A Dictionary of Law

See DisCONTINUOUS EASEMENT,

In a general sense. An allowance or deduction made from a gross sum on any account whatever. In a more limited and technical sense. The taking of interest in advance. By the langua

A bill broker; one who discounts bills of exchange and promissory notes, and advances money on securities.

Not married; not subject to the disabilities of coverture. It applies equally to a maid and a widow.

Inyention; finding out. The finding of an island or country not previously known to geographers. In patent law. The finding out some substance, mechanical device, improvement, or a

BILL OF. In equity pleading. A bill for the diseovery of facts resting in the knowledge of the defendant, or of deeds or writings, or other things in his custody or power; but seek

To destroy or impair the credibility of a person; to impeach; to lessen the degree of credif to be accorded to a witness or document, as by impugning the veracily of the one or the

A difference between two things which ought to be identical, as between one writing and another; a variance, (q: B.) Diseretio est discernere per legem quid sit justum. 10 Coke, 14

Suchas are not marked out on fixed lines, but ailow a certain amount of discretion in their exercise. Those which eannot be duly administered without the application of a certain d

In the civillaw <A proceeding, at the instance of a surety, by whieh the creditor is obliged to exhaust the property of the principal debtor, towards the satislaction of the debt,

In construing a policy of life insurance, it is generally true that, before any temporary ailment can be ealled a “disease,” it must be such as to indicate a vice in the constituti

An abolished judicial writ addressed to the treasurer and chamberlain of the exchequer to search for and transmit the foot of u fine acknowledged before justices in eyre into the c

The act of disfranchising. ‘The act of depriving a member of a corporation of his right as such, by expulsion. 1 Bouv. Inst. no. 192. lt differs from amotion, (g. v.) which is appl

To deprive of the rights and privileges of a free citizen; to deprive of chartered rights and immunities; ta

In English law. To de prive lands of that principal quality of gavelkind tenure by which they descend equally among all the sons of the tenant. 2 Wood. Lect. 76; 2 Bl. Comm. 8d.

Iygnominy; shame; dishonor. No witness is required to disgrace himself. 13 How. State Tr. 17, 384.

In old English law, The depriving of an order or dignity.

A counterfeit habit; a dress Intended to conceal the person who wears it. Webster. Anything worn upon the person with the intention of so altering the Wearer’s appearance that he s

Disinheritance; depriving one of an inheritance. Obsolete,

In mercantile law and usage. To refuse or decline lo accept a bill of exchange, or to refuse or neglect to pay a bill or note at maturity. A negotiable instrument is dishonored whe

Toset at liberty, to free frum prison,

In thecivillaw. The act of depriving a forced heir of the inheritance which the law gives him.

The act by which the owner of an estale deprives a person of the right to inherit the same, who would otherwise be his heir,

Not concerned, in } DISINTERESTED WITNESS. One who has no interest in the cause or matter in issue, and who is lawfully competent to testify.

Lat. In the civil law. Separately; severally. The opposite of conjunctim, (qg. v.) Inst, 2, 20, 8.

A statement in a pleading or indictment which expresses or charges a thing alternatively, wilh the conjunction “or;” for instance, an averment that defendant “murdered, or caused t

One which is placed between two contraries, by the affirming of one of which the other is taken away; it is usually expressed by the word “or.”

Tenths; tithes, (¢. v.) The original form of “dime,” the name of tho American coin.

To send away; to discharge; to cause to be removed. To dismiss an action or suit is to send it out of court without any further consideration or hearing.

To redeem from mortgage,

Turbulent or riotous behavior; immoral or indecent conduct. The breach of the publie decorum and morality.

In criminal law. <A house the inmates of which behave 80 badly as to become anuisance to the neighborhooud. It has a wide meaning, and includes bawdy houses, common gaming houses,

Such as are dangerous or hurtful to the public peace and welfare by reason of their misconduet or vicious habits, and are therefore amenable to police regulation, The phrase is chi

In old English law, to bring together those that are unequal, (dispares conferre;) to connect in an indecorous and unworthy manner; to connect in marriage those that are unequal in

Fr. Disparagement; the matching an heir, ete., in marriage, under his or her degree or condition, or aguinst the rules of decency. Kelham.

To connect unequally; to match unsuitably.

In old English law. An injury by union or comparison with some person or thing of inferior rank or excellence, Marriage without disparagement was marriage to one of suitable rank a

In old Scotch law. Inequality in blood, honor, dignity, or otherwise. Skene de Verb. Sign. Disparata non debent jungi. Things unlike ought not to be joined. Jenk. Cent. 24, marg.

To dissolve a park. Cro, Car.59,. To convert it into ordinary ground. DISPATCH or DESPATCH. A message, letter, or orller sent with speed on affairs of state; a telegraphic messige.

When a person, by reason of his poverty, is admitted to sue in forma pauperis, and afterwards, before the suit be ended, acquires any lands, or personal estate, or is guilty of any

An exemption from conimanded; the canonistic pame for a license. Wharton, A relaxation of law for the benefit or advantage of an individual. In the United States, no power exists,

To scandalize or disparage. Blount.

In Seoteh law. To grant or convey. <A technical werd essential to the conveyance of heritable property, and for which no equivalent is accepted, however clear may be the meaning of

Toalienate or direct the ownership of property, as disposition by will. 42 N.Y. 79. Used also of the determination of suits. 13 Wall. 664. Called a word of large extent. Freem. 177

These are alternative or synonymous phrases in the law of wills for “sound mind,” and “testamentary capacity,” (q. v.)

In Scotch law. A deed of alienation by which a right to property is conveyed. Bell.

Such as produce or bring about the origination, transfer, or extinclion of rights. They are either ¢nvestilive, those by means of whieh a right comes into existence, divestitive, t

Ouster; a wrong that carries with it the amotion of possession. An act whereby the wrong-doer geta the actual occupation of the land or hereditament. It includes abatement, intrusi

In old English law. Not answerable. Co. Litt. 276.53. 1 Steph. Comm. 245. Not punishable, “This murder is dispunishable.” 1 Leon. 270.

A

In the eivillaw. Discussion or argument before a court. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 38; Dig. IL, 2, 2, 5.

In old Seoteh law. Disseisin; dispussession, Skene.

Theanatomical examination of a dead body.

Todispossess; te deprive.

Dispossession; a deprivation of possession; a privution of seisin; a usurpation of the right of seisin and possession, and an exercise of such powers and privileges of ownership as

One who puts another out of the possession of his lands wrongfully.

<A woman who unlawfully puts another out of his land.

Contrariety of opinion; refusal to agres wilh something already stated or adjudged or to an act previously performed, The term is most commonly used in American law to denote the e

Protestant seceders from the established church of England. They are of many denominations, principally Presbyterians, Inlependents, Methodists, and Baptists; but, as to church gov

The opinion in whieh a judge announces his dissent from the conclusions heid by the majority of the court, and expounds his own views.

One whois wrongfully put out of possession of hislands; one who is disseised.

In old law. To break open a seal, Whishaw. Dissimilium dissimilis est ratio. Co. Litt. 191. Of dissimilars the rale is dissimilar. Dissimulatione tollitur injuria. An injury is ext

{[n criminal law. To advise and procure a person not to do an act. To dissuade a witness from giving evidence against a person indicted is an indictable offense ab common law. Hawk

Every person who produces distilled spirits, or who brews or mukes mash, wort, or wash, fit for distillation or for the production of spirits, or who, by any process of evaporizati

The strict meaning of ured; not every building where the process of distillation is used. 45 N. Y. 499.

Inold Englisn practice. Distinctly and openly. Forms al words in writs of error, referring to the return required to be made to them. Reg. Orig. 17. Distinguenda sunt tempora. The

Topoint ont an essential difference; to prove a case cited as applicable, inapplicable.

A term used in the statutes of Illinois (Rev. Laws IIL 1833, p. 852) and New Hampshire (Dig. N. H. Laws, 1830, p. 339) to express a atate of insanity.

In the civil law. The sale of a pledge by a debtor. The appropriation of the property of a ward by a guardian. Calvin.

Tosell; todraw apart; to dissolve a contract; to divorce. Calvin.

To take as a pledge property of another, and keep the same until he performs his obligation or until the property is replevied by the sheviff. It was used to secure an appearance i

or DISTRAINOR, He who seizes a distress.

Seizure.

The taking a personal chattel out of the possession of a wrong-oer into the custody of the party injured, to procure a satisfaction for a wrong committed; as for taking of beasts o

Distribntee is admissible to denote one of the persons who are entitled, under the statute of distributions, to the personal estate of one who is dead intestute. 9 Ired. 278.

In practice. The apportionment and division, under authority of a court, of the remuinder of the estate of an intestate, after payment of the ‘debts and charges, among those who ar

One of the portions into which an entire state or country may be divided, for judicial, political, or administrative purposes. The United States are divided into judicial districts

The clerk of a district court of either a state or the United States.

Courts of the United States, each having territorial jurisdiction over a district, which may include a whole state or only part of it. Each of these courts is presided over by one

A distress; a distraint. Cowell.

The judge of a United States district court; also, in some states, the judge of a district court of the state.

A territory situated on the Potomac river, and being the seat of government of the United States. It was originally ten miles square, and was composed of portions of Maryland and V

Ecclesiastical divistons of parishes in England, for all purposes of worship, and for the celebration of m Inarriages, cliristenings, churchings, and burials, formed at the instane

By the English judicature act, 1873, § 60, it is provided order in council, create district registries, and appoint district registrars for the purpose of issuing writs of summons,

In English practice, A writ directed to the sheriff of the county in which a defendant resides, or has any goods or chattels, commanding him to distrain upon the goods and chattels

A writ commanding the sherilf to have the bodies of the jurors, or to distrain them by their lands and goods, that they may appear upon the day appointed. 3 Bl. Comm. 354. It issue

A writ of distvingas, directed to the coroner, may be issued against a sheriff if he neglects to exeeute a writ of tenditioni exponas. Arch. Pr. 584.

In feudal and old English law. To distrain; to coerce or compel. Spelman; Calvin.

A wrong done to an incorporeal hereditament by hindering or disquieting the owner in the enjoyment of it. Finch, 187; 3 Bl. Comm. 235.

The disturbing or incommoding a man in the lawful exerciss of his franchise, whereby the profits arising from it are diminished. 8 BL, Comm, 286; 3 Steph. Comm. 510; 2 Crabb, Real

The hindrance or obstruction of a patron from presenting his clerk to a benefice. 3 Bl. Comm. 242; 5 Steph. Comm. 514. DISTURBANCE OF PUBLIC WOR-

This happens where a person who has a right of way over another's ground by grant or prescription is obstructed by inclosures or other obstacles, or by plowing across it, by which

Ifa bishop refuse or negleet to examine or admit a patron's clerk, without reason assigned or nolice given, he is styled a “disturber” by the law, and shall not have any title to p

The technical and most comprehensive description of real property, as “voods and chattels” is of personalty. Williams, Real Prop. 3.

The words “diteh” and “drain” have no technical or exact meaning. They both may wean a hollow space in the ground, natural or artificial, where water is collected or passes off. 5

Fr. Say over. The form of awarding a respondeas ouster, in the Year Books. M. 6 Edw. III. 49.

In Scotch law. A technical term in civil law, signifying the matter of charge or ground of indictment against a person accused of crime. Yaking up diltay is obtaining informations

A turning aside or altering the natural course ofa thing. The term is chiefly applied to the unauthorized changing the course of a water-course to the prejudice of a lower propriet

Incriminal pleading. A plea by the prisoner in bar of execution, alleging that be is not the same who was attainted, upon which a jury is immediately impaneled to try the collatera

Lat. With a different view, purpose, or design; in a different view or point of view; by a different course or process. 1 W. Bl. 89; 4 Kent, Comm. 2il, note.