A Dictionary of Law

4A promissory note payable “on demand” is a present debt, and is payable without any iemand. 2 Mees. & W. 461; 39 Me, 494.

In pleading. The name of a plea, in an action of debt, by which the defendant says that he ought not to be eharged.

Lat. In thecivil law. ‘he servitude of support; a servitude by which the wall of a house is required to austain the wall or beams of the adjoining house.

A contract, lease, share, or other right is said to be “onerous” when the obligations attaching to it counter-balance or exceed the advantage to be derived from it, either absolute

In Scotch law. A good and legal consideration.

In the civil law this term designates a contract based upon any consideration given or promised, however trifling or inconsiderable such congideration may be. Civil Code La. art, 1

In Scotchiaw. A deed given for a valuable consideration. Bell.

A gift madesubject to certain charges imposed by the donor on the donee.

See New For OLp. ONERANDO PRO RATA POR-

Filed; entered or placed upon the files; existing and remaining upon or among the proper files.

A term applied to the signature of an instrument, the body of which is ina different handwriting from that of the signature. Best, Ev. 315.

A phrase used in reciting the date of an occurrence or conveyance, to escape the necessity of being bound by the statement of an exact date.

act or process of uniting several actions one trial and judgment, by order of a int, Where all the actions are between the parties, pending in the same court, and rning upon the sa

Lat. A burden orload; a weight. The lading, burden, or cargo of a vessel. A charge; anincuinbrance. Cwmonere, (q.v.,) with the incumbrance.

The charge of importing merchandise, mentioned in St. 12 Car. II. c. 28.

Lat. Burden of proving; the burden of proof. The strict meaning of the term “onus probandi” is that, if no evidence is adduced by the party on whom the burden is cast, the issue mu

Lat. By aid and counsel. A civil law term applied to accessaries, similar in import to the “aiding and abetting” of the commen law. Often written “ope et constiio.” Burrill.

1. To open a case is to begin it; to make an initiatory explanation of its features to the court, jury, referee, etc., by outlining the nature of the transaction on which it is fou

An account which has not been finally settled or closed, but is still running or open tu future adjustment or liquidation. Open account, in legal as wellas in ordinary language, me

To accept or pay the draft of a correspondent who has nut furnished funds. Vardessus, no. 296. OPEN COURT the election of the officers of the corporation. 3 Bland, 416, note.

This term may mean either a court which has been formally convened and declared open for the transaction of its proper judicial business, or a court which is freely open to the app

In Scotch law. “Letters of open doors” are process which empowers the messenger, or officer of the law, to break open doors of houses or rooms in which the debtor has placed his go

or MEADOWS. In English law. Fields which are undivided, but belong to separate owners; the part of each owner is marked off by boundaries until the crop has been carried off, when

In American practice. The beginning; the commencement; the first address of the counsel.

Anentering upon the duties under a commission, or commencing to act under a commission, is so termed. Thus, the judges of assize and nist prius derive their authority to act under

The act of the court in so far relaxing the finality and conclusiveness of a judgment as to allow a re-examination of the case on which it was rendered. This is done at the instanc

The act of re storing or recalling a rule which has been made absolute to its conditional state, asa rule nisi, go as to readmit of cause being shown against the rule. Thus, when a

In equity practice. The allowance by a court, on sutiicient cause shown, of a resale of property once sold under a decree.

Stat. ing briefly at a trial before a jury the sub. stance of the pleadings. This is done by the junior counsel for the plaintiff at the commencement of the trial.

The condition of one who has no property, within the reach of the law, applicable to the payment of any debt. 8 Blackf. 305.

The making or waging of law. Magna Charta, c. 21.

In marine insurance. One in which the value of the subject insured is not Axed or agreed upon in the policy, as between the assured and the underwriter, but is left to be estimated

In Saxon law. The game With the Latin “/furtum manifestum,” (g. 0-)

The time after corn is carried out of the fields.

A composition of a dramatic kind, set to music and sung, accompanied with musical instruments, and enriched with appropriate costumes, scenery, ete. The house in which operas are r

Suchtenants, under feudal tenures, as held some little portions of land by the duty of performing bodily labor and servile works for their lord.

One day’s work performed by a tenant for his lord.

This term expresses the manner in which rights, and N transaction of the established rules of law, without the act or co-operation of the party himseif.

<A workman; a laboring Man; an artisan; particularly one employed in factories. ¥

That part of a conveyance, or of any instrument intended for the creation or transference of rights, by which the main object of the instrument is carried into effect. It is distin

in a deed or lease, arethe words which effect the transaction intended to be consummated by the instroment,

Inthe civillaw. A protest or warning against [of] anew work. Dig. 39, 1.

The ancient time of marriage, from Epiphany to Ash-Wednesday. Opinio est duplex, scilicet, opinio vulgaris, orta inter graves et discretos, et quee vultum veritatis habet; et opini

1. In the law of evidence, opinion is an inference or conclusion drawn by a witness from facts some of which are known to him and others assumed, or drawn from facts which, though

Lat. In the civil law. To pledge. Calvin.

An officer formerly belonging to the green-wax in the exchequer.

An old word for “oppo nent.”

In bankruptey practice. Opposition is the refusal of a creditor to assent to the debtor’s discharge under the bankrupt law. In French law. A motion to open a judgment by default an

The misdemeanor committed by a public officer, who, under color of his office, wrongfully inflicts upon any person any bodily harm, imprisonment, or other injury. 1 Russ. Crimes, 2

A public officer who unlawfully uses his authority by way of oppression, (g. 0.)

Nebility; men of the highest rank, Optimam esse legem, que minimum relinquit arbitrio judicis; id quod certitudo ejus preestat. That law is the best which leaves Lhe least discreti

In English ecclesiastical law. A customary prerogative of an archbishop, when a bishop is consecrated by him, to name a clerk or chaplain of his own to be provided for by such suff

In old English practice. That species of original writ, otherwise called a “precipe,” which was framed in the alternative, commanding the defendant to do the thing required, or sho

Lat. Work; labor; the product of work or labor.

The product of work let for use to another; or the hiring out of work or labor to be done upon a thing.

In old English law. labor done by the hands; manual labor; such as making a hedge, digging a ditch. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 48, § 3.

In the civil law. A new work. By this term was meant something newly built upon land, or taken from a work already ereeted. He was said opus novum facere (to make a new work) who,

<A Saxon coin, valued at sixteen pence, and sometimes at twenty pence.

In the civil law. The name of a kind of response or sentence given by the Roman emperors.

Uttered by the month or in words; spoken, not written.

Pleading by word of mouth, in the actual presence of the court. This was the ancient mode of pleading in England, and continued to the reign of Edward III. Steph. Pl. 23-26.

An ancient writ which issued, while there was no standing collect for a sitting parlia-

A partyin Ireland who keep alive the views of William of Orange. Wharton.

The plaintiff in a cause or matter in chancery, when addressing or petitioning the court, used to style himself "orator," and, when a woman, "oratrix." But these terms have long go

<A female petitioner; a fe male plaintiff in a bill in chancery was formerly so valled.

Deprivation of one’s parents or children, or privation in general. Little used.

Lat. In Roman law. A freedman who obtained his liberty by the direct operation of the will or testament of his deceased master was so called, being the freedinan of the deceased, (

‘To institute or establish; to make an ordinance; to enact a constitution or law.

The most ancient species of trial, in Saxon and old English law, being peculiarly distinguished by the appellation ot “judicium Dei,” or judgment of God, it being supposed that sup

or ORDELFE. A liberty whereby a man claims the ore found in his own land; also, the ore lying under land. Cowell.

Inold English law. The right of administering oaths and adjudging trials by ordeal within a precinct or liberty. Cowell.

In Spanish law. An order emanating from the sovereign, and differing from a cedula only in form and in the mode of its promulgation. Schm. Civil Law, Introd. 938, nate. the Cortes

A provisional or conditional order, allowing a certain time within which to do some required act, on failure of which the order will be made absolute. eee ORDER OF DISCHARGE. In En

An order made by a court or judge having Jurisdiction, fixing the paternity of a bastard child upon nu given man, and requiring him to provide for its support,

In English practice. An order as of course for the confinuance of an abated suit. It superseded the bill of revivor.

The directions as to the course und purpose of a voyage given by the owner of the vessel to the captain or master. For other meanings, see ORDER.

Any member of the English house of commons who wishes to propose any question, or to "move the house," as it is termed, must, in order to give the house due notice of his intention

A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action; a law or statute. In a more limited sense, the term is used to designate the enactments of the legislative body of a mu

In English law. A statute made touching

The law of precedure, as distinguished from the substantial part of the law. Ordinarius ita dicitur quia habet ordinariam jurisdietionem, in jure proprio, et non propter deputation

At common law. One who has exempt and immediate jurisdiction in causes ecclesiastical. Also a bishop; and an archbishop is the ordinary of the whole province, to visit and receive

That degree of care which persons of ordinary care and prudence are accustomed to use and employ, under the same or similar circumstances,in order to conduct the enterprise in whic

Those deeds of transfer which are entered into between two or more persons, without an assurance in a superior court of justice. Wharton. ORDINARY DILIGENCE is that degree of care

The clergyman who is attendant upon condemned malefuctors in that prison to prepare them for death; he records the behavior of such persons. Formerly it was the custom of the ordin

In old practice Itis ordered. The initial words of rules of eourt When entered in Latin. Ordine placitandi servato, servatur et jus. When the order of pleading is observed, the law

<A general chapter or other solemn convention of the religious of a particular order.

In ececlesiastical law. The holy orders of priest, deacon, and subdeacon, any of which qualitied for presentation and admission to an ecclesiastical dignity or cure were called “o7

Lat. In the elvil law. The benefit or privilege of order; the privilege which a surety for a debtor had of requiring that his principal should be discussed, or thoroughly prosecute

In old English law. Those of the religious who deserted their houses, and, throwing off the habits, renounced their particular order in contempt of their oath and other obligations

Lat. That rule which monks were obliged Loobserve. Order; regular succession. An order of a court.

The white friars or Augustines. Du Cange,

In old practice. The order of attachments. Fleta, lib. 2, ¢. 51, § 12.

The gray friars, or order of Cistercians. Du Cange.

In the canon law. The order of judgments; the rule by which the due course of hearing cach cause was prescribed. 4 Reeve, Hug. Law, 17.

The black friars, or Benedictines. The Cluniacs likewise wore black. Du Cange,;

A license or right to dig and take ore from land. 84 Pa. St. 840.

A person sumed to answer a bill, petition, or libel, toer with another respondent. Now chiefly used to designate the person charged with, adultery with the respondent in a suit for

By word of month; orally. Pieading was anciently carried on ove tenits, at the bar of the court. 3 Bl. Comin. 293,

In Saxon law. The price or value of a beast. A payment for a beast. The payment or forfeiture of a beast. A penalty for taking away cattle. Spelman,

Tbe fundamental law, or constitution, of a state or nation, written or unwritten; that law or system of laws or principles which detines and establishes the organization of its gov