Lie
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
To subsist; to exist; to be sustainable, &c. Thus the phrase, " an action will not lie" signifies that an action cannot be sustained, or that there is no ground upon which to found the action. A right is often said to lie in franchise, or in grant, according as it is founded on or derived by franchise or grant.
See Lying.