| n. | 1. | The quality or state of being prior or antecedent in time, or of preceding something else; | |||
| 2. | Precedence; superior rank.
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| Noun | 1. | priority - status established in order of importance or urgency; "...its precedence as the world's leading manufacturer of pharmaceuticals"; "national independence takes priority over class struggle" Synonyms: precedence, precedency |
| 2. | priority - preceding in time Antonyms: |
PRIORITY. Going before; opposed to posteriority. (q.v.)
2. He who has the precedency in time has the advantage in right, is the
maxim of the law; not that time, considered barely in itself, can make any
such difference, but because the whole power over a thing being secured to
one person, this bars all others from obtaining a title to it afterwards. 1
Fonb. Eq. 320.
3. In the payment of debts, the United States are entitled to priority
when the debtor is insolvent, or dies and leaves an insolvent estate. The
priority was declared to extend to cases in which the insolvent debtor had
made a voluntary assignment of all his property, or in which his effects had
been attached as an absconding or absent debtor, on which an act of legal
bankruptcy had been committed. 1 Kent, Com. 243; 1 Law Intell. 219, 251; and
the cases there cited.
4. Among common creditors, he who has the oldest lien has the
preference; it being a maxim both of law and equity, qui prior est tempore,
potior est jure. 2 John. Ch. R. 608. Vide Insolvency; and Serg. Const. La*,
Index, h.t.