Black's Law Dictionary

Liability for waste committed, or a demand or suit for compensation for waste committed upon lands or tenements by a tenant thereof who has no right, to commit waste. On the other

Proof that a witness who has testified in a cause is unworthy of credit. White v. Railroad Co., 142 Ind. 648, 42 N. E. 456; Com. v. Welch, 111 Ky. 530, 63 S. W. 984; Smith y. State

To impeach, to accuse or prosecute for felony or treason.

In old practice. One who hinders; an impedient. The defendant or deforciant in a fine was sometimes so called. Cowell; Blount

In Spanish law. A prohibition to contract marriage, established by law between certain persons.

Disabilities or hindrances to the making of contracts, such as coverture, infancy, want of reason, etc. In the civil law. Bars to marriage. Absolute impediments are those which pre

In old English law. A disturber in the action of quare impedtt. St Marlb. c. 12.

Lat In the civil law. Expenses ; outlays. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 168; Calvin. Divided into necossary, (necessaries,) useful, (utiles,) and tasteful or ornamental, (voluptuaries.) Dig

See Directory.

Emperor. The title of the Roman emperors, and also of the Kings of England before the Norman conquest Cod. 1, 14, 12; 1 Bl. Comm. 242. See Emperor.

As used in various legal compound terms, this word means defective or incomplete; wanting in some legal or formal requisite; wanting in legal sanction or effectiveness; as in speak

One which requires a further exercise of the granting power to pass the fee in land, or which does not convey full and absolute dominion. Paschal v. Perez, 7 Tex. 367; Paschal v. D

An executory trust, (which see;) and see Executed Trust.

An imperfect or quasi usufruct is that which is of things which would be useless to the usufructuary if hg did not consume or expend them -or change the substance of them; as, mone

Co. Litt. 64. The majesty of the empire is the safety of its protection.

Lat Unskillfuiness; want of skill.

Want of skill is reckoned as culpa; that is, as blam-able conduct or neglect Dig. 50, 17. 132.

Unskillfuiness is the greatest punishment of mechanics; [that is, from its effect in making them liable to those by whom they are employed.] 11 Coke, 54a. The word "pœna" in some t

The right to command, which includes the right to employ the force of the state to enforce the laws. This is one of the principal attributes of the power of the executive. 1 Toulli

Lat. Impersonality. A mode of expression where no reference is made to any person, such as the expression "ut dicitur," (as is said.) Co.. Litt. 352b.

Co. Litt. 352b. Impersonality neither concludes nor binds.

Irrelevancy; the fault of not properly pertaining to the issue or proceeding. The introduction of any matters into a bill, answer or other pleading or proceeding in a suit, which a

In equity pleading. That which does not belong to a pleading, interrogatory, or other proceeding; out of place; superfluous; irrelevant. At law. A term applied to matter not necess

In old records. To impeach or acouse. Impescatus, impeached. Blount

Impeachment of waste, (q. v.)

In old English practice. To obtain by request, as a writ or privllege. Bract, fols. 57, 172b. This application of the word seems to be derived from the civil law. Calvin.

In old English law. The obtaining anything by petition or entreaty. Particularly, the obtaining of a benefice from Rome by solicitation, which benefice belonged to the disposal of

Umpire, (q. v.)

Impairing or prejudicing. Jacob.

Pledged; given in pledge, (pignori data;) mortgaged. A term applied in Bracton to land. Bract, fol. 20.

The act of pawning or putting to pledge.

He is to be judged impious and cruel who does not favor liberty. Co. Litt. 124.

Lat To implead; to sue.

In practice. To sue or prosecute by due course of law. Pcople v. Clarke, 9 N. Y. 368.

Sued or prosecuted; used partichlarly in the titles of causes where there are several defendants; as "A. B., impleaded with C. D."

Such things as are used or employed for a trade or furniture of a house. Coolidge v. Choate, 11 Mete. (Mass.) 82. Whatever may supply wants; particularly applied to tools, utensils

A term used In mercan-tlle law, derived from the Italian. In order to avoid the risk of making fruitless voyages, merchants have been in the habit of receiving small adventures, on

Intendment or Inference, as distinguished from the actual expression of a thing in words. In a wlll, an estate may pass by mere implication, without any express words to direct Its

This word is used in law as contrasted with "express;" i. e., where the Intention in regard to the subject-matter is not manifested by explicit and direct words, but is gathered by

A statute is said to work an "implied abrogation" of an earlier one, when the later statute contains provisions which are inconsistent with the further continuance of the earlier l

An undertaking or promise not formally made, but presumed or implied from the conduct of a party. Willen-borg v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., 11 III. App. 3O2.

An implied easement is an easement resting upon the principle that, where the owner of two or more adjacent lots sells a part thereof, he grants by implication to the grantee all t

Malice inferred by legal reasoning and necessary deduction from the res gestœ or the conduct of the party. Malice inferred from any deliberate cruel act committed by one person aga

A trust raised or created by implication of law; a trust implied or presumed from circumstances. Wilson v. Welles, 79 Minn. 53, 81 N. W. 549; In re Morgan, 84 Hun (N. Y.) 220; Kaph

A waiver is implied where one party has pursued such a course of conduct with reference to the other party as to evidence an intention to waive his rights or the advantage to which

A warranty raised by the law as an inference from the acts of the parties or the circumstances of the transaction. Thus, if the seller of a chattel have possession of it and sell i

The act of bringing goods and merchandise into a country from a foreign country.

Importations; goods or other property imported or brought into the country from a foreign country.

Pressing solicitation; urgent request; application for a claim or favor which is urged with troublesome frequency or pertinacity. Webster.

An impost; tax; contribution. Paterson v. Society, 24 N. J. Law, 400; Singer Mfg. Co. v. Heppenheimer, 58 N. J. Law, 633, 34 Atl. 1061, 32 In R. A. 643.

That which, in thq constitution and course of nature or the law, no man can do or perform. See Klauber v. San Diego Street-Car. Co., 95 Cal. 353, 30 Pac. 555; Reid v. Alaska Packin

An impossible contract is one which the law will not hold binding upon the parties, because of the natural or legal impossibility of the performance by one party of that which is t

Taxes, duties or impositions. A duty on imported goods or merchandise. Story, Const § 949. And see Norris v. Boston, 4 Mete. (Mass.) 296; Pacific Ins. Co. v. Soule, 7 Wall. 435, 19

In medical jurisprudence, The incapacity for copulation or propagating the species. Properly used of the male; but it has also been used synonymously with "sterility." Griffeth v.

Co. Litt. 29. The impossibility of doing what is required by the law excuses from the performance.

A qualified property, which may subsist in animals form natures on account of their inability, as where hawks, herons or other birds build in a person's trees or conies, etc., make

To shut up stray animals or distrained goods in a pound. Thomas v. Harries, 1 Man. & G. 703; Goodsell v. Dunning, 34 Conn. 257; Howard v. Bartlett, 70 Vt. 314, 40 Atl. 825. To take

The state or quality of being incapable of prescription; not of such a character that a right to it can be gained by prescription.

Such righto as a person may use or not, at pleasure, since they cannot be lost to him by the claims of another founded on prescription.

A "case of the first impression" is one without a precedent; one presenting a wholly new state of facts; one involving a question never before determined.

A power possessed by the English crown of taking persons or property to aid in the defense of the country, with of without the consent of the persons concerned. It is usually exerc

Money paid on enlisting or impressing soldiers or sailors.

Lat. Beyond price; invaluable.

Lat. Let it be printed. A license or allowance, granted by the constituted authorities, giving permission to print and publish a book. This allowance was formerly necessary, in Eng

To press upon; to impress or press; to imprint or print.

In some of the ancient English statutes this word is used to signify a printing-office, the art of printing, a print or impression.

Lat. In the first place; first of all.

To put in a prison ; to put in a place of confinement. To confine a person, or restrain his liberty, in any way.

The act of putting or cenfining a man in prison; the restraint of a man's personal liberty; coercion exercised upon a person to prevent the free exercise of his powers of locomotio

Adherents; followers. Those who side with or take the part of another, either in his defense or otherwise.

In Scotch law. An action brought for the purpose of having some instrument declared false and forged. 1 Forb. Inst. pt. 4, p. 161. The verb "improve" (q. v.) was used in the same s

Not suitable; unfit; not suited to the character, time, and place. Palmer v. Concord, 48 N. H. 211, 97 Am. Dec. 605. Wrongful. 53 Law J. P. D. 65. —Improper feuds. These were deriv

These were derivative feuds; as, for instance, those that were originally bartered and sold to the feudatory for a price, or were held upon base or less honorable services, or upon

Undue influence, (q. vt) And see Millican v. Millican, 24 Tex. 446.

Anything improperly done with the ship or part of the ship in the course of the voyage. L. R. 6 C. P. 563. See, also, 53 Caw J. P. D. 65.

In ecclesiastical law. Commonly signifies a lay rector as opposed to a spiritual rector; just as impropriate tithes are tithes in the hands of a lay owner, as opposed to appropriat

In ecclesiastical law. The annexing an ecclesiastical benefice to the use of a lay person, whether individual or corporate, in the same way as appropriation is the annexing of any

In Scotch law. To disprove; to invalidate or impeach; to prove false or forged. 1 Forb. Inst. pt. 4, p. 162. To improve a lease mcans to grant a lease of unusual duration to encour

Improved land is such as has been reclaimed, is used for the purpose of husbandry, and is cultivated as such, whether the appropriation is for tillage, meadow or pasture, "Improve"

A valuable addition made to property (usually real estate) or an amelioration in its condition, amounting to more than mere repairs or replacement of waste, costing labor or capita

A term used in leases, of doubtful meaning. It would seem to apply principally to buildings, though generally it extends to the amelioration of every description of property, wheth

As used in a statute excluding one found incompetent to execute the duties of an administrator by reason of improvidence, means that want of care and foresight in the management of

A judgment, decree, rule, injunction, etc., when given or rendered without adequate consideration by the court or without proper information as to all the circumstances affecting i

In old records. To improve land. Impruiamentum, the improvement so made of it. Cowell.

Lat. In the civil law. A minor under the age of puberty; a male under fourteen years of age; a female under twelve. Calvin; Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 138.

As to "irresistible" or "uncontrollable" Impulse, sce Insanity.

4 Coke, 45. Impunity confirms the disposition to commit crime.

5 Coke, 109. Impunity always Invites to greater crimes.

Exemption or protection from penalty or punishment Dillon v. Rogers, 36 Tex. 153.

Lab In the civll law. Legal liability.

In the civil law. The application of a payment made by a debtor to his creditor.

As used in legal phrases, this word means attributed vicariously; that is, an act, fact or quality is said to be "imputed" to a person when it is ascribed or charged to him, not be

This phrase is sometimes used as equivalent to "implied notice," i. e., knowledge attributed or charged to a person (often contrary to the fact) because the facts in question were

Negligence which is not directly attributable to the person himself, but which is the negligence of a person who is in privity with him, and with whose fault he is chargeable. Smit

Information as to a given fact or circumstance charged or attributed to a person, and affecting his rights or conduct, on the ground that actual notice was given to some person who

In the law of real estate, this preposition has always been used to denote the fact of seisin, title or possession, and apparently serves as an elliptical expression for seme such

Attainable or recoverable by action; not in possession. A term applied to property of which a party has not the possession, but only a right to recover it by action. Things in acti

Insufficient; disproportionate; lacking in effectiveness or in conformity to a prescribed standard or measure. —Inadequate damages. See Damages. —Inadequate price. A term applied t

Damages are called "inadequate," within the rule that an injunction will not be granted where adequate damages at law could be recovered for the injury sought to be prevented, when

A term applied to indicate the want of a sufficient consideration for a thing sold, or such a price as would ordinarily be entirely incommensurate with its intrinsic value. Slate v