Black's Law Dictionary

Jj. Fr. At another time; formerly; before; heretofore. —Autrefois acquit. In criminal law. Formerly acquitted. The name of a plea in bar to a criminal action, stating that the defe

In criminal law. Formerly acquitted. The name of a plea in bar to a criminal action, stating that the defendant has been once already indicted and tried for the same alleged offens

In criminal law. Formerly attainted. A plea that the defendant has already been attainted for one felony, and therefore cannot be criminally prosecuted for another. 4 Bl. Comm. 336

Formerly convicted. In criminal law. A plea by a criminal in bar to an indictment that he has been formerly convicted of the same identical crime. 4 Bl. Comm. 336 ; 4 Steph. Comm.

Aiding; attendant on; ancillary, (q. vt) As an auxiliary bill in equity, an auxiliary receiver. See Buckley v. Harrison, 10 Mlsc. Rep. 683, 31 N. Y. Supp. 1001.

In feudal and old English law Aid; compulsory aid, hence a tax or tribute; a kind of tribute paid by the vassal to his lord, being one of the incidents of the tenure by knight's se

In old English law. A precept or order of court citing and convening a party, at the suit and request of another, to warrant something.

In English law. The king's aid or money levied for the royal use and the public service, as taxes granted by parliament.

An ancient duty paid to sheriffs. Cowell.

This phrase, among mercantile men. is a term well understood to be anything which can readily be converted into money; but it is not necessarily or primarily money itself. McFad-de

In feudal law. The right of marriage, which the lord or guardian in chivalry had of disposing of his infant ward in matrimony. A guardian In socage had also the same right, but not

Profits or proceeds. This word seems to have been construed only in reference to wills, and in them it means the corpus or proceeds of the estate after the payment of the debut 1 A

In French law. The guaranty of a bill of exchange; so called because usually placed at the foot or bottom (aval) of the bill. Story, Bills, §§ 394, 454. The act of subseribing one'

L. Fr. Chance; hazard; mischance.

Average; the loss and damage suffered in the course of a navigation. Poth. Mar. Louage, 105.

A certain quantity of oats paid by a tenant to his landlord as rent or in lieu of seme other duties.

A mischance causing the death of a man, as where a person is suddenly drowned or killed by any acoident, without felony. Co. Litt. 391.

In Fr. To have. —Aver et tener. In old conveyancing. To have and to hold. n. In old English and French. Property; substance, estate, and particularly live stock or cattle; hence a

A medium, a mean proportion. In old English law. A service by horse or carriage, anciently due by a tenant to his lord. Cowell. A labor or service performed with working cattle, ho

"Average charges for toll and transportation" are understood to mean, and do mean, charges made at a mean rate, obtained by dividing the entire receipts for toll and transportation

Such as are computed on all the prices of any articles sold within a certain period or district.

From the words of the law there must be no departure. 5 Coke, 119; Wing. Max. 25. A court is not at liberty to disregard the express letter of a statute, in favor of a supposed int

In old conveyancing. To have and to hold.

In old English law. This term was applied to working cattle, such as horses, oxen, etc, —Averia carrucæ. Beasts of the plow. — Averiis captis in withernam. A writ granted to one wh

Beasts of the plow.

A writ granted to one whose cattle were unlawfully distrained by another and driven out of the county in which they were taken, so that they could not be replevied by the sheriff.

In pleading. A positive statement of facte. In opposition to argument or inference. 1 Chit. PI. 320. In old pleading. An offer to prove a plea, or pleading. The concluding part of

In feudal law. A duty required from seme customary tenants, to carry goods in a wagon or upon loaded horses.

In the civil law. An averting or turning away. A term applied to a species of sale in gross or bulk. Letting a house altogether. Instead of in chambers. 4 Kent, Comm. 517. —Aversio

A turning away of peril. Used of a contract of insurance. 3 Kent, Comm. 263.

Goods, property, substance; a beast of burden. Spelman.

A term used in the Scotch law, signifying to abet or assist.

In the civll law. A grandmother. Inst 3, 6, 3.

In the civil law. A grand-sen.

(Lat from the bond of matrimony.) A term descriptive of a kind of divorce, which effects a complete dissolution of the marriage contract See Divorce.

In Scotch law. To make avizandum with a process is to take it from the public ceurt to the private censlderation of the judge. Bell.

Fr. Advocate; an advocate.

To annut; cancel; make void; to destroy the efficacy of anything.

A making void or of no effort; anmilllng, cancelling; escaping or evading. In English ecclesiastical law. The term describes the condition of a benefice when it has no inchmbent. I

The name of a system of weights (sixteen ounces to the pound) used in weighing articles other than medicines, metals, and precious stones.

The calling upon a warrantor of lands to fulfill hls undertaking.

In French law. A barrister, advocate, attorney. An officer charged with representing and defending parties bsfore the tribunal to which he is attached. Du-verger.

In pleading. To acknowledge and justify an act done. To make an avowry. For example, when replevin ls brought for a thing distrained, and the party taking claims that he had a righ

One who makes an avowry.

In ecclesiastical law. An advocate of a church benefice.

A pleading in the action of replevin, by which the defendant avows, that is, acknowledges, the taking of the distress or property complained of, where he took It in his own right,

In English law. An adulterer with whom a married woman continues in adultery. Termes de la Ley.

In old English law. Adultery. Termes de la Ley.

The removal of a considerable quantity of soil from the land of one man, and its deposit upon or Annexation to the land of another, suddenly and by the perceptible action of water.

In the civil law. A mother's brother. 2 Bl. Comm. 230. Avunculus magnus, a great-uncle. Avunculus major, a great-grandmother's brother. Avunculus maximum, a great-great-grandmother

In the civil law. A grandfather Inst. 3, 6, 1.

A term used in old statutes, signifying a lying in wait or waylaying.

n. The decision or determination rendered by arbitrators or commlssion-ers or other private or extrajudicial deciders, upon a controversy submitted to them; also the writing or doc

A crop sown before the expiration of a tenancy, which cannot ripen until after its expiration, to which, however, the tenant ls entitled. Broom, Max. 412.

In old English statutes. A measure of wine or vessel containing forty gallons.

In logic. A self-evident truth; an indisputable truth.

In French law. This term signifies one to whom a right has been assigned, either by will, gift, sals, exchange or the like; an assignee. An ayant cause differs from an heir who acq

See Aiel.

In old Scotch law. Eyre; a circuit, eyre or iter.

In Spanish law. A congress of persons; the municipal council of a city or town. 1 White, Co.ll. 416; Friedman v. Goodwin, 9 Fed. Cas. 818.

A term used in heraldry, signifying bine.

The second letter of the English alphabet: is used to denote the second of a series of pages, notes, etc.; the subsequent letters, the third and following numbers.

Fr. Low; inferior; subordinate. —Bas chevaliers. In old English law. Low, or inferior knights, by tenure of a base military fee, as distinguished from barons and bannerets, who wer

L. Fr. (Modern Fr. brebis.) Sheep. See Mlllen v. Fawen, Bendlpe, 171, "home ove petit chien chase barbitfs."

A plea of infancy, interposed for the purpose of defeating an action upon a contract made while the person was a minor, is vulgarly called "pleading the baby act." By extension, th

In old records. Commonalty or yeomanry, in contradistinction to baronage.

The holder of the first or lowest degree conferred by a college or university, e. g., a bachelor of arts, bachelor of law, etc. A kind of inferior knight; an esquire, A man who has

A term of no very definite import, but generally signifying lands lying back from (not contiguous to) a highway or a watercourse. See Ryerss v. Wheeler, 22 Wend. (N. Y) 150.

adv. To the rear; backward; In a reverse direction. Also, in arrear. —Bach lands. A term of no very definite import, but generally signifying lands lying back from (not contiguous

In forest law. Carrying on the back. One of the cases in which an offender against vert and venison might be arrested, as being taken with the mainour or manner or found carrying a

Sax. Bearing upon the back or about the person. Applied to a thief taken with the stolen property in his immediate possession. Bract 1, 3, tr. 2, c. 32. Used with handhabend, havin

In Scotch law. A deed attaching a qualification or condition to the ternis of a conveyance or other instrument. This deed is used when particular circumstances render it necessary

Indorsement; indorsement by a magistrate.

See Back.

In English law. A term formerly used in conveyances and also in pleading; it imports a yard at the back part of or behind a house, and belonging thereto.

Those assessed for a previous year or years and remaining due and unpaid from the original tax debtor. M. E. Church v. New Orleans, 107 La. 611, 32 South. 101; Gaines v. Galbraeth,

In the language of the stock exchange, this term signifies a consideration paid for delay in the delivery of stock contracted foe, when the price is lower for time than for cash. D

In a policy of marine insurance, the phrase "forwards and backwards at sea" means from port to port in the course of the voyage, and not merely from one terminus to the other and b

Water in a stream which, in consequence of some dam or obstruction below, is detained or checked in its course, or flows back. Hodges v. Raymond, 9 Mass. 316 ; Chambers v. Kyle, 87

A rod, staff or wand, used in old English practice in making livery of seisin where no building stood on the land, (Bract. 40;) a stick or wand, by the erection of which on the lan

Substantially defective; inapt; not good. The technical word for unsoundness in pleading. —Bad debt. Generally speaking, one which is uncollectible. But technically, by statute in

Generally speaking, one which is uncollectible. But technically, by statute in some states, the word may have a more precise meaning. In Louisiana, bad debts are those which have b

The opposite of "good fnith," generally implying or involving actual or constructive fraud, or a design to mislead or deceive another, or a neglect or refusal to fulfill some duty

A mark or cognizance worn to show the relation of the wearer to any persen or thing; the token of anything; a distinctive mark of office or service.

A term used relatively to the law of fraudulent conveyances made to hinder and defraud creditors. It is defined as a fact tending to throw suspicion upon a transaction, and calling

In old English law. One who made a practice of buying com or victuals in one place, and carrying them to another to sell and make profit by them.

One which is unsound or insufficient in form or substance, or which does not technically answer or correspond with the pleading which preceded it in the action.

One which conveys no property to the purchaser of the estate ; one which is so radically defective that it is not marketable, and hence such that a purchaser cannot be legally comp

In old French law. One to whom judicial authority was assigned or delivered by a superior.

A sack or satchel. A certain and customary quantity of goods and merchandise in a sack. Wharton.

In English law. A bag or purse. Thus there is the petty-bag-office in the common-law jurisdiction of the court of chancery, because all original writs relating to the business of t

In the law of carriers. This term comprises sucji articles of personal convenience or necessity as are usually carried by passengers for their personal use, and not merchandise or

A chest or coffer. Fleta.

Fr. In French and Canadian law. A lease of lands. —Bail h cheptel. A contract by which one of the parlies gives to the other cattle to keep, feed, and care for, the borrower receiv

Capable of being bailed; admitting of ball ; authorizing or requiring bail. A bailable action is one in which the defendant cannot be released from arrest except on furnishing bail

A contract of letting lands.

A lease for more than nine years; the same as bail emphyteotique (see infra) or an emphyteutic lease.

In the law of contracts. One to whom goods are bailed; the party to whom personal property is delivered under a contract of bailment. Phelps v. People, 72 N. Y. 357; McGee v. Frenc

An emphyteutic lease; a lease for a term of years with a right to prolong indefinitely ; practically equivalent to an alienation.

A contract by which one of the parlies gives to the other cattle to keep, feed, and care for, the borrower receiving half the profit of increase, and bearing half the loss. Duverge