A Dictionary of Law

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.

In old English law. A jodging srinn. Townsh. Pl. 35,

To turn aside; to turn out of the way; to alter the course of things. Usually applied to water-courses. Ang. Water-

In the practice of the English chaneery division, “dives costs” are costs on the ordinary scale, as opposed to the costs formerly allowed toa successful pauper suing or defending i

Equivalent to devest, (q. 2.)

A _ faet by means of which a right is divested, terminated, or extinguished; as the right of a tenant terminates with the expiration of his lease, and the right of a creditor is at

A fund to be divided. The share allotted to each of several persons entitied to share in a division of profits or property. Thus, dividend may denote a fund set apart by a corporat

In old records. An indenture; one counterpart of an indenture.

Lat. To divine; to conjecture or guess; to foretell. Divinatio, a conjecturing or guessing. Divinatio, non interpretatio est, que omnino recedit a litera. That is guessing, not int

Divine service was the name of a feudal tenure, by which the tenants were obliged to do some special divine services in certain; as to sing so many masses, to distribute such a sum

In oid English law. A device, award, or decree; also a devise; also bounds or limits of division of a parish or farm, etc. Cowell. Also a court held on the boundary, in order to’se

That which is susceptible of being divided. A contract cannot, in general, be divided in such & manner that an action may be brought, or a right accrue, ona part of it. 2 Pa. St, 4

In old English law. Severally; separately. Bract. fol. 47.

In English law. One of the smaller subdivisions of a county. Used in Lincolnshire as synonymous with “riding” in Yorkshire.

Conrts in England, consisting of two or (in special cases) more judges of the high court of justice, sitting to transact certain kinds of business which cannot be disposed of by on

In the practice of appellate courts, this term denotes such a disagreement among the judges that there is not a majority in fayor of any one view, and hence no decision can be rend

Lat. A divided jurisdiction. Applied, e g., to the jurisdiction of courts of common taw and equity over the same subject. 1 Kent, Comm. 366; 4 Steph, Comm. 9.

The legal separation of man and wife, effected, for cause, by the judgment of a court, and either totally dissolving the marriage relation, or suspending its effects so far as conc

A divorce from table and bed, or from bed and board. <A partial or qualified divorce, by which the parties are separated and forbidden to live or cohabit together, without affectin

Fr. Of the goods of the deceased. Dyer, 32.

n. A minute, abstract, or brief entry; or the book containing such entries. A small piece of paper or parchment having the effect of a larger. Blount. In practice. A forinal record

v. To curiail or diminish, as to dock an entail.

n. The cagoor inclosed space ina criminal court where prisoners stand when brought in for trial. The space, in a river or harbor, inclosed between two wharves, 17 How, 454,

The sum charged for the use of a dock. In the case of a dry-dock, it has been held in the nature of rent. 1 Newb, Adm. 69.

v. To abstract and enter ina book, 93 Bl. Comm. 397, 395, To make a brief entry of any proceeding in a court of justice in the docket.

An officer invested with powers within the docks, and a certain distance therefrom, te direct the mooring and removing of ships, so as to prevent obstruction to the dock entrances.

In- English law, A warrant given by dock-owners to the owner of merchandise impurted and warehoused on the dock, upon the faith of the bills of lading, as a recognition of his titl

The title of a work written by St. Germain in the reign of Henry VIL. in which many principles of the common law are discussed in & popular manner. It id in the form of a dialogue

An institution near St. Paul's Churchyard, in London, where, for a long time previous to 1857, the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts used to be held,

A rule, principle, theory, or tenet of the law; as, the doctrine of merger, the doctrine of relation, ete.

An instrument on which is recorded, by means of lelters, figures, or marks, Matter which may be evidentially used. In this sense the term “document” stones on which inscriptions ar

The deeds, agreements, title-papers, letters, receipts, and other written instruments used to prove a fact. In the civil law. Jividence delivered in the forms established by law, o

Lat. In Roman law. A subdivision of the es, containing nine uzci; the proportion of nine-twelfths, or threefourths. 2 Bl. Comm. 462, note.

In Scotch law. An agent or attorney. 1 Kames, Eq. 325.