Pro-Tanto

Categories: Econ, Regulations

The Lone Ranger splits with his sidekick. The breakup gets ugly, and you have to choos between them. You side with the sidekick. You're pro-tanto (actually spelled "pro-Tonto," but whatever).

Pro-tanto comes from Latin, which means it's either used by very old, non-pedophile Catholic priests, or by lawyers. In this case, we're dealing with lawyers.

The phrase itself means "only to that extent." It applies in situations where a party only makes partial payment of an obligation, or of a claim made as part of a lawsuit.

It comes up a lot in eminent domain cases, where a government forces someone to sell their property so that something of purported public value can get built. The government pays what it deems to be market value for the property. But it's done pro-tanto, meaning that, if you want to pursue a higher price with a lawsuit, you might end up getting more. The payment you receive would just count against any higher amount you might receive (if you get a higher amount).

The government claims your house so it can build a new highway. They pay you $200,000 for the house. You think it should be worth $250,000. You pursue a counter claim. The court rules you should have received $225,000. Since the $200,000 was paid pro-tanto, it counts as partial payment. The government just needs to cut you a check for the additional $25,000.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is nationalizing a company...1 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop what is nationalizing versus privatizing a

00:06

company? all right well first you get a lot of flags you wave them around and [Man waving flags]

00:12

repeat like sheep the government can run this airline better than private

00:18

industry the government can run this oil well better than private industry the

00:24

government can run this school system better than private industry.... and [Man waving flags shouting government chants]

00:29

you say it all blankly bleedingly like the four-legger in Animal Farm

00:33

well nationalizing a company happens when a government essentially seizes

00:37

control of that company or even that industry and just plants a flag in it

00:42

claims they own it you know like we own Mars or whatever and then they run it [Astronaut on mars with aliens]

00:46

meaning that whoever the voters were who put those government officials into

00:50

power often you know the biggest union in that hood then run and control that

00:54

company well the United States has flirted with nationalized Airlines a few [Uncle Sam flirting with nationalized airline woman]

00:59

times it did so in the 70s when Airlines went bankrupt more times than planes

01:03

crashed and it was a complete disaster surprise surprise and after losing

01:08

enough billions of dollars at least more than it could stomach the government [Money goes down a toilet]

01:12

privatized the airlines again selling those airlines back to private industry

01:17

where the best and brightest worked more than thirty eight hours a week and

01:20

actually answered their email in less than six weeks a year of vacation that

01:25

they took key idea nationalizing government seizes control and runs

01:30

privatizing; government sells control and taxes profits how do you avoid this yin

01:36

and yang of torture? well find careers in industries that are far far away from

01:40

regions where the government gives a rat's derriere [Boy at a lemonade stand]

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)