Black's Law Dictionary

A person to whom (before the statute of uses) land was conveyed "for the use" of a third person. He held the nominal or legal title, while the third person, called the "cestui que

The gift of any corporeal hereditament to another, (2 Bl. Comm. 310), operating by transmutation of possession, and requiring, as essential to Its completion, that the seisen be pa

A feoffment of lands to one person to the use of another.

The person making a feoffment or enfeoffing another in fee. 2 Bl. Comm. 310; Litt. §§ 1, 57.

This Saxon word meant originally cattle, and thence property or money, and, by a second transition, wages, reward or 4ee. It was probably the original form from which the words "fo

In forest law. The fawning season of deer.

A certain portion of the produce of the land due by the grantee to the lord according to the terms of the charter. Spel. Feuds, e. 7.

Wild beasts.

Ital. A kind of small vessel or boat. Mentioned in old Scotch law, and called "fercost." Skene.

A fardel-land; ten acres; or perhaps a yard-land. Cowell.

Sax. A summons to serve in the army. An acquittance from going into the army. Fleta, llb. 1, c. 47, § 23.

A term denoting, apparently, a freeman of the lowest class, being named after the cotseti.

In Saxon law. An acquittance of manslaughter committed In the army; also a fine imposed on persons for not going forth on a military expedition. Cowell.

In Roman law. Holidays; generally speaking, days or seasons during which free-born Romans suspended their political transactions and their lawsuits, and during which slaves enjoyed

In old English law. A weekday ; a holiday; a day on which process could not be served; a fair; a ferry. Cowell; Du Cange; Spelman.

Holidays; also weekdays, as distinguished from Sunday. Cowell.

In old European law. A wound; a stroke. Spelman.

In old records. The fourth part of a penny; also the quarter of a ward in a borough.

A fourth part of a yardlaud.

A furlong. Ch Litt 5b.

A farm; a rent; a lease; a house or land or both, taken by indenture or lease. Plowd. 195,; Vicat See Farm.

Beverages produced by or which have undergone, a process of uicoholic fermentation, to which they owe their intoxicating properties, including beer, wine, hard cider, and the like,

A lessee; a farmer. One who holds a term, whether of lands or an incorporeal right, such as customs or revenue.

In old English law. The winter season for killing deer.

In French law. One who farms any publlc revenue.

A house or land, r both, let by lease. Cowell.

In old records. A place In monasteries, where they received the poor, (hospitio excipiebant,) and gave them provisions, (ferm, firma.) Spelman. Hence the modern infirmary, used in

Lat. Of a wild nature or disposition. Animals which are by nature wild are so designated, by way of distinction from such as are naturally tame, the latter being called "domitæ nat

In old English law. A waste ground or place where fern grows. Cowell.

In the civil law. To be borne; that is on or about the person. This was distinguished from portari, (to be carried,) which signified to be carried on an animal. Dig. 60, 16, 235.

The toll or fare paid for the transportation of persons and property across a ferry. Literally speaking, it is the price or fare fixed by law for the transportation of the travelin

In old pleading. An iron mine. Townsh. PI. 273.

Iron. In old English law. A horse-shoe. Ferrura, shoeing of horses.

A llberty to have a boat upon a river for the transportation of men. horses, and carriages with their contents, for a reasonable toll. The term is also used to designate the place

The public grant of a right to maintain a ferry at a particular place; a right conferred to land at a particular point and secure toll -for the transportation of persons and proper

One employed in taking persons across a river or other stream, in boats or other contrivances, at a ferry. State v. Clarke, 2 McCord (S. C.) 48, 13 Am. Dec. 701.

In old English law. The remuneration to the proprietor of a domain for the privilege of feeding swine under the oaks and beeches of his woods.

In old English law. Grand holidays, on which choirs wore cape, Jacob.

Hob. 97. Hasty justice is the stepmother of misfortune.

In old English law. A frank-pledge or one who was surety for the good behavior of another. Monasteries enjoyed the privilege of being "free from festing-men," which means that they

Earnest given to servants when hired or retained. The same as arles-penny. Cowell.

Lat A speedy remedy. The writ of assise was thus characterized (in comparison with the less expeditious remedies previously available) by the statute of Westminster 2, (13 Edw. I.

A feast or festival. Festum stultorum, the feast of fools.

Chains or shackles for the feet; irons used to secure the legs of convicts, unruly prisoners, etc. Similar chains securing the wrists are calied "handcuffs."

In Scotch law. A holding or tenure where the vassal, in place of military servIce, makes his return in grain or money. Distinguished from "wardholding," which is the mllitary tenur

The reddendo, or annual return from the vassal to a superior in a feu holding. —-Feu holding. A holding by tenure of rendering grain or money in place of military service. Bell.

The tenant of a feu; 1 feu-vassal. Bell.

In feudal law. An estate in land held of a superior on condition of rendering him services. 2 Bl. Comm. 105. An inheritable right to the use and occupation of lands, held on condit

Feuds or fees.

Pertaining to feuds or fees; relating to or growing out of the feudal system or feudal law; having the quality of a feud, as distinguished from "allodial." —Feudal actions. An anci

An ancient name for real actions, or such as concern real property only. 3 Bl. Comm. 117.

The feudal system; the aggregate of feudal principles and usages.

To reduce to a feudal tenure; to cohform to feudalism. Webster.

The body of jurisprudence relating to feuds; the real-property law of the feudal system; the law anciently regulating the property relations of lord and vassal, and the creation, i

The equivalent of "seisin" under the feudal system.

The system of feuds. A political and social system wnich prevailed throughout Europe during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth cenfuries, and is supposed to have grown out of th

The tenures of real estate under the feudal system, such as knight-service, socage, villenage, etc.

A tenant who holds by feudal tenure, (also spelled "fuodatory" and "feudatory.") Held by feudal service. Relating to feuds or feudal tenures.

A recompense for engaging in a feud, and the damages consequent, it having been the custom in ancient times for all the kindred to engage in their kinsman's quarrel. Jacob.

An occasional early form of "feud" in the sense of private war or vengeance. Termes de la Ley. See Feud.

A writer on feuds, as Cuja-cius, Spelman, etc.

In Spanish law. Feud or fee. White, New Recop. b. 2, tit 2, c. 2.

In Lat. A feud, fief or fee. A' right of using and enjoying forever the lands of another, which the lord grants on condition that the tenant shall render fealty, military duty, and

An open feud or fief; a fief resulting back to the lord, where the blood of the person last seised was utterly extinct and gone. 2 Bl. Comm. 245.

An ancient feud or fief; a fief descended to the vassal from his ancestors. 2 Bl. Comm. 212, 221. A fief which ancestors had possessed for more than four generations. Spelman; Prie

A free feud. One which was noble and free from talliage and other subsidies to which the pleleia feuda (vulgar feuds) were subject. Spelman.

A fee held on the military service of appearing fully armed at the ban and arriere ban. Spelman,

An improper or derivative feud or fief. 2 Bl. Comm. 58.

An indivisible or impartible feud or fief; descendible to the eldest son alque. 2 Bl. Comm. 215.

A liege feud or fief; a fief held immediately of the sovereign; one for which the vassal owed fealty to his lord against all persons. 1 Bl. Comm. 367; Spelman.

A maternal fief; a fief descended to the feudatory from his mother. 2 Bl. Comm. 212-

A new feud or fief; a fief which began in the person of the feudatory, and did not come to him by succession. Spelman ; 2 Bl. Comm. 212; Priest v. Cummings, 20 Wend. (N. Y.) 349.

A fee which the paternal ancestors had held for four generations. Calvin. One descendible to heirs on the paternal side only. 2 Bl. Comm. 223. One which might be held by males only

A proper, genuine, and original feud or fief; being of a purely military Character, and held by military service. 2 Bl. Comm. 57, 58.

A restricted fee. One limited to descend to certain classes of heirs. 2 Bl. Comm. 112, note; 1 Washb. Real Prop. 66.

A fee for which the tenant did guard and owed fealty and homage. 'Spelman.

Fr. In old French and Canadian law. Hearth and home. A term importing actual settlement upon land by a tenant

An indefinite expression for a small or limited number. In cases where exact description is required, the use of this word will not answer. Butts v. Stowe, 53 Vt. 603; Allen v. Kir

A Latin abbreviation for "Fragmenta," designating the Digest or Pandects in the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian; so called because that work is made up of fragments or extracts f

L. Fr. To pledge one's faith. Kelham.

Sp. In Spanish law, trust, confidence, and correlatively a legal duty or obligation arising therefrom. The term is sufficiently broad In meaning to include both a general obligatio

In Scotch law. He that has the fee or feu. The proprietor is termed "fiar," in contradistinction to the life-renter. 1 Kames, Eq. Pref. One whose property is charged with a life-re

The value of grain in the different counties of Scotland, fixed yearly by the respective sheriffs, in the month of February, with the assistance of juries. These regulate the price

(Lat "Let it.be done.") In English practice. A short order or warrant of a judge or magistrate directing some act to be done; an authority issuing from some competent source for th

Let justice be done. On a petition to the king for his warrant to bring a writ of error in parliament, he writes on the top of the petition, "Fiat jusMia," and then the writ of err

Let it be done as it is asked. A form of granting a petition.

In Roman law. A fiction; an assumption or supposition of the law. "Fictio" in the old Roman law was properly a term of pleading, and signified a false averment on the part of the p

Fictio juris non est ubi veritas. Fiction yields to truth. Where there is truth, fiction of law exists not.

Fiction is against the truth, but it is to be esteemed truth.

Where truth is, fiction of law does not exist.

A legal fiction does not properly work loss or injury. 3 Coke, 36; Broom, Max. 129.

A fiction of law injures no one. 2 Rolle, 502 ; 3 Bl. Comm. 43; Low v. Little, 17 Johns. (N. Y.) 348.

An assumption or supposition of law that something which is or may be false is true or that a state of facts exists which has never really taken place. New Hampshire Strafford Bank

Founded on a fiction; having the character of a fiction; false, feigned or pretended. —Fictitious action. An action brought for the sole purpose of obtaining the opinion of the cou

An action brought for the sole purpose of obtaining the opinion of the court on a point of law, not for the settlement of any actual controversy between the parties. Smith v. Junct

A counterfeit, feigned, or pretended name taken by a person, differing in some essential particular from his true name, (consisting of Christian name and patronymic,) with the impl

A. person appearing in the writ or reconi as the plaintiff in a suit, but who in reality does not exist, or who is ignorant of the suit and of the use of his name in it. It is a co

A term derived from the Latin "fldei-commissarius," and occasionally used by writers on equity jurisprudence as a substitute for the law French term "cestui que trust," as being mo

In the civll law this term corresponds nearly to our "cestui que trust." It designates a person who has the real or beneficial interest in an estate or fund, the title or administr

In the civil law. A species of trust; being a gift of property (usually by will) to a person, accompanied by a request or direction of the donor that the recipient will transfer th