animus manendi
ˈanimus maˈnɛndi
noun phrase
Literal translation
intention of remaining
Legal meaning
Animus manendi denotes the intention to remain in a place and is used in South African law primarily when determining domicile or ordinary residence. It refers to the mental element that, together with physical presence, may establish that a person has made a place their fixed or indefinite home. Courts consider it alongside objective facts such as duration of stay, family ties, employment, and conduct.
Examples
- To establish a domicile of choice, the person must be physically present and have the animus manendi.
- The court examined the respondent’s employment and family arrangements to determine whether animus manendi had been proved.
Cases citing this term
Live search across the public SA + ZW case corpus. Results may include false positives where the same Latin lexeme appears in a different context.