Pound
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
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 distrained. A pound is, generally, any place enclosed to keep in beasts, but especially a place of strength to keep cattle which are distrained, or put in for any trespass done by then), until they are replevied or redeemed. In this signification, it is called pound ocert and and which he prorides for the use of himself and tenants, and ia also called the lord's or the common pound; and a backside yard, &c., whereto the owner of beasts impounded may come to give them meat, without offence, is a pound overt. A pound covert is a close place, which the owner of the cattle cannot come to, without giving offence, such as a house, &c. There is also a difference between a common pound, an open pound, and a close pound, as to cattle impounded. Where cattle are kept in a common pound, no notice is necessary to the owner to feed them; but, if they are put into any other open place, notice is to be given; and he is then also bound to feed them; and, if beasts are impounded in a pound close, as in part of the distrainor's house, stable, &c., he is to feed them at his peril. Jacob. A town pound, ex vi termini, is an enclosed piece of land secured by a firm structure of stone, or of posts and timber, placed in the ground; and, by the grant, or exception, in a deed of conveyance of a town pound, the land on which it stands is conveyed or excepted, not as an appurtenance, but as parcel of the subject-matter. Wooley I).
Groton, 2 Cush. 305. Found-breach.
The offence of breaking into a lawful enclosure for estrays, to take out an animal there confined. Pound-breach is the act of breaking into a pound or enclosure in which things distrained are placed under the protection of law; and it is an offence in the eye of the law even where the distress has been taken without just cause; for, when once impounded, the goods immediately are in legal custody. The punishment varies according to the nature of the thing distrained. Brown. Pound-breach is the destruction of a pound, or any part, lock, or bolt thereof, or the taking of cattle or other goods from the place where they are impounded.
3 Bl. Com. 146. Pound-keeper.
A local officer charged with the care of a pound, and of animals confined in it.