Black's Law Dictionary

A liquid measure of half a quart or the eighth part of a gallon.

See Patent.

A subterfuge or evasion considered morally justifiable on account of the ends sought to be promoted ; particularly applied to an evasion or disregard of the laws in the interests o

See Charitable Uses.

A roll in the exchequer; otherwise called the "great roll." A liquid measure containing two hogsheads.

In criminal law. A robbery or forcible depredation on the high seas, without lawful authority, done animo furandi, in the spirit and intention of universal hostility. United States

3 Inst. 113. A pirate is an enemy of the human race.

A person who lives by piracy; one guilty of the crime of piracy. A sea-robber, who, to enrich himself, by subtlety or open force, setteth upon merchants and others trading by sea,

Where the act uses the word 'piratical,' it does so in a general sense; importing that the aggression is unauthorized by the law of nations, hostile in its character, wanton and cr

A technical word which must always be used in an indictment for piracy. 3 Inst. 112.

The right or privllege of fishing. Thus, common of piscary is the right of fishing in waters belonging to another person.

A small Spanish coin. It is not made current by the laws of the United States. United States v. Gardner, 10 Pet. 618, 9 In Ed. 556.

In old Scotch law. An excavation or cavity in the earth in which women who were under sentence of death were drowned.

In Scotch law. A privilege of inflicting capital punishment for theft, given by King Malcolm, by which a woman could be drowned in a pit, (fossa,) or a man hanged on a gallows, (fu

In old English law. Money, commonly a penny, paid for pitching or setting down every bag of corn or pack of goods in a fair or market. Cowell.

In medical jurisprudence. A term of recent introduction to medical science, signifying curability by means of persuasion, and used as synonymous with "hysteria," in effect limiting

A slight repast or refection of fish or flesh more than the common allowance; and the plttancer was the officer who distributed this at certain appointed festivals. Cowell.

A mode of testing coin. The ascertaining whether coin is of the proper standard is in England called "pixing" it; and there are occasions on which resort is had for this purpose to

A j'ury consisting of the members of the corporation of the goldsmiths of the city of London, assembled upon an inquisition of very ancient date, called the "trial of the pix."

An abbreviation for "president" (or presiding) "judge," (or justice.)

An abbreviation for "Pamphlet Laws" or "Publlc Laws."

An edict; a declaration; a manifesto. Also an advertisement or publlc notification.

An old form of the word "pleas." Thus the "Court of Common Pleas" was sometimes called the "Court of Common Place." This word is a very indefinite term. It is applied to any locali

Lands granted in aid ol a railroad company which are within certain limits on each side of the road, and which become instantly fixed by the adoption of the line of the road. There

One who exercises a public employment or fills a public station.

In mining law. A superficial deposit of sand, gravel or disintegrated rock, carrying one or more of the'precious metals, along the course or under the bed of a water-course, ancien

A mining claim located on the public domain for the purpose of placer mining, that is, ground within the defined boundaries which contains mineral in its earth, sand, or g;ravel; g

A placer elaim located aad occupied on the public domain.

In old English law. The public assemblies of all degrees of men where the sovereign presided, who usually consulted upon the great affairs of the kingdom. Also pleas, pleadings, or

In old English law. Pleadable. Spelman.

Common pleas. AU civil actions between subject and subject. 3 BI. Comm. 38, 40.

Pleas of the crown. All trials for crimes and misdemeanors, Wherein the king is plaintiff, on behalf of the people. 3 Bl. Comm. 40.

2 Inst. 311. Pleas of trespass against the peace of the king in the kingdom of England, made with force and arms, ought not, by the law and custom of England, to be pleaded without

Pleas or rules of law; "particular and positive learnings of laws;" "Grounds and positive learnings received with the law and set down;" as distinguished from maxims or the formula

In old records. The pleadingof a cause. Spelman.

Two negative pleas do not form an issue. Lofft, 415.

To plead.

In old records. A pleader. Cowell; Spelman.

Decree; determination.

Relating to pleas or pleading.

In old English law. A public assembly at which the king presided, and which comprised men of all degrees, met for consultation about the great affairs of the kingdom. Cowell. A cou

Co. Litt. 284. Pleas [i. e., actions] are personal, real, and mixed.

A day past or lost to the defendant. 1 Hen. I. c. 59.

The day appointed for a criminal to appear and plead and make his defense. Cowell.

The act of appropriating the literary composition of another or parts or passages of his writings or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one's

One who publishes the thoughts and writings of another as his own.

Lat In the civil law. A man-stealer; a kidnapper. Dig. 48, 15, 1; 4 Bl. Comm. 219.

Lat In the civll law. Man-stealing; kidnapping. The offense of enticing away and stealing men, children, and slaves. Calvin. The persuading a slave to escape from his master or the

Pestilence; a contagious and malignant fever.

Fr. An obsolete term for an attorney who pleaded the cause of his client; an advocate.

Is one that may be readily understood, not merely by lawyers, but by all who are sufficiently acquainted with the language in which it la written. Mann v. Morewood, 5 Sandf. (N. Y.

In English practice. A private memorial tendered in open court to the judge, wherein the party injured sets forth his cause of action. A proceeding in inferior courts by which an a

A person who brings an action; the party who complains or sues in a personal action and is so named on the record. Gulf, etc., R. Co. v. Scott (Tex. Civ. App.) 28 S. W. 458; Canaan

The party who sues out a writ of error to review a judgment or other proceeding at law.

A map, chart or design; being a delineation or projection on a plane surface of the ground lines of a house, farm, street, city, etc., reduced in absolute length, but preserving th

The fixtures, tools, machinery, and apparatus which are necessary to carry on a trade or business. Wharton. Southern Bell Tel. Co. v. IVAlemberte, 39 Fla. 25, 21 South. 570; Sloss-

In English law. A colony; an original settlement in a new country. See 1 Bl. Comm. 107. In American law. A farm; a large cultivated estate. Used chiefly in the southern states. In

Insurance against loss from the accidental breaking of plate-glass in windows, doors, show-cases, etc.

A map or representation on paper, of a piece of land subdivided into lots, with streeis, alleys, etc., usually drawn to a scale. McDaniel v. Mace, 47 Iowa, 510; Burke v. MCCowen, 1

Debt contracted by gaming.

A Spanish word, meaning a public square in a city or town. Sachs v. Towanda, 79 111. App. 441.

In old English law. A suit or action. Thus, the power to "hold pleas" is the power to take cognizance of actions or suits; so "common pleas" are actions or suits bstween private pe

To make, deliver or file any pleading; to conduct the pleadings in a cause. To interpose any pleading in a suit which contains allegations of fact; in this sense the word ls the an

Pleading a statute is stating the facts which bring the case within it; and "counting" on it, in the strict language of pleading, is making express reference to it by apt terms to

Alleged or averred, inform, in a judicial proceeding. It more often refers to matter of defense, bnt not invariably. To say that matter in a declaration or replication is not well

A person whose business it is to draw pleadings. Formerly, when pleading at common law was a highly technical and difficult art, there was a class of men known as "special pleaders

The peculiar science or system of rules and principles, established in the common law, according to which the pleadings or responsive allegations of litigating parties are framed,

The pleadings are the formal allegations by the parties of their respective claims and defenses, for the judgment of the court Co.de Civ. Proc. Cal. f 420. The individual allegatio

This means to interpose such a plea as is calculated to raise a material issue, either of law or of fact.

To pass over, or omit to notice, a material allegation in the last pleading of the opposite party; to pass by a defect in the pleading of the other party without taking advantage o

This is a phrase of long standing and accepted usage in the law, and distinguishes those pleas which answer the cause of action and on which a trial may be had from nil pleas of a

In practice. A plea which goes to abate the plaintiff's action ; that is, to suspend or put it off for the present. 3. Bl. Comm. 301; Hurst v. Everett (C. C.) 21 Fed. 221; Wilson v

In practice. A plea which goes to bar the plaintiff's action; that is, to defeat it absolutely and entirely. 1 Burrill, Pr. 162; 3 BI. Comm. 303; Rawson v. Knight, 71 Me. 102; Nort

One which admits that the plaintiff had a cause of action, but shows that it was discharged by some subsequent or collateral matter, as, payment or accord and satisfaction. Nichols

In the civil law. A plea which sets up new matter, not in defense to the action, but by way of cross-complaint, set-off, or counterclaim.

A species of traverse which occurs in actions of debt on simple contract, and is resorted to when the defendant means to deny in point of fact the existence of any express contract

One which admits the cause of action, but seta forth a release subsequently executed by the party authorized to release the claim. Landis v. Morrissey, 69 Cal. 83, 10 Pac. 258.

those which showed some matter of temporary incapacity to proceed with the action or suit. Stephi PL 45.--Suspension of arms. An agreement between belligerents, made for a short ti

In English law. A phrase now employed to signify criminal causes, in which the king is a party. Formerly it signified royal causes for offenses of a greater magnitude than mere mis

In English practice. A record upon which are entered ali the pleadings in a cause, in their regular order, and the issue.

In old English ecolesiastical law. A rural dean. Cowell.

One who is classed among the common pcople, as distinguished from the nobles.

The common or meaner sort of people; the plebeians.

In Spanish law. Commons; those who exercise any trade or who cultivate the soli. White, New Recop. b. 1, tit. 5, c. 3, § 6, and note.

In old records. A mother church.

In modern constitutional law, the name "plebiscite" has been given to a vote of the entire people, (that Is, the aggregate of the enfranchised individuals composing a state or nati

Lat In Roman law. A law enacted by the plebs or commonalty, (that la, the citizens, with the exception of the patricians and senators,) at the request or on the proposition of a pl

Lat. In Roman law. The commonalty or citizens, exclusive of the patricians and senators. Inst. 1, 2, 4.

L. Fr. That may be brought or conducted; as an action or "plea," as it was formerly called. Britt c. 32.

In the law of bailment. A bailment of goods to a creditor as security for some debt or engagement. A bailment or delivery of goods by a debtor to his creditor, to be kept till the

The party to whom goods are pledged or delivered in pledge. Story, Ballm. § 287.

Suretyship or an undertaking or answering for another. Gloucester Bank v. Worcester, 10 Pick. (Mass.) 531.

In old English law. No person could prosecute a civil action without having in the first stage of it two pr more persons as pledges of prosecution ; and; If judgment was given agai

In England, before the plaintiff in, foreign attachment can issue execution against the property in the hands of the garnishee, he must find "pledges to restore," consisting of two

The party delivering goods in pledge; the party pledging. Story, Bailm. § 287.

Pledges to prosecute with effect an action of replevin.

In old English law. That may be pledged; the subject of pledge or security. Fleta, lib. 1, c. 20, § 98.

Pledges to return the subject of distress, should the right be determined against the party bringing the action of replevin. 3 Steph. Comin. (7th Ed.) 422n.

A writ that anciently lay for a surety against him for whom he was surety, if he paid not the money at the day. Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 137.

4 Inst. 67. Let full and speedy justice be done to the parties.