A Dictionary of Law

Released; absolved; purged of an accusation; judicially discharged from accusation; released from debt, etc, Includes both civiland criminal prosecutions. 26 Wend. 383, 399.

A quantity of land containing 160 square rods of land, in whatever shape. Serg. Land Laws Pa. 185; Cro. Eliz. 476, 665; 6 Coke, 67; Poph. 55; Co. Litt. 58. Originally the word "acr

or ACRE. <A camp or fleld fight; a sort of duel, or judicial combat, anciently fought by single combatants, English and Scotch, between the frontiers of the two kingdoms with sword

Under a grant of a right of way across the plaintiff’s lot of land, the grantee has not a right to enter at one place, go partly across, and then come out at another place on the s

(Lat. Asif.) Townsh, Pl. 23, 27. These words frequently oceurin old English statutes. Lord Bacon expounds their meaning in the statute of uses: “Thestatute gives entry, not simplic

In Scotch practice. Todo or perform judicially; to enter of record. Surety “acted in the Books of Adjournal.” 1 Broun, 4.

Tiis act was passed in 1871, (34 & 85 Vict. c. 32,) to prevent and punish any violence, threats, or molestation, on the part either of master or workinen, in the various. relations

An English statute (38 & 39 Vict. c. 87) providing for the establishment of a registry for titles to real property, and making sundry provisions for the transfer of lands and the r

In Englishlaw. A general statute, (5 & 6 Wm. 1V. c. 76,) passed in 1835, preseribing general regulations for the incorporation and government of boroughs.

Lat. In the Roman law. Daily acts; the public registers or journals of the daily proceedings of the senate, assemblies of the people, courts of justice, etc. Supposed to have resem

Lat. Things of general knowledge and concern; matters transacted before certain public officers. Calvin.

In Scotch practice. The minute book of a court. 1 Swin. 81.

In French law, denotes a document, or formal, solemn writing, embodying a legal attestation that something has been done, corresponding to one sense or use of the English word "act

In French law. A deed, executed with certain prescribed formalities, in the presence of a notary, mayor, greffier, hutssier, or other func

In French law. Act of inheritance, Any action or fact on the part of an heir which manifests his intention to accept the succession; the acceptance may be express or tacit. Duverge

In French law. A document served by a huisster, ab Lhe demand of one party upon another party, without legal proceedings.

In freneh law. The certificate of registration ofa ship, by virtue of which its French nationality is established.

A term employed to designate a locum terens who is performing the duties of an office to which he does not himself claim title; e. g., “Acting Supervising Architect.” 16 Ct. of Cl.

An act done or performed out of court, and not a matter of reeord. A deed or an assurance transacted between two or more private persons in the country, that is, according to the o

Lat, In the civil law. An action or suit; nright or canse of action. Itshould be noted that this term means both the proceeding to enforcea right in a court and the right itself wh

Inthe civillaw. Anaction to recover a pledge stolen. Inst, 4, 1, 14.

In the civillaw. Anaction for the purpose of compelling a defendant to exhibit a thing or title in his power. It was preparatory to another action, which was always a real action i

In the civil law. Action depending on the discretion of the judge. In this, unless the defendant would make amends to the plaintiff as dietuted by the judge in his discretion, he w

(Lat. An action of good faith.) In the civil law. A class of actions in which the judge might at the trial, ex officio, take Into account any equifable circumstances that were pres

In the civil law. An action to restrain the defendant from prosecufing a groundless proceeding or trumpedup charge against the plaintiff. Tunter, Rom. Law, 859.

In the common law. A civil action, as distinguished from a criminal action. Bracton divides personal actions into eriminalia et civilia, according as they grow out of crimes or con

In the civillaw. An action by the borrower against the lender, to compel the execution of the contract, Poth. Prét ad Usage, n. 75.

In, the civillaw. An action by alender against a borrower, the principal object of which is: to obtain a restitution of the thing lent. Poth. Pr2t 4 Usage, on. 65, 68,

In the civil law. An affirmative petitory action for the recognition and enforcement of a servitude, So called because based on tho plaintiff’s af. firmative allegation of a right

In the civillaw. The name of a general class of actions for damages, including many species of suits for losses caused by wrongful or negligent acts. The term is about equivalent t

Inthe civil frauder and his heirs, who had been enriched by the fraud, to obtain the restitution of the thing of which he had been fraudulently deprived, with all its accessions (e

In the civil law. An action concerning or against the peculium, or separate property of a party. ACTIO DE PECUNIA CONSTITU- TA. In the civil law. An action for money engaged to be

In the civil law. An action which the depositary has against the depositor, to compel him to fulfil hisengagement towardshim. Poth. Du Dépit, n. 69.

In thecivillaw. An action which is brought by the depositor against the depositary, in order to get back the thing deposited. Poth. Du Dépit, n. 60.

In the civil law. A direct action; an action founded on strict law, and conducted according to fixed forms; an action founded on certain legal obligations which from their origin w

In the civil law. An action employed in behalf of a buyer to compel a seller to perform his obligations or pay compensation; also to enforce any special agreements by him, embodied

In thie civil law. Anaction which the bailor of a thing for hire may bring #gainst the builee, in order to compel him to redeliver the thing hired.

In theciyil and common law. <An action of contract; an action arising out of, or founded on, contract. Inst. 4, 6, 1; Bract. fol. 102; 3 Bi. Comm. 117.

In the civil and common law. An action of tort; an action arising out of fault, misconduct, or malof thecivillaw; whichis adopted by Bracton. Inst. 4, 6, 1; Bract. fols. 102, 103.

In thecivillaw. An action upon letting; an action which the person who let a thing for hire to another might have against the hirer. Dig, 19, 2; Cod. 4, 65.

Inthecivil law. An action brought to enforce a stipulation. '

In thecivillaw. An action of theft; an action founded upon theft. Inst. 4, 1, 13-17; Bract. fol. 444. This could only be brought for the penalty altached to the offense, (tantum ad

In thecivil law. An honorary, or pretorian action. Dig. 44, 7, 25, 35.

In the civil law. An action adapted to the particular case, having an analogy to some actio in jus, the latter being founded on some subsisting acknowledged law. Spence, Eq. Jur. 2

In the civil _law. An action against the person, founded on a personal liability; an action seeking rodress for the violation of ajus in personam orright available against a partic

In the civil law. An action instituted, after four months had elapsed after the rendition of judgment, in which the judge issued his warrant to seize, first, the movables, which we

In the civil law. An action under the Aquilian law; an action to recover datnages for malielousiy or injuriously killing or wounding the slave or beast of another, or injuring in a

Actio personalis moritur cum persona. A personal right of action dies with the person. Noy, Max. 14.

Conduct; behavior; something done; the condition of acting; an act or series of acta. In practice. The legal and formal demand of one’s right from another person or party made and

PLEA TO. A plea grounded npon some fact or facts which have arisen since the commencement of the suit, and which the defendant puts forward for the

That for which an action will lie; furnishing legal ground for an action; ¢. g., words are aclionable per se, in slander, when an action may be brought upon them without alleging s

Lat. (rom actio,an action.) Inold records. To bring an action; to prosecute, or sue. Thorn’s Chron.; Whishaw.

A foreign commercial term for the proprietor of an action or share of w public company’s stock; a stockholder.

In the civil law. An action brought to repel a claim of the defendantto a servitude in the plaintiff’s land. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 824.

In the civil law. Included actions between principal and agent and other parties to an engagement, whereby one person undertook the transaction of business for another.

Inthe Romanlaw. Legal or lawful actions; actions of orat law, (legitime actiones.) Dig. 1,2, 2, 6.

Inthe English chancery. Writs for which there were precedents. The statuteof Westminster, 2, c. 24, gave chancery authority to form new

A phrase used = when a defendant pleads some matter by which he shows that the plaintiff had no cause to have the writ sued upon, altheugh ACTION OF ABSTRACTED MULT-

A form of action for the recovery of claims, such as are usually evidenced by a book-account; this action is principally used in Vermont and Connecticut,

In pleading. The Latin name of that part of a special plea which follows next after the statement of appearance and defense, and declares that the plaintiff “ought not to have or m

A species of personal action of very extensive application, otherwise called “trespass on the case,” or simply “case,” from the circumstance of the plaintiffs whole case or cause o

In English pleading. A name given to the distinctive clause in the plea to the further maintenance of the action, introduced in place of the plea puis darrein continuance, the aver

In the civil law. A noxal action; an action which lay against a master for a crime coiniitted or injury done by his slave; and in which the master had the alternative either to pay

In the civil law. An action instituted to avoid a sale on account of some vice or defect in the thing sold, which renders it either absolutely useless or ifs use so inconvenient an

In Scotch law. All actions which are not rescissory. Ersk. Inst. 4, 1, 18.

In Scotch law. These are either (1) actions of proper improbation for declaring a writing false or forged; (2) actions of reduction-improbation for the production of a writing in o

In the civil and common law. <A personal action. The ordinary term for this kind of action in the civil law is actio in personam, (q. v.,) the word personalis being of only occasio

In the civil law. An action of pledge; an action founded on the contract of pledge, (pignus.) Dig. 13, 7; Cod. 4, 24.

In the civil law. Anaction of partnership. An action brought by one partner against bis associates to compel them to carry out the terms of the partnership agreement.

In the civil law. An action which lay for one who had lost a thing of which he had bene fide obtained possession, befure he had gained a property in it, in order to have it restore

In thie civil law. An action given against a master, founded on some business done by his slave, acting under his order, (jussu.) Inst 4, 7, 1; Dig. 15, 4; Cod. 4, 26.

In ‘the civil law. An action granted toone who had been compelled by unlawiul force, or fear (metis causa) that was not groundless, (metus probabilis or justus,) to deliver, sell,

A real action. The proper term in the civil law was Ret Vindieatio. Inst. 4, 6, 3.

Inthecivil law. Am action to cancel a sale in consequence of defects in the thing sold. It was prosecuted to compel complete restitution fo the seller of the thing sold, with its p

In the civillaw. An action for things removed; an action whieh, in cases of divorce, lay for a husband against a wife, to recover thinga carried away by the latter, in contemplatio

In the civil law. An action for restoring the plaintift to a right or title whieh he has lost by preseription, in a case where the equities are such that he should be relieved from

In the civil law. An action which lay for the lessor of a farm, or rural estate, to recover the goods of the lessee or farmer, which were pledged or bound for the rent. Inst. 4, 6,

In the civil law. Anactionof strict right. The class of civil law personal actions, which were adjudged only by the strict law, and in which the judge was limited to the precise la

In the elvil law. Action founded on the duties or obligations arising on the relation analogous to that of guardian and ward.

Im the civil law. A beneficial action or equitable action. An action founded on equity instead of strict law, and available for those who had equitable rights or the beneficial own

In the civil law. An action employed in behalf of a sellur, to compel a buyer to pay the price, or perform

In the civil law. An action for goods taken by force; a species of mixed action, which lay for a party whose goods or movables (bona) had been taken from him by force, (vi) to reco

In the civil law. A legal action; a common action, Sometimes used for actio directa. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 207.

That is in action; that de mands action; actually subsisting; the opposite of passive. An active debt is one which draws interest. An active trust is a confidence connected with ad

A legislative act, attainting a person. See ATTAINDER.

Any act which renders a person liable to be proceeded ly defined and classified in statutes on the subject.

In Scotch law. The act extracted by the clerk, upon any one’s acceptance of being curator. Forb. Inst. pt. 1, b.1, c. 2, tit. 2. 2 Kames, Eq. 291. Corresponding with the order for

Whena bill has been Wl of the parties, the notary draws up aun instrument, evidencing the transaction, called by this name.

A statute by which those who have committed illegal acts which subject them to penalties are protected from the consequences of such acts. 7

Within the meaning of the national currency act, an act of inso)vency is an act which shows the bank to be insolvent; such as non-payment of its circulating notes, bills of exchang

The operation of fixed fegal rules upon given facts or occurrences, producing consequences independent of the design or will of the parties concerned; as distinguished from “act of

A statute, law, or edict, made by the British sovereign, with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in perliament assembled. Acts of parliame

The statute {12 & 13 Wm. III. ce. 2) limiting the crown to the Princess Sophia of Hanover, and to the heirs of her body being Protestants.

An act done by the sovereign power of a country, or by its delegate, within the limits of the power vested in him. Anact of state cannot be questioned or made the subject of legal

The statute (1 Eliz. e. 1) by which the supremacy of the sritish crown in ecclesiastical matters with- {n the realm was declared and established.

In English law. The statute of 13 & 14 Car. Llc. 4, enacting that the book of common prayer, as then recently revised, should be used in every parish church and other place of pubi

In English law. The statute of 5 Anne, c. 8, by which the articles of union befwean the two kingdoms of England and Scotland were ratified and confirmed. 1 Bl. Comm, 97.

Statute of. In English Jaw. <A statute, otherwise called “Sitatutum de Mercatoribus,” made at a parliament held at the castle of Acton Burnel in Shropshire, in the 11th year of the

A form of summary proceeding formerly in use in the high court of admiralty, in England, in which the parties stated their respective cuses brietly, and supported their statements

In Roman law. One whoacted for another; one who attended to another's business; a manager or agent. A slave who attended to, transacted, or superintended his master’s business or a