Black's Law Dictionary

Lat. The letter marked on the ballots by which, among the Romans, the people voted against a proposed law. It was the initial letter of the word "antiquo," I am for the old law. Al

Of the highest qualities. An expression which originated in a practice of underwriters of rating vessels in three classes, —A, B, and C; and these again in ranks numbered. Abbott A

L. Fr. (L. Lat habendum et tenendum.) To have and to hold. Co.. Litt. §§ 523, 524. A over et tener a luy et a ses heires, a touts jours,—to have and to hold to him and his heirs fo

A conclusion as to the use of a thing from its abuse is invalid. Broom, Max. 17.

Lat An officer having charge of acta, public records, registers, journals or minutes; an officer who entered on record the acta or proceedings of a court; a clerk of court; a notar

In Roman law. A cattle thief. Also called abigeus, q. v.

In Spanish law. Land owned by an ecclesiastical corporation, and therefore exempt from taxation. In particular, lands or towns under the dominion and jurisdiction of an abbot.

Disabled from acting; unable to act; incapacitated for business or transactions of any kind.

In Roman law. The perfect conveyance or transfer of property from one Roman citizen to another. This term gave place to the simple alienatio, which is used in the Digest and Instit

Lat. In the civil law. A great-great-grandfather's sister, (abavi soror.) Inst. 3, 6, 6; Dig. 38, 10, 3. Called amita maxima. Id. 38, iO, 10, 17. Called, in Brac-ton, abamita magna

To desert, surrender, relinquish, give up or cede. See Abandonment.

A party to whom a right or property is abandoned or relinquished by another. Applied to the insurers of vessels and cargoes. Lord Ellenborough, C. J., 5 Maule & S. 82; Abbott, J.,

The surrender, relinquishment, disclaimer or cession of property or of rights. Stephens v. Mansfield, 11 Cal. 363; Dikes v. Miller, 24 Tex. 417; Middle Creek Ditch Co. v. Henry, 15

In the civil law. The act of a person who was sued in a noxal action, i. e., for a tort or trespass committed by his slave or his animal, in relinquishing and abandoning the slave

Anything 6equestered, proscribed or abandoned. Abandon, i. e., in bannum res missa, a thing banned ordenounced as forfeited or lost, whence to abandon, desert or forsake, as lost a

In advance. Thus, a legislature cannot agree ab ante to any modification or amendment to a law which a third person may make. Allen v. McKean. 1 Sumn. 308, Fed. Cas. No. 229.

Beforehand; in advance.

Of old; of an ancient date.

Lat. To detect or discover, and disclose to a magistrate, any secret crime. Leges Canuti, cap. 10.

From things to which one is accustomed (or in which there has been long acquiescence) no legal injury or wrong arises. If a person neglect to insist on his right, he is deemed to h

L. Lat. In old English law. An abatement of freehold; an entry upon lands by way of interposition between the dcath of the ancestor and the entry of the heir. Co. Litt. 277a; Yel.

In pleading. The effect produced upon an action at law, when the defendant pleads matter of fact showing the writ or declaration to be defective and incorrect. This defeats the act

The removal, prostration or destruction of, that which causes a nuisance, whether by breaking or pulling it down or otherwise removing, disintegrating or effacing it. Ruff v. Phill

This takes place where a person dies seised of an inheritance, and, before the heir or devisee enters, a stranger, having no right, makes a wrongful entry, and gets possession of i

In real property law, a stranger who, having no right of entry, contrives to get possession of an estate of freehold, to the prejudice of the heir or devisee, before the latter can

Anything diminished. Moneta abatuda is money clipped or diminished in value. Cowell; Dufresne.

Lat. In the civil law. A great-great-grandmother. Inst. 3, 6, 4; Dig. 38, 10, 1, 6; Bract, fol. 68b.

A great-great-grandfather's sister. Bract fol. 68b. This is a misprint for abamita, (q. v.) Burrill.

Lat. In the civil law. A great-great-grandmother's brother, (abaviœ frater.) Inst. 3, 6, 6; Dig. 38, 10, 3. Called avunculus maximus. Id. 38,10, 10, 17. Called by Bracton and Fleta

Lat. In the civil law. A great-great-grandfather. Inst. 3, 6, 4; Dig. 38, 10, 1, 6; Bract, fol. 67a.

The government of a religious house, and the revenues thereof, subject to an abbot, as a bishopric is to a bishop. Cowell. The rights and privileges of an abbot.

A society of religious persons, having an abbot or abbess to preside over them.

The spiritual superior or governor of an abbey or monastery. Feminine, Abbess.

In Scotch law. An abstract of the decree of adjudication, and of the lands adjudged, with the amount of the debt. Adjudication is that diligence (execution) of the law by which the

Shortened conventional expressions, employed as substitutes for names, phrases, dates, and the like, for the saving of space, of time in transcribing, etc. Abbott,

In abbreviations, such number and sense is to be taken that the grant be not made void. 9 Coke, 48.

An abstract of ancient judicial records, prior to the Year Books. See Steph. PI. (7th Ed.) 410.

In ecclesiastical law. Officers whose duty it is to assist in drawing up the pope's briefs, and reducing petitions into proper form to be converted into papal bulls. Bouvier.

The act of forestalling a market, by buying up at wholesale the merchandise intended to be sold there, for the purpose of selling it at retail. See Forestalling.

The act of a sovereign in renouncing and relinquishing his government or throne, so that either the throne is left entirely vacant or is filled by a successor appointed or elected

In criminal law. The offense of taking away a man's wife, child or ward, by fraud and persuasion or open violence. 3 Bl. Comm. 139-141; Humphrey v. Pope, 122 Cal. 253, 54 Pac. 847;

Behavior; as a recognizance to be of good abearance signifies to be of good behavior. 4 Bl. Comm. 251, 256.

Lat. An officer having charge of the correspondence (epistolœ) of his superior or sovereign; a secretary. Calvin. ; Spiegelius.

(From Sax. abere, apparent, notorious; and mord, murder.) Plain or downright murder, as distinguished from the less heinous crime of manslaughter or chance medley. It was declared

Lat. In the civil law. To be absent; to be away from a place. Said of a person who was extra continentia urbis, (beyond the suburbs of the city.)

In criminal law. To encourage, Incite or set another on to commit a crime. See Abettor. "Aid" and "abet" are nearly synonymous terms as generally used; but, strictly speaking, the

In Lat. In old English law. An abettor. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 65, § 7. See Abettor. The distinction between abettors and accessaries is the presence or absence at the commission of the

In criminal law. An instigator or setter on; one who promotes or procures a crime to be committed;' one who commands, advises, instigates, of encourages another to commit a crime;

(Lat. extra, beyond, without.) From without. Lunt v. Holland, 14 Mass. 151.

In the law of estates. Expectation ; waiting; suspense; remembrance and contemplation in law. Where there is no person in existence in whom an inheritance can vest, it is said to b

L. Lat. In feudal law. A grandson; the son of a son. Speiman; Lib. Feud., Baraterii, tit 8, cited Id.

To "abide the order of the court" means to perform, execute or conform to such order. Jackson v. State, 30 Kan. 88, 1 Pac. 317; Hodge v. Hodgdon, 8 Cush. (Mass.) 294. See McGarry v

In Scotch law. A Judicial declaration that the party abides by the deed on which he founds, in an action where the deed or writing is attacked as forged. Unless this be done, a dec

Lat. In the civil law. The offense of stealing or driving away cattle. See Abigeus.

Lat. In the civil law. To drive away. Applied to those who drove away animals with the intention of stealing them. Applied, also, to the similar offense of cattle stealing on the b

Lat. (PI., abigei or more rarely abigeatores.) In the civil law. A stealer of cattle; one who drove or drew away (subtraxit) cattle from their pastures, as horses or oxen from the

When a statute makes it a ground of divorce that the husband has neglected to provide for his wife the common necessaries of life, having the ability to provide the same, the word

From hardship or inconvenience. An argument founded upon the hardship of the case, and the inconvenience or disastrous consequences to which a different course of reasoning would l

Lat From the beginning; from the first act. A party is said to be a trespasser ab initio, an estate to be good ab initio, an agreement or deed to be void ab initio, a marriage to b

Lat. From the beginning of the world. Ab initio mundi usque ad hodiernum diem, from the beginning of the world to this day. Y. B. M. 1 Edw. III.

Lat. In the civil law. From an intestate; from the intestate; in case of intestacy. Hœreditas ab intestato, an inheritance derived from an intestate. Inst 2, 9, 6. Successio ab int

Lat By or from an unwilling party. A transfer ab invito is a compulsory transfer.

By one who is angry. A devise or gift made by a man adversely to the interest of his heirs, on account of anger or hatred against them, is said to be made ab irato. A suit to set a

Quit of amercements. It originally signified a forfeiture or amercement, and is more properly mishering, mishersing or misker ing, according to Speiman. It has since been termed a

In old English law. The depriving of a thing by the judgment of a court; a putting out of court; the same as foris judicatio, forjudgment, forjudger. Co. Litt 100a, b; Townsh. PI.

One of the steps in the process of naturalizing an alien. It consists in a formal declaration. made by the party under oath before a competent authority, that he renounces and abju

In ancient English law. A renunciation of one's country, a species of self-imposed banishment, under an oath never to return to the kingdom unless by permission. This was formerly

To renounce or abandon, by or upon oath. See Abjuration. "The decision of this court in Arthur v. Broadnax, 3 Ala. 557, affirms that if the husband has abjured the state, and remai

As used in a statute relating to service in the militia, this term does not imply an absolute freedom from all physical ailment. It imports an absence of those palpable and visible

Papal ambassadors of the second rank, who are sent to a country where there is not a nuncio, with a less extensive commission than that of a nuncio.

A letting out to hire or leasing for money. Calvin. Sometimes used in the English form "ablocation."

Lat. In the civll law. A great-great-grandmother's sister, (abaviæ soror.) Inst. 3, 6, 6; Dig. 38, 10, 3. Called matertera maxima. Id. 38, 10, 10, 17. Called, by Br&cton, abmaterte

Lat. A great-great-grandson. The grandson of a grandson or granddaughter. Calvin.

Lat. A great-great-granddaughter. The granddaughter of a grandson or granddaughter. Calvin.

The place where a person dwells. Dorsey v. Brigham, 177 III. 250, 52 N. E. 306, 42 In R. A. 809, 69 Am. St Rep. 228

The destruction, abrogation or extinguishment of anything; also the leave given by the sovereign or judges to a criminal accuser to desist from further prosecution. 25 Hen. VIII. c

Fr. In French commercial law. Collision of vessels.

In medical jurisprudence. A drug or medicine capable of or used for, producing abortion.

In criminal law. The miscarriage or premature delivery of a woman who is quick with child. When this is brought about with a malicious design or for an unlawful purpose, it is a cr

A term descriptive of the result when a case has gone off, and no verdict has been pronounced, without the fault, contrivance or management of the parties. Jebb & B. 5L

Lat The fruit of an abortion ; the child born before its time, incapable of life.

Fr. An abuttal or abutment. See Guyot, R6pert Univ. "Ab-outissans."

In practice. Higher; superior. The ceurt to which a cause is removed by appeal or writ of error is called the court above. Principal; as distinguished from what is auxiliary or ins

Quoted before. A figurative expression taken from the ancient manner of writing books on scrolls, where whatever is mentioned or cited before in the same roll must be above. Encyc.

Lat. In the civil law. A great-great-grandfather's brother, (abavi frater.) Inst. 3, 6, 6; Dig. 38, 10, 3. Called patruus maximus. Id. 38, 10, 10, 17. Called, by Bracton and Fleto,

To reduce or contract; usually spoken of written language. In copyright law, to abridge means to epitomize ; to reduce; to contract. It implies preserving the substance, the essenc

An epitome or compendium of another and larger work, wherein the principal ideas of the larger work are summarily contained. Abridgments of the law are brief digests of the law, ar

The right of the court to reduce the damages in certain cases. Vide Brooke, tit. "Abridgment."

To annul, repeal or destroy ; to annul or repeal an order or rule issued by a subordinate authority ; to repeal a former law by legislative act or by usage.

The annulment of a law by constitutional authority. It stands opposed to rogation; and is distinguished from derogation, which implies the taking away only some part of a law; from

To go in a clandestine manner out of the jurisdiction of the courts or to lie concealed, in order to avoid their process. To hide, conceal or absent oneself clandestinely, with the

One who absconds from his creditors. 'An absconding debtor is one who lives without the state or who has intentionally concealed himself from his creditors or withdrawn himself fro

The state of being absent, removed or away from one's domicile or usual place of residence. Absence is of a fivefold kind; (1) A necessary absence, as in banished or transported pe

Lat. (Abi. of absens.) Being absenti A common term in the old reports. "The three justices, absente North, C. J., were clear of opinion." 2 Mod. 14.

One who dwells abroad; a landlord who resides in a country other than that from which he draws his rents. The discussions on the subject have generally had reference to Ireland. Mc

A parliament so called was held at Dublin, 10th May, 8 Hen. VIII. It is mentioned in letters patent 29 Hen. VIII.

We ought to consider him absent who ls not in the place where he is demanded. Dig. 50, 16, 199.

The absence of him who is away in behalf of the republic (on business of the state) ought neither to be prejudicial to him nor to another. Dig. 50, 17, 140.

To pardon or set free; used with respect to deliverance from excommunication. Cowell; Kelham.

That is an absolute interest in property which is so completely vested in the individual that he can by no contingency be deprived of it without his own consent. So, too, he is the