Partus
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
Offspring.
According to Bouvier, it is sometimes used in the limited sense of a child at its birth.
Partus sequitur veutrem
The offspring follows the womb. The application of this maxim, which is taken from the civil law, is in determining the title; and the meaning is, that, in the absence of special circumstances to indicate a different ownership, the owner of the mother is deemed the owner of her increase; the brood belongs, presumably, to the owner of the fowl; the foal, to the owner of the mare; the litter, to the owner of the dam. While slavery prevailed in the southern states, the rule the mother slave, the child took the mother's condition, and belonged to her owner. At the present day, the rule has no application, either in England or the United States, to human beings.