Founded in 1993, Sightline Institute is committed to making the Northwest a global model of sustainability, with strong communities, a green economy, and a healthy environment. We work to promote smart policy ideas and monitor the region's progress towards sustainability. Accomplishments.
Legal Definition Gravamen (from Lat. gravare, to weigh down; gravis, heavy), (plural graÂ·vaÂ·mens or graÂ·vamÂ·iÂ·na), a complaint or grievance, the ground of a legal action, and particularly the more serious part of a charge against an accused person. In legal terms, the essential element of a lawsuit. In English the term is used chiefly in legal submissions and judicial opinions. The word is commonly misspelled gravaman. Apart from the normal usage of the word, the gravamen test is used in contract law to distinguish between the sale of goods and services in hybrid transactions.
A term derived from the civil law, denoting a contract founded upon and completed by the mere consent of the contracting parties, without any external formality or symbolic act to fix the obligation. Consensus est voluntas plurium ad quos res pertinet, simul juncta. Lofft, 514.