Petition

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. Petitioner: the applicant; the one who prefers a petition. Petitionee: is not in general use; because petitions do not usually run against any person. In the practice of American courts, a petition is frequently employed to bring a matter before the court in respect to which formal judicial action is necessary, but action or suit is inappropriate because there is no adversary party. Applications for appointment of guardian, change of trustees, sale of church property, reinvestment of funds, are familiar examples. In equity practice, petitions are often used as ancillary to a suit in progress; as some special interference of the court is frequently required in order to the regular and effectual prosecution or defence of the suit, and in order to the immediate attainment of many objects connected with it. When such interference is required, an order of court, embodying the particular object, is applied for; and such application is frequently made by what is termed a petition, which is a statement in writing, petitioner has for some or Ser of court. Petitions to chancery are, indeed, made either in a suit or under a statute, or both; but where no suit is pending, and no statute gives the right of proceeding upon petition, then a biU is, as to most rights, the proper course. The word petition is generally used in judicial proceedings to describe an application in writing, in contradistinction to a motion, which may be viva voce.

Bergen v. Jones, 4 Mete. {Mass.) 371.

The word petition is used capriciously in English legal proceedings. Thus we speak of a petition for adjudication in bankruptcy (in the bankruptcy court), a petition for diyoree (in the divorce court), but of a bill for the administration of a decedent's estate (in the court of chancery): the regular mode of commencing an ordinary chancery suit having, prior to November, 1875, when the judicature acts came into operation, been by bill.

Mozhy Sr W

There are several regulations respecting petitions to parliament, which, if neglected in any one particular, will prevent their reception. When intended for the house of lords, a petition must be addressed, " To the right honorable the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled; " when addressed to the house of commons, it may be directed, " To the honorable the knights, citizens, and burgesses of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in parliament assembled; " but more usually in this form, " To the honorable the commons of the United Kingdom in parliament assembled." Its commencement must describe the petitioners, thus: " The humble petition of the electors of the parish of, showeth that," &c.; or, in the case of an individual, his name and occupation must be stated, thus: " The humble petition of A B, of, &c., showeth that," &c. The statement of grievance must then follow, and the whole must conclude with a specific prayer. The omission of a prayer has often proved fatal to the reception of a petition; for no mere remonstrance or detail of grievance will be received. The prayer must be thus introduced: " Wherefore your petitioners humbly pray that your honorable house will be pleased to," &c.; the particular relief expected being here stated. To the whole petition must be added the words, " And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray; " immediately thereupon must follow the signatures, of which one, at least, must be on the same sheet of paper or skin of parchment as the petition, not pasted or otherwise appended. The signatures or marks must be original, not copies nor signatures of agents on behalf of others; thus no chairman of a public meeting can sign for the whole meeting: seal of a corporation is received as the petition of the wliole corporate body. A printed or lithographed petition will not be received; it must be in writing, on parchment or on paper, free from erasures or interlineations, and composed in English, or accompanied by a translation, which the presenting member certifies to be correct; but no letters, affidavits, or other documents can be annexed. Petitions are uniformly rejected, if not respectful and temperate in language, free from imputations upon the character and conduct of parliament, the courts of justice, or other constituted authorities. No reference is permitted to any debates, or to any motions supposed to be in preparation.

Wharton.

Petition de droit, or petition of right. A proceeding for obtaining possession or restitution of property, cither real or personal, from the crown, which suggests such a title as controverts the title of the crown, grounded on facts disclosed in the petition itself, in which case the petitioner must be careful to state truly the whole title of the crown; otherwise the petition shall abate. Thus, if a disseisor of lands dies without heir, and the crown enters, the disseisee has remedy by petition of right. (3 Bl. Com. 256; 3 Steph. Com. 655, 656.) The modern practice in a petition of right is regulated by Stat. 23 & 24 Vict. ch. 34, 1860, which provides that the petition shall be left with the home secretary, for her majesty's consideration; who, if she shall think fit, may grant her fiat that right be done: whereupon (the fiat having been served on the solicitor to the treasury) an answer, plea, or demurrer shall be made on behalf of the crown, and the subsequent pleadings be assimilatsd, so far as practicable, to the course of an ordinary action. (3 Steph. Com. 657, 658; Hunt Eg. Pt. III. Introd.) Mozley Sf- W. Petition of lights. A parliamentary declaration of the liberties of the people, assented to by King Charles I., in 1629. It is to be distinguished from the bill of rights, 1689, which was passed into a permanent constitutional statute.

Broivn.

In the first parliament of Charles I, which met in 1626, the commons refused to grant supplies, until certain rights and privileges of the subject, which they alleged had been violated, should have been solemnly recognized by a legislative enactment. With this view, they framed a petition to the king, in which, after reciting various statutes by which their rights and privileges were recognized, they pray the king " that no man be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such lilie charge, without common consent, by act of parliament; that none be called upon to make answer so to do; that freemen he imprisoned or detained only by the law of the land, or by due process of law, and not by the king's special command, without houses, against the laws and customs of the realm; that commissions for proceeding by martial law be revoked: all which they pray as their rights and liberties, according to the laws and statutes of the realm." To this petition the king at first sent an evasive answer. This answer being rejected as unsatisfactory, the king at last pronounced the formal words of unqualifietl assent: " Let right be done, as it is desired." (Stat. 3 Car. I. ch. 1.) Notwithstanding this, however, the ministers of the crown caused the petition to be printed and circulated with the first insufficient answer.

Wharton.

Petitioning creditor. Proceedings of compulsory or involuntary bankruptcy are commenced upon the petition of some creditor, in ■which the facts rendering the debtor a bankrupt are alleged, and an adjudication of bankruptcy is prayed. Such adjudication having passed, other creditors come in and prove thenrespective claims. The creditor who initiates the proceedings, on whose application the adjudication is made, is called, to distinguish him from the general mass who come in under the order for proofs, the petitioning creditor.