Scintilla
A Dictionary of Law · William C. Anderson · 1889
A Dictionary of Law
A spark, a glimmer; the smallest particle.
Scintilla juris
A spark of right or law; the smallest particle of legal interest. Designated a fiction resorted to to enable a feoffee to uses to support a contingent use when it should come into existence and thereby effect an execution of the use under the Statute of Uses. In theory a small though sufficient portion of the fee-simple remained in the feoffee, which involved a possibility of future seizin in him.
See Use, 3.
Scintilla of evidence. The doctrine that when, on the trial of a cause, there is any evidence, however slight, tending to support the issue, the case must be submitted to the jury for a verdict, no longer prevails.
See Nonsuit.