Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence

1. Things gotten by a man's own industry, or purchased with his own money, as opposed to things which come to him by descent. 2. Profits accruing to a lord of a manor by virtue of

The person consists of bothliryl soul and body; and the phrase, the removal of such person, in a law relating to residence, means, the removal of the sold and body in life, and not

A person; also a parson, q. v. The rector of a church instituted and inducted, for his own life, was called persona mortalis; and any collegiate or conventual body, to whom the chu

An old word, signifying that a man was enabled to maintain a plea in court, that is, to bring an action, as opposed to one disabled to sue, as being an outlaw or alien enemy, &c. C

Appertaining to the person; belonging to an individual; having the nature or partaking the Personal action. In one sense of this term, it signifies actions brought upon engagements

The expression personality of laws signifies all laws which concern the condition, state, and capacity of persons, as the reality of laws means all laws which concern property or t

Personal property; the antithesis of real property. Personalty signifies generally any personal property, in contradistinction to realty, which signifies real property. In our old

Material; relevant. Evidence which legitimately tends to prove the cause of action or defence is called pertinent.

The old law-French word, meaning small. It appears in some compounds in modern use. The English form, petty, is used interchangeably with it. Petty average. Some small charges whic

Is used in j urisprudfenoe as a general term for various formal applications made to a superior authority; such as petitions to the courts, petitions to congress or parliament, &o.

In admiralty and civil-law practice, suits which involve and litigate only the title to property are called petitory, in distinction from those which seek to recover the possession

See Petit. Photographer. Any person who makes for sale photographs, ambrotypes, daguerrotypes, or pictures, by the action of light. Act of congress of July 13, 1866, § 9, 14 i Stat

A structure erected for ferry purposes, on a river-bank, by permission of the common council of the city of New York, consisting of piles covered with flooring, is not a pier, with

In civil law, the obligation of the contract of pledge; also, the impounding of a stray animal, to secure payment for damage it has done. See Bouvier; Burrill.

The civil-law term for pledge, q. v. It may mean either the contract of pledge, or the pawn or thing left in pledge, according to the connection.

To pilfer, in the plain and popular sense, means to steal. To charge another with pilfering is to charge him with stealing, and is slander. Becket v. Sterrett, 4 Black/. 499.

An old-fashioned contrivance for the punishment of offenders; involving, however, public disgrace rather than physical suffering. The offender had to put his head through a hole or

Formerly, a helmsman, or his skill and knowledge in respect to a particular channel, harbor, bay, port, &c., to take charge of a vessel entering such waters, and conduct or steer h

A cui Tent term for a pecuniary allowance from a husband to his wife, for her personal expenses, for dress, incidental expenditures, and pocket-money. In England, where settlements

The offence of depredation, robbery, or unlawful violence upon the high seas. Pirate: one engaged in or guilty of piracy. Piratical: involving the crime or guilt of piracy; like a

The right or privilege of fishing. Thus, common of piscary is the right of fishing in waters belonging to another person.

A pistol that has no mainspring or other necessary parts of a lock, and can only be fired off by the use of a match, or in some other such way, is not a pistol, within the meaning

In Scotland, women sentenced to capital punishment were, in consideration of their sex, formerly drowned in a pit, instead of being hung. Hence "pit and gallows" is a phrase in old

Was anciently a little repast, or refection of fish or flesh, more than the common allowance; and the pittancer was the officer who distributed this at certain appointed festivals.

The word place is associated with objects which are in their nature fixed and territorial. United States v. Bevans, 3 Wheat. 336, 390. Ip the provisions of the internal revenue law

A plea; a suit or proceeding in court; particularly, a pleading. Usually found in the plural, — placita, — signifying pleas, pleadings or other judicial proceedings, suits. In old

The name of the complaint in some inferior English courts. The term is not in general use in the United States, but appears in plaintiff. Plaint is, 1. The propounding or exhibitin

The complaining party; the person bringing an action at law, or a civil action as regulated by reformed codes of procedure. When several persons join in bringing an action, each on

The ordinary signification is farm; and the terms are nearly synonymous. A plantation cannot be divided by imaginary lines into several, for the purpose of obtaining a number of pr

or PLOT. A map of a piece of land on which are marked the courses and distances of the different lines, and the quantity of land it contains. Bouvier. We consider plat the preferab

1. Embraces several kinds of formal answer made by a defendant to a bill, complaint, declaration, or prosecution. It is a general term, for there are many kinds of pleas; yet all t

To deliver defendant's response, in due form of law, to the suit, action, or prosecution. Plea and to plead are generally used of defences only; other inflections of the word embra

Alleged or averred, in form, in a judicial proceeding. It more often refers to matter of defence, but not invariably. To say that matter in a declaration or replication is not well

The draughtsman of a plea, in the broad sense of that word; one who prepared the bill, complaint, declaration, petition, answer, demurrer, or plea, &c., in question.

n. and part. 1. The art, business, or science of draughting the usual formal written statements of the case of either party to a judicial proceeding, particularly a suit or action;

A species of bailment, wherein the general owner of personal property delivers it to another, to be held as security for some debt or engagement. Also, the thing delivered, the paw

To plunder is often used to express the idea of taking prop^ ei-ty without right to do so; but not as expressing the nature of the wrong involved, or necessarily imputing a felonio

It is now a very common statutory rule for construction of legislative enactments, that, unless the context forbids, words in the singular number shall be deemed to include the plu

In the law of elections, the candidate who receives more votes than -any other one, but not as many as all others, is said to have a plurality of votes, or a plurality vote. In ecc

Many times; often. after a first and second writ of the same kind have been issued and returned not executed. The distinctive clause is, in the Latin form, prcecipimus tibi, sicut

The unlawful destruction of game, especially by night; also, trespassing by night on land in pursuit of game. It is an offence of note in England, being a violation of the game law

A statutemerchant which is enforceable at any time after non-payment on the day assigned, without further proceedings. Wharton.

A sheriff appointed by the sole authority of the crown, not having been previously nominated in the exchequer. The practice of occasionally naming pocket sheriffs continued until t

The process of the law of Scotland which answers to the distress of the English law. Poinding is of three kinds: Real poinding, or poinding of the ground. This is the action by whi

Is used technically to signify any distinct question or matter, particularly of law, arising in a cause; as in the expression, the court did not decide the point.

The preservation of domestic order, and civil regulation of inhabitants to enforce peace and quiet, and promote the public health and security. Police court. The name applied to an

Or, more fully, policy of assurance, or insurance, is the name by which the formal written instrument in which the contract of insurance is usually embodied, is known. The term pol

Originally, the head; hence, secondarily, it stands for an individual person. Counting the polls is enumerating the individuals in a body; a challenge to the polls is a challenge o

The civil condition of having more husbands than one; a social order permitting plurality of husbands. BurriU does not mention this term, and defines polygamy as the having more th

1. The civil condition of having more wives than one; a social order permitting several wives. 2. The ofience of marrying more than two wives or husbands, the previous spouses bein

Put. 1. The initial word of the mandatory clause, in Latin, of a writ, in English practice, for removing an action frona an inferior to a superior court, commanding to " put before

In a statute providing for the relief of the poor, means persons so completely destitute of property as to require assistance from the public. State v. Osawkee Township, 14 Kan. 41

An action authorized by statute, to be prosecuted by any person who will sue for the enforcement or recovery of the penalty incurred by transgressing some penal law. It is called a

Has a somewhat technical use, to signify that part of a person's estate which is given or bequeathed to a child. It seems to imply that there are several children or beneficiaries,

Has some technical uses. Positive condition. When the result is made dependent on something to happen, the condition is called positive, in distinction from one made to depend on a

To be able; to be possible. This Latin verb is, in law Latin, used as a substantive, with the signification of possibility. Thus a thing is said to be in posse which may possibly b

1. In the civil law. That condj^ion of fact under which one can exercise his power over a corporeal thing at his pleasure, to the exclusion of all others. This condition of fact is

Control or custody of a thing; detention of any thing as one's own, and for enjoyment; occupation, actual or constructive, of subjects of property. The word possession, applied to

An action involving the claim to reduce the subject-matter to one's control and enjoyment; as distinguished from one involving the bare right only, called a petitory action (g. ».)

An uncertain thing, which may or may not happen; such, for instance, as the chance of an heir apparent succeeding to an estate, or of a relation obtaining a legacy on the death of

After; afterwards. A writ of entry in a case where two or more alienations or descents have taken place between the original disseisor and the tenant in the writ, was said to be in

Afterwards. The name of the entry of record of the proceedings and result of the trial of a cause, taken from the initial word of the entry of record in Latin, literally translated

This is a word of comparison and relation in tenure, the correlative of which is the word priority. Thus a man who held lands or tenements of two lords was said to hold of his more

Reprisal; recovery; recapture; postliminy. The restoration or return of a person or thing to a former right, estate, or condition; a fiction of the civil law by which persons or th

See Postliminium.

To place after; to adjourn; to delay. Postponed: adjourned; delayed; set down for a later day. Postponement: an adjournment; a continuance. That a cause submitted on written argume

1. The name, in the Roman law, of the initial step in a criminal prosecution. It seems to have been preliminary to a formal charge or complaint, and to have been designed chiefly f

1. A measure of weight. 2. A denomination of English money. 3. An enclosure maintained by authority of law for the confinement of estrays, or (in England) for custody of goods dist

1. A charge allowed to be made by the sheriff, for his expenses and services in collecting money on execution, and which he may deduct from the sum obtained. Whether it is called p

A power is, in a general sense of the word common in jurisprudence, any authority which one gives to another to act for him; as in speaking of the powers of an agent, or of a corpo

Identical in meaning with actual location. Both phrases call for mutual acquiescence in a known line, continued for a long period of time. Hubbell v. Mc CuUoeh, 47 Barb. 287.

Thie course of a business; customs of an office; routine of performing duties or exercising functions; hence, particularly, the form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying o

Practice. Praxis judicum est interpres legum. The practice of the judges is the interpreter of the laws.

A bill in equity, or a complaint under one of the codes of reformed procedure, must conclude with a specific request for the relief which the plaintiff seeks. This clause is called

In old English practice, the tenant in a real action, doubtful of his own title, might pray in aid, or call for assistance of another having a better right to help him to plead. 3

An introductory recital in a contract, statute, &c., setting forth the facts or reasons which led to its being made or enacted. It is not strictly an operative part of the instrume

The stipend or allowance for support granted to an ecclesiastic of a certain class connected with a cathedral, to enable him to perform his part in the church services. The word is

Revocable rights are called precarious. A right to use a thing which the owner has given to another, to be withdrawn whenever the owner pleases, is called a precarious right. Preca

An example which may be followed. The word is used principally, though by no means exclusively, to indicate one of the two following things: A decision in a court of justice, cited

A process or warrant. Precept is not to be confined to civil proceedings, and is not of a more restricted meaning than " process." It includes warrants and processes in criminal as

Command. A paper containing the particulars of a writ, filed in the office out of which the writ is to be issued, as the direction and instructions to the officer who issues the wr

Another form of the name of the written instructions to the clerk of court; also spelled praecipe, q. v.

Ought not to be barred. These are the emphatic words of a clause in the commencement of a replication to a plea in bar, in Latin, by which the plaintiff alleges " that, by reason o

In Scotch law, an examination by a judge-ordinary or justice of the peace, where any crime has been committed, that the fact may be ascertained, and full and perfect knowledge give

A contract, which, having been made before another attempted contract, avoids or prevents the latter. The term is used especially with reference to a contract of marriage, which, a

1. Under this term one nation has sometimes. claimed a right in behalf of its subjects to buy the goods of foreigners in transit through her jurisdiction. 2. The iirst buying of an

1. To bring a matter before a court of justice; as in saying that A preferred a charge of assault against B. 2. To apply; to move for. Thus "to prefer for costs " is a phrase meani

Prejudging a matter. When a court decides that A is entitled for his life to the income of a fund, "without prejudice" to any question between B and C, who claim adversely to each

To think of an act in advance; to design, intend, or plan. It is used particularly of crimes, and especially of murder. It implies intent before the act, but not necessarily an int

First; chief. The prime minister in England is currently called the premier. patent. The premier sergeant formerly took precedence of the attorney and solicitor general; but now, b

1. Literally, some- /? thing put before; hence, matters previously stated; an antecedent or introductory part of a writing. 2. As used in equity pleading, the term designates what

A Latin vcord, meaning price or sum paid; which has been Anglicized to stand for the price or payment peculiar to certain transactions. Thus premium for insurance is the price or s

To take. The law- French form of the verb prendre. It is said to mean the power or right of taking a thing before it is offered; hence the phrase of law, " it lies in render, but n

Precarious. Held by mere entreaty; held at the will of another. The word is used in the civil law as the name of a species of contract, in which the owner of a thing gives it to an

In a general sense, a personal privilege, power, or right of superior character. In English law, it is especially used of the distinct authority vested in the crown; the special po

An elder, priest, or dignitary in some denominations of the church. It is a legal dignity in the Established Church of Scotland. Presbyterium. That part of the church where divine

To assert a right or title to the enjoyment of a thing, on the ground of having hitherto had the uninterrupted and immemorial enjoyment of it. Prescription: a title which a person

The words " prescribed by law " mean governed by actual legislation upon the subject, and in no just sense can be extended to a permission given to the courts to declare rules. Exl

A question to a witness as to what was said " in the presence " of a person is not objectionable on the ground that explicit proof that it was said in his hearing is necessary. Wha

adj. A bequest in a will to testator's present attendant physician imports a bequest to the physician attending the testator at the date of the will. Everett v. Carr, 59 Me. 325. P