Prmfatus

Aforesaid.

Sometimes abbreviated to prcefat. and p. fat. See Pb^dictus.

PR^MUNIRE.

To forewarn; to summon. The emphatic word of a writ issued in old English law, to begin the prosecution of an offence against the king and government; afterwards taken as a name for the writ and the offence. The proceeding was designed to prevent papal usurpations in England, by making it an offence to introduce a foreign power into the kingdom, or to render to a foreign power the obedience claimed to be due to the king alone. Other offences were subsequently included in the proceedings and penalties for praemunire. The statute of prcemunire (15 Kich. II. ch. 5) was enacted to check the exorbitant power claimed aud exercised by the pope in England; whence the offence of prmmunire was the particular name of the offence of maintaining the papal power in England as an imperium in imperio. The statute enacts that, whoever procures at Rome or elsewhere any translations, processes, excommunications, bulls, instruments, or other things which touch the king, against Mm, his crown and realm, and all persons aiding and assisting therein, shall be put out of the king's protection, their lands and goods forfeited to the king's use; and they shall be attached by their bodies to answer to the king and his council, or process of prmmunire facias shall be made out against him, as in any other case of provisors. Brovm. PRiENOMEN. The first of the three names ordinarily in use among the Romans. It distinguished the individual. The initial letter only was usually written. See Agnomen; Cognomen; NOMEN. Praesentia corporis to Uit errorem nominis. The actual presence of the subject-matter removes the effect of error in the name. If the subject of a contract be present, an error in namiug it does no harm. Thus, " if I give a horse to J D, he being present, and say unto him, ' J S, take this,' this is a good gift, notwithstanding I call him by a wrong name" (Bacon Max.); for the presence of the grantee gives a If the name and description do not coincide, there is no presumption, in the absence of the thing itself, in favor of the one over the other; the truth of the name will depend on the falsity of the description, or vice versa. Said Lord Chancellor Campbell, in Drake v. Drake (8 CI. Ho. ofL. Cas. 172, 179), " There is a maxim that the name shall prevail against an error of demonstration. But then you must first show that there is an error of demonstration; and, until you have shown that, the rule Veritas nominis tollit errorem demonstrationis does not apply. Bacon Max. Praesumptio.

Presumption

An inference or deduction of the existence of a fact from the existence of another fact.

Praesumptio juris

This is such a presumption in favor of a claim or case as the law raises, but permits to be rebutted by counter proof if any is produced. Thus title is presumed from possession; but a better title than the possessor's may be proved. Between seven and fourteen criminal capacity is not presumed, but may be proved. Pr^sumptio juris et de jure. A presumption which the law raises and enforces as conclusive; not pennitting counter proof to prevail against it. An infant is presumed incapable of contracting, irrespective of any evidence that the individual was endowed with discretion and judgment unusual for his years. Below seven years, capacity for committing crime may not be proved. The presumption against it is conclusive. A very important distinction exists among presumptions of law; namely, that some are absolute and conclusive, called by the common lawyers irrebuttable presumptions, and by the civilians prc Bsumptiones juris et de jure; while others are conditional, inconclusive, or rebuttable, and are called by the civilians prcesumptiones juris tanium, or simply prc Esunipiiones juris. The former kind are inferences which the law makes so peremptorily, that it will not allow them to he overturned by any contrary proof, however strong. Thus, where a cause has been regS larly adjudicated upon by a competent tribunal, from which there is no appeal, the whole matter assumes the form of res judiparties, to show that decision to be erroneous. An infant under the age of seven years is not only presumed incapable of committing felony, but the presumption cannot be rebutted by the clearest evidence of a mischievous discretion. So a bond or other specialty is presumed to have been executed for good consideration, and no proof can be admitted to the contrary, unless the instrument is impeached for fraud. A receipt under hand and seal is conclusive evidence of the payment of money; and in the time of the old feudal tenures it was an irrebuttable presumption of law, that a person under the age of twenty-one was Incapable of performing knight service.

Best Evid. 306.