Par

Literally, equal. As often used, it may be more lucidly rendered apparent worth, nominal value. When stocks or evidences of debt are salable in the market at their nominal value, they are said to stand or to sell at par; they are called above or below par, if they bring more or less than their apparent worth. The words " to he paid in currency that is at par," in a promissory note, mean currency equal to gold.

Crim v. Sellars, 37 Ga. 324. See also Galloway v. Jenkins, 63 N. C. 147.

Par value means pound for pound, or a dollar in money for every dollar in security.

Delafield v

State of Illinois, 2 Em, 158; 8 Paige, 527.

Where an act of the Pennsylvania assembly (1841) required the notes of the suspended United States bank to be taken at par, it was held that " par " meant the amount really due, including Interest.

Hogg's Appeal, 22 Pa. St. 479.

Par of exchange. A phrase difficult of explanation, unless the general facts connected with remittances of money between countries employing different systems of currency are somewhat understood. When the state of the money markets of two such countries is such that, aside from all questions of weight and fineness of coin, interest for time bills have to run, credit of individual drawers of b Uls, &c., or, making due allowance for all these elements, a given sum of money in one country will buy a bill or draft upon the other for the amount in its currency which is the legal equivalent of the sum paid in the home market, then exchange between the two countries is said to be at par. In other words, par of exchange is actual or marketable equality of two currencies, corresponding to their legal, theoretic equality. But if the balance of trade between the two countries is such that very many in the one are drawing upon the other, and only few or none drawing must be paid for the exercise of it; in other words, exchange on that country is above par. Conversely, it may fall below par. The expression has some use, though of less importance, in reference toremittances between different cities of the United States, though the exchanges are estimated in the same currency.

Pari delicto

In equal fault. See In pari delicto. Pari materia. In an equal matter; on a like subject. See In pari materia. Pari passu. By equal progress; at an equal rate; without preference. Used especially of creditors who, in marshalling assets, are entitled to receive out of the same fund, vdthout any precs' dence over each other.

Parium judicimn

Judgment of one's peers. The right of trial by one's peers; particularly, the right of a commoner to trial by a jury of his peers; hence the right of trial by jury. Paribus sententiis, reus absolvitar. Where the opinions are equal, the defendant is acquitted. An equal division of the court operates as a decision in favor of the defendant. Called by Lord Coke " an old rale."

4 Inst. 64.

A like principle applies in modem times to decisions in appellate courts; if the judges are equally divided, the judgment ought to be reviewed is affirmed. PARAGE; PARAGIUM. Equality of condition, dignity, or rank. The word was used in the feudal law, and was applied in cases where heirs took of the same stock and by same title, but from right of primogeniture, or some other cause, the shares were unequal. The younger was said to hold of the elder by right and title of parage, meaning that his share was equal in every thing but the quantity; he did not owe homage or fealty. The word is not in modern use; it appears, however, in disparage, which means to depreciate or undervalue another's condition. Paragium was also commonly taken for the equal conditions betwixt two parties, to be contracted in marriage; for the old laws did strictly provide that young heirs should be disposed in matrimony cum paragio, with persons of equal birth and fortune, sine Burrill explains that it is a compound of the old French words par, by, and amount, above, or amounter, to ascend; and that it is the correlative of paravail, downwards. In feudal law, it was applied to distinguish the primary or original lord from an intermediate or mesne lord, from whom the ultimate tenant held immediately, while yet his title was deduced from the superior; thus, if the king granted large'traots of land to A, B, and C, and they in turn granted them in small tracts to tenants, A, B, or C was, as towards his tenants, lord, while the king was lord paramount as towards all. In modern real-property law, paramount is properly applied to a title which is superior to another, in the sense of being source of it, of giving it life and validity. Thus the title of the landlord is paramount to that of his tenant. The word is not infrequently misapplied, by using it to denote that a title is superior to another in the sense of extinguishing or overthrowing it. This is a perversion. If an owner of land grants it in January to A, and in July to B, and they two are in litigation as to which of them, on account of payment of consideration, earlier recording, notice of the other's equities, &c., has the better right to the lands, the title which is adjudged to prevail is the better or superior title, but not a title paramount to the other. The right of a patentee of public lands to dispossess a squatter is not because the patent is a paramount title. Titles paramount and paravail, in the proper sense of the words, are consistent and harmonious; both coexist, but the paramount one is the origin and source of the other. PARAPHERNA; PARAPHERNA- LIA; PABAPHERNAUX BIENS. These are the Latin, the Anglicized, and the modern French law names of property of a wife outside of her dowry; being chiefly and usually her apparel and ornaments, such as are suitable to her degree. The civil law and common law alike recognized some special property of a wife in these things, excepting alty; though the rules as to what might be deemed paraphernalia and the extent of the wife's right varied somewhat. Throughout the United States (except, perhaps, in Louisiana), the distinction has never had much attention or importance, and is practically extinguished at the present day in the numerous states which have legislated to secure to married women the continued ownership and enjoyment of all their property. Thus pearls and jewels, usually or sometimes worn by the wife, although articles of mere ornament, have been held to fall within the term paraphernalia. A widow has been sustained in the claim to her gold watch and several gold rings, as paraphernalia, which had been given to her at the funerals of relatives. Mangey v. Hungerford, 2 Eg. Cos. Abr. 156; Brown. What shall be considered as paraphernalia of the wife is a question for the court. A gold watch, worth $100, the gift of a husband to his wife, cannot he considered as among the paraphernalia of the wife, when the husband, at the time of the gift, was a man of limited means or small property, and afterwards died insolvent. Vasa V. Soutliall,.

4 Ired. L. 301.