Black's Law Dictionary

One capable of being transmitted or communicated by means of infection.

In Scotch law. To give seisin or possession of lands; to invest or ehfeoff. 1 Kames, Eq. 215.

In old Scotch law.

Lat An expression applied to a court when it suggested to an advocate something which he had omitted through mistake or ignorance. Spelman.

In fee. Bract, fol. 207; Fleto, lib. 2, c. 64, § 15. Seisitus in feodo, seised in fee. Fleta, lib. 3, c. 7, § 1.

The act or Instrument of feoffment. In Scotland it is synonymous with "saisine," meaning the instrument of possession. Formerly it was synonymous with "investiture." Bell.

In the law of evidence. A truth or proposition drawn from another which is supposed or admitted to be true. A process of reasoning by which a fact or proposition sought to be estab

In the law of evidence. Operating in the way of inference; argumentative. Presumptive evidence is sometimes termed "inferential." Com. v. Harman, 4 Pa. 272. —Inferential facts. See

Such as are established not directly by testimony or other evidence, but by inferences or conclusions drawn from the evidence. Railway Co., v. Miller, 141 Ind. 533, 37 N. E. 348.

One who, in relation to another, has less power and is below him; one who is bound to obey another. He who makes the law is the superior; he who ls bound to obey it, the inferior.

This term may denote any court subordinate to the chief appellate tribunal in the particular judicial system; but it ls commonly used as the designation of a court of special, limi

The placing in possession of a freehold estate; also the granting of tithes to laymen.

Lat In the civil law. To deny; to deny one's liability; to refuse to pay a debt or restore a pledge; to deny the allegation of a plaintiff; to deny the charge of an accuser. Calvin

Lat. In the civll law. Denial; the denial of a debt or liability; the denial of the claim or allegation of a party plaintiff. Calvin.

In the fiction of law there is always equity; a legal fiction is always consistent with equity. 11 Coke, 5lo; Broom, Max. 127, 130.

One who does not believe in the existenco of a God who will reward or punish in this world or that which is to come. Hale v. Everett, 53 N. H. 54, 16 Am. Rep. 82; Jackson v. Gridle

In old English law. An infidel or hcathen. In feudal law. One who violated fealty.

In feudal law. Infidelity ; faithlessness to one's feudal oath. Spelman.

In old European law. To pledge property. Spelman.

In being made; in process of formation or development; hence, incomplete or inchoate. Legal proceedings are described as in fieri until judgment is entered.

Sax. An assault made on a person inhabiting the same dwelling.

Lat. At the end. Used, in references, to indicate that the passage cited is at the end of a book, chapter, section, etc.

That which is endless is reprobated in law. 12 Coke, 24. Applied to litigation.

Weak, feeble. The testimony of an "infirm" witness may be taken de bene esse in some circumstances. See 1 P. Wms. 117.

In the law of evidence. Having the quality of diminishing force; having a tendency to weaken or render infirm. 3 Benth. Jud. Ev. 14; Best, Pres. § 217. —Infirmative consideration.

In the law of evidence. A consideration, supposition, or hypothesis of which the criminative facts of a case admit, and which tends to weaken the inference or presumption of guilt

In the law of evidence. A fact set up, proved, or even supposed, in opposition to the criminative facts of a case, the tendency of which is to weaken the force of the inference of

A term sometimes used in criminal evidence to denote an hypothesis or theory of the case which assumes the defendant's innocence, and explains the criminative evidence in a manner

See Undue Influence.

Deficient in legal form; inartificially drawn up.

Want of legal form. See State v. Gallimon, 24 N. C. 377 ; Franklin v. Mackey, 16 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 118; Hunt v. Curry, 37 Ark. 108.

In the character or manner of a pauper. Describes permission given to a poor person to sue without liability for costs.

In practice. An accusation exhibited against a person for some criminal offense, without an indictment. 4 Bl. Comm. 308. An accusation in the nature of an indictment, from which it

A proceeding instituted by the state prosecuting officer agninst intruders upon the public domain. See Gen. St. Mass. c. 141; Gom. v. Andre's Heirs, 3 Pick. (Mass.) 224; Com. v. Hi

In practice. I am not informed. A formal answer made by the defendant's attorney in court to the effect that he has not been advised of any defense to be made to the action. Thereu

A person who informs or prefers an accusation against another, whom he suspects of the violation of some penal statute. —Common informer. A common prosecutor. A person who habitual

In a (or the) forum, court or tribunal. —In foro conscientiae. In the tribunal of conscience; conscientiously; considered from a moral, rather than a legal, point of view. —In foro

In the tribunal of conscience; conscientiously; considered from a moral, rather than a legal, point of view.

In the forum of contention or litigation.

In an ecclesiastical forum; in the ecclesiastical court. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 57, § 13.

In a secular forum or court Fleta, lib. 2, c. 57, § 14 ; 1 Bl. Camm. 20.

The name given by the glossators to the second of the three parts or volumes into which the Pandects were divided. The glossators at Bologna had at first only two parts, the first

ANNUM. Under or within a year. Bract, fol. 7. Lat. Below ; underneath ; within. This word occurring by itself in a book refers the reader to a subsequent part of the book, like "po

Under marriageable years; not yet of marriageable age.

(Within the year of mourning.) The phrase is used In reference to the marriage of a widow within a year after her husband's death, which was prohibited by the civll law.

Within her arms. Used of a husband de jure, as well as de facto. 2 Inst. 317. Also inter brachia. Bract, fol. 148b. It was in this sense that a woman could only have an appeal for

Within the state. 1 Camp. 23, 24.

Within the body (territorial limits) of a county. In English law, waters which are infra corpus comitatus are exempt from the jurisdiction of the admiralty.

A breach, violation or infringement; as of a law, a contract, a right or duty. In French law, this term is used as a general designation of all punishable actions.

Beneath the dignity of the court; unworthy of the consideration of the courtWhere a bill in equity is brought upon a matter too trifling to deserve the attention of the court, it i

During madness; while in a state of insanity. Bract fol. 19b.

Within the inn. When a traveler's baggage comes infra hospitium, i. e., in the care and under the custody of the innkeeper, the latter's liability attaches.

Within the jurisdiction. 2 Strange, 827.

Within the king's ligeance. Comb. 212.

Within the bounds or limits. Infra metas forestœ, within the bounds of the forest. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 41, § 12. Infra metas hospitii, within the limits of the household; within the

Within the protection; within the defenses. In international law, when a prize or other captured property, is brought into a port of the captors or within their lines or otherwise

Within the four seas; within the kingdom of England; within the jurisdiction.

Within four walla 2 Crabb, Real Prop. p. 106, § 1089. '

Within the realm.

Within six years. Used in the Latin form of the pica of tbs statute of limitations.

Under age; not of age. Applied to minors.

Within three days. Formal words in old appeals. Fleta, llb. 1, c. 31, § 6; Id. c. 35, § 3.

In fraud of creditors; with intent to defraud creditors. Inst 1, 6, pr. 3.

In fraud of the law. 3 Bl. Comm. 94. With the intent or view of evading the law. Jackson v. Jackson, 1 Johns. (N. Y.) 424, 432.

A breaking into; a trespass or encroachment upon; a violation of a law, regulation, contract or right Used especially of invasions of the rights secured by patents, copyrights, and

Lat To put to flight

A coif or a cassock. Jacob.

Relating to the whole or full amount; as a receipt In full. Complete; giving all details. Bard v. Wood, 3 Mete, (Mass.) 75.

Continuing in both physical and civil existence; that is, neither actually dead nor civiliter mortuus.

In medical jurisprudence. The process of steeping in liquor; an operation by which the medicinal qualities of a substance may be extracted by a liquor without boiling. Also the pro

In future; at a future time; the opposite of in præsenti. 2 Bl. Comm. 166, 175.

Meadow or pasture. Jacob.

Error dwells In general expressions. Pitman v. Hooper, 3 Sumn. 290, Fed. Cas. No. 11,186; Underwood v. Carney, 1 Cush. (Mass.) 292.

In the general passage; that is, on the journey to Palestine with the general company or body of Crusaders. This term was of frequent occurrence in the old law of essoins, as a mea

In kind; in the same genus or class; the same in quantity and quality, but not individually the same. In the Roman law, things which may be given or restored in genere are distingu

(1) Artifice, trick, fraud; (2) an engine, machine or device. Spelman.

In old English law. The freemen, yeomanry, or commonalty of the kingdom. Cowell. Applied sometimes also to the barons.

Lat. Freedom; liberty; the state or condition of one who is free. Also liberty given to a servant by manumission. —Ingennitas regni. In old English law. The freemen, yeomanry, or c

In Roman law. A person who, immediately that he was born, was a free person. He was opposed to libertinus or libertus, who, having been born a slave, was afterwards manumitted or m

In Roman law, ingratitude was accounted a sufficient cause for revoking a gift or recalling the liberty of a freedman. Such is also the law of France, with respect to the first cas

In the bosom of the law; in the protection of the law; in abeyance. 1 Coke, 131a; T. Raym. 319.

These words express the right of a lessee to enter, go upon, and return from the lands in question.

In English law. An ancient writ of entry, by which the plaintiff or complainant sought an entry Into hls lands. Abolished in 1833.

In old English law. Ingress; entry. The relief paid by an heir to the lord was sometimes so called. Cowell.

In a large quantity or sum; without division or particulars; by wholesale, Green v. Taylor, 10 Fed. Cas. No. 1,126. At large; not annexed to or dependent upon another thing. Common

An engrosser. In-grossator magni rotuli, engrosser of the great roll; afterwards called "clerk of the pipe." Spelman; Cowell.

The act of making a fair and perfect copy of any document from a rough draft of it, in order that it may be executed or put to its final purpose.

One who resides actually and permanently In a given place, and has his domicile there. Ex parte Shaw, 145 U. S. 444, 12 Sup. Ct. 935, 36 In Ed. 768; The Pizarro, 2 Wheat, 245, 4 L.

A tax assessed in England on Inhabited dwelling-houses, according to their annual value, (St. 14 & 15 Viet. c. 36; 32 & 33 Viet. c. 14, § 11,) which Is payable by the occupier, the

In this behalf; on this side.

In these words; In the same words.

An authority possessed without its being derived from another. A right, ability or faculty of doing a thing, without receiving that right, ability or faculty from another.

The old term for "heiress." Co. Litt. 13a

To take by inheritance; to take as heir on the death of the ancestor. Warren v. Prescott, 84 Me. 483, 24 Atl. 948, 17 L. R. A. 435, 30 Am. St. Rep. 370; McArthur v. Scott, 113 U. S

Blood which has the purity (freedom from attainder) and legitimacy necessary to give its possessor the character of a lawful heir; that which is capable of being the medium for the

An estate in things real, descending to the heir. 2 Bl. Comm. 201; In re Donahue's Estate, 36 Cal. 332; Dodge's Appeal, 106 Pa. 220, 51 Am. Rep. 519; Rountree v. Pursell, 11 Ind. A

The English statute of 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 106, by which the law of inheritance or descent has been considerably modified. 1 Steph. Comm. 359, 500.

See Inheritance.

In ecclesiastical law. A writ issuing from a superior ecclesiastical court, forbidding an inferior Judge to proceed further in a cause pending before him. In this sense it is close

In Scotch law. A writ in the sovereign's name, passing the signet, which prohibits all and sundry from having transactions with a wife or giving her credit. Bell; Ersk. Inst. 1, 6,