon by fraud, or taken by surprise.

VACATION. That period of time between the end of one term and beginning of another. During vacation, rules and orders are made in such cases as are urgent, by a judge at his chambers.

VACCARIA, old Engl. law. A word which is derived from vacca, a cow, and signifies a dairy-house. Co. Litt. 5 b.

VADIUM, contracts. A pledge, or surety.