OPTION

In English ecclesiastical law. A customary prero§ative of an arch• bishop, when a bishop is consecrated by him, to name a clerk or chaplain of his own to be provided for by such suffragan bishop; in lieu of which it is now usual for the bishop to make over by deed to the archbishop, his executors and a igns, the next presentation of such dignity or benefice in the bishop's disposal within that see, as the archbishop himself shall choose, which is therefore call· ed his "option." 1 El. Comm. 381; 3 Steph. Comm. 63, 6!; Cowell. In contracts. An option is a privilege existing in one person, for which he has paid money, which gives him the right to buy cer• tain merchandise or certain specified securities from' another person, if he chooses, at. any. time within an agreed period, at'a fixed price, or to seU such property to such other person 'at an agreed price and time. If the option gives the choice of buying or not buying, it is denominated a "call." If it gives. the choice of selling or not, it is called a "put." If it is a combination of both these,_ and gives the privilege of either buying o.r selling or not, it is called a "straddle" or a "spread eagle." These terms are used on the i;itock-exchange. See Tenney v. Foote,.. 95 Ill. 99; Plank v. Jackson, 128 Ind. 424, 26 N. E. 568; Osgood v. Bauder, 7f> Iowa, 550, 89 N. W. 8S7, 1 L. R. A. 655. [s. 862]