Liability

Any legal responsibility, duty or obligation. The state of one who is bound in law and justice to do something which may be enforced by action. This liability may arise from contracts either express or implied or in consequence of torts committed.

The liabilities of one man are not in general transferred to his representatives further than to reach the estate in his hands. For example, an executor is not responsible for the liabilities of his testator further than the estate of the testator which has come to his hands.

Generally, the husband is liable for his wife's contracts since her marriage with him, and vice versa, but this liability continues only during the marriage.

A master is liable for the acts of his servant while in his employ, performed in the usual course of his business, upon the presumption that they have been authorized by him; but he is responsible only in a civil point of view and not criminally, unless the acts have been actually authorized by him.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.

Any legal obligation, either due now or at some time in the future. It could be a debt or a promise to do something. - (read more on Liability)
  

An obligation to do or refrain from doing something; a duty thateventually must be performed; an obligation to pay money owed, as opposed to anasset; responsibility for one's conduct, such as contractual liability, tortliability, criminal liability, etc.