Year

The period in which the revolution of the earth round the sun, and the accompanying changes in the order of nature, are completed. Generally, when a statute spealcs of a year, twelve calendar and not lunar months are intended. (Peterborough V. Catesby, Cro. Jac. 166.) The year is either astronomical, ecclesiastical, or regnal, beginning on the 1st of January, or 25th of March, or the d.ay of the sovereign's accession.

Wharton.

The year, as divided by Julius Caesar, consists of twelve months. It appears that in early English times the year began with Christmas day; but from the reign of William I. the year is designated by that of the reign only. Upon the reformation of religion, the year was made to begin with the 25th of March, being the day of the feast of the Annunciation; but the year of the reign continued to be the common mode of denoting dates until the Commonwealth, when the year of our Lord came into use; and ultimately, by the 24 Geo. II. ch. 23, it was enacted that the 1st of January next following the last day of December, 1751, should be the first day of the year 1752, and so on for the first day of every succeeding year; and that the then 2d of September, 1752, should continue to be reckoned as the second; but the next succeeding day (which of right, would be the 3d of September, 1752) should be reckoned as the 14th of September, 1752, omitting for that time only the eleven intermediate days. And all writings after the 1st of January, 1752, were to be dated according to the new style. ' Brovm. That the words " any one year," in act of congress April 10, 1818, — which was providing a compensation, by annual salary, for the receivers and registers of public moneys for the public lands, — refer to the official year, and not to the fiscal year; It may be used more extensively; thus, where public and private wrongs are spoken of, crimes are included under the first head. Wrongfully; tortiously; unlawfully.

Wrong-doer.

One who commits an injury; a tort-feasor.

Wrongfully intending

Words used in a declaration when in an action for an injury to charge an unlawful motive upon the defendant in committing the act complained of. are to be contemporaneous, see United States V. Dickson, 15 Pet. 141. When a year is mentioned in legislative or judicial proceedings, and no mention is made of any other system of reckoning, the Christian calendar is understood to be used. Engleman v. State, 2 Ind. 91. " Twenty-four months " is equivalent to the " two years " of the statutes of Kentucky.

Hopkins v. Chambers, 7 T. B. Hon. 257.

The term " one whole year," used in the Massachusetts act of 1793, ch. 34, respecting settlements, must be understood to be a political, or rather a municipal, year; viz., from the time the officer is chosen until a new choice takes place, at the next annual meeting for the choice of town officers, which may sometimes exceed, and sometimes fall short of, a calendar year.

Paris V. Hiram, 12 Mass. 262.

The period of time intended to be designated by the term " year " is to be determined by the subject-matter and the context; and that signification is to be given which accords with the intention of the party using it.

Thornton v. Boyd, 25 Miss. 598.

Where a statute imposes additional punishment upon a second conviction and sentence for " a term of years," that expression includes sentences for life. Commonwealth u.

Evans, 16 Pick. 448.

The expression " in the year one thousand eiglit hundred and fifty-seven" means the year of our Lord, and is sufficient in an indictment.

Commonwealth v. Doran, 14 Gray, 37. s. p. Commonwealth v. Sullivan, Id. 97.

The time — one year — within which an appeal from a judgment may be taken, must be computed from the time the judgment is announced by the court and entered in its minutes, and not from the date of its entry in the judgment-book by the clerk. Appeal taken from a judgment rendered April 27, 1868; by a notice of appeal, served April 28, 1869, is not taken within one year.

State V. Jones, 11 Iowa, 11.

By statute, in New York, a year is deemed to consist of three hundred and sixty-five days.

1 Seo. Stat. 606, § 3.

Year and a day. In order to avoid perplexing questions as to including or excluding the last day in computation, the old rules of English law often prescribed a year and a day as the time to be allowed for an act or event, meaning thereby to secure an entire year, beyond all question. Thus, if a wounded person lived a year and a day, his assailant escaped prosecution for murder. The period of a year and a day was fixed for many purposes in law. Thus, in the case of an estray, if the owner did not claim it within that time, it became the property of the lord. So the owners of wreck must claim it within a year and a day. Death must follow upon wounding within a year and a day, if the wounding is to be indicted as. murder. Also, a year and a day was given for prosecuting or avoiding certain legal acts; e.g., for bringing actions after entry, for making claim, for avoiding a fine, &c. Brown. Year, day, and TO-aste. An ancient prerogative of the king, whereby he was entitled to the profits for a year and a day of persons attainted of petty treason or felony, together with the right of wasting the tenements, afterwards restoring the property to the lord of the fee. It seems to have been originally a usurpation; to have been sanctioned by Stat. 17 Edw. II., and to have been abrogated by 54 Geo. III. ch.

145.