Nient
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
A law-French negative
Nieut culpable.
Not guilty
The name in law French of the plea of not guilty, either in a criminal prosecution or an action for tort.
Nieut dedire
To say nothing; to deny nothing; to suffer judgment by default. The phrase is also used as the name of a clause in a suggestion which states that the fact suggested to the court is not denied. Nient Is fait. Not the deed. The name of a plea denying the having made a deed, or of the general issue formed by such a plea; equivalent in law French to the Latin non est factum, q. v.
Nigrum nunquam excedere debet rubrum
The black should never go beyond the red. The text of a statute should never be read in a sense more comprehensive than the rubric, or title. This rule (given by Sir George Mackenzie in his works, vol. ii. p. 139) does not hold in modern law. The rubric is not a part of a statute: it is a mere index, and may be right or wrong. The rubric can never be read as modifying or explaining the text of the statute. title and preamble of the act (which in themselves, although parts of the statiite, have no practical or operative effect) may be read as throwing light upon the intention of the legislature, and so serve to clear away the ambiguity, and lead to a reasonable and proper construction of that clause which is doubtful. Trayn. Max.