Black's Law Dictionary

Old.age does not alone and of itself vitiate a will or gift Van Alst v. Hunter, 5 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.) 148, 158.

In Spanish law. Land; the demesne, with a house, situate in a strong or fortified place. White, New Recop. b. 1, tit 5, e, 3, § 2.

That period of time which begins at sunrise and ends at sunset. Co: Litt 135a.

Lat In the civil law. A rent paid for the ground, where a person built on the public land. A ground rent. Spelman; Calvin.

A calendar month. See Month.

Compensation. Damages alio wed for injury to the feelings.

A military man; a private in the army.

A note given by a broker, who has effected a sale of merchandise, to the buyer, stating the fact of sale, quantity, price, etc. Story, Ag. § 28; Saladin v. Mitchell, 45 III. 83.

Single; individual; separate; the opposite of joint; as' a sole tenant. Comprising only one person; the opposite of aggregate; as a sole corporation. Unmarried; as a feme sole. See

Formal; in regular form; with all the forms of a proceeding. As to solemn "Form," sce Probate. As to solemn "Oath" and "War," see the nouns.

Lat In the civil law. Solemn forms of laws; forms of forensic proceedings and of transacting legal acts. One of the sources of the unwritten law of Rome. Butl. Hor. Jur. 47.

In old English practice. Solemnity or formality of attachments. The issuing of attachments in a certain formal and regular order. Bract fola. 439, 440; 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 480.

The solemnities of law are to be observed. Jenk. Co.nt. 13.

A rite or ceremony; the formality established by law to render a contract, agreement or other act valid.

To solemnize, spoken of a marriage, means no more than to enter into a marriage contract, with due publication, before third persons, for the purpose of giving it notoriety and cer

A corporal oath. Jackson v. State, 1 Ind. 184.

A war made in form by public declaration; a war solemnly declared by one state against another.

Equal knowledge on both sides makes contracting parties equal. 3 Burrows, 1905. An insured need not mention what the underwriter knows or what he ought to know. Broom, Max. 772.

He that holds lands by his own right only, without any other person being joined with him. Cowell.

Asking; enticing; urgent request. Thus "solicitation of chastity" is the asking or urging a woman to surrender her chastity. The word is also used in such phrases as "solicitation

In English law. A legal practitioner in the court of chancery. The words "solicitor" and "attorney" are commonly used indiscriminately, although they are not precisely the same, an

In English law. One of the principal law officers of the crown, associated in his duties with the attorney general, holding office by patent during the pleasure of the sovereign, a

The solicitors before the supreme courts, in Scotland, are a body of solicitors entitled to practice in the court of session, etc. Their charter of incorporation bears date August

An officer of the United States attached to the department of justice, having general charge of the law business appertaining to the treasury.

An officer of the English court of chancery, who is appointed in certain cases guardian ad litem.

A term of civil-law origin, signifying that the right or interest spoken of is joint or common. A "solidary obligation" corresponds to a "joint and several" obligation in the commo

In the law of Louisiana, one which binds each of the obligors for the whole debt, as distinguished from a "joint" obligation, which binds the parties each for his separate proporti

Lat. In the civil law. A whole; an entire or undivided thing.

A coin equal to 13s. 4d. of the present standard. 4 Steph. i Comm. 119m Originally the "solidus" was a gold coin of the Byzantine Empire, but In medieval times the term was applied

In old English law. Two plow-lands, and somewhat less than a half. Co. Litt 5a.

That which ls planted in the soll belongs to the soil. The proprietor of the soil becomes also the proprietor of the seed, the plant, and the tree, as soon as these have taken root

That which is built upon the soil belongs to the soil. The proprietor of the soil becomes also proprietor of the building erected upon it. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 275.

Lat In Roman law. The solum italicum (an extension of the old Ager Romanus) admitted full ownership, and of the application to it of usucapio; whereas the solum provinciale (an ext

11 Coke, 72. This alone the king cannot do, he cannot act unjustly.

Co.. Litt. 5. God alone makes the heir, not man.

Lat In civll law. Payment, satisfaction or release; any species of discharge of an obligation accepted as satisfactory by the creditor. The term refers not so much to the counting

In the civil law. Payment of what was not due. From the payment of what was not due arises an obligation quasi ex contractu. When one has erroneously given or performed something t

Old writs whereby knights of the shire and burgesses might have recovered their wages or allowance if it had been refused. 35 Hen. VIII. c. 11.

The payment of the price [of a thing] is held to be in place of a purchase, [operates as a purchase.] Jenk. Co.nt. p. 56, case 2; 2 Kent Comm. 387.

In the civil law. Loosed; freed from confinement; set at liberty. Dig. 50, 16, 48. In Scotch practice. Purged. A term used in old depositions.

Fr. In French law. Ability to pay; solvency. Emerig. Trait4 des Assur. c. 8, § 15.

Ability to pay; present ability to pay; ability to pay one's debts out of one's own present means. Marsh ,v. Dunckel, 25 Hun (N. Y.) 169; Osborne v. Smith (C. Ct) 18 Fed. 130; Lark

Lat. Paying. An apt word of reserving a rent in old conveyances. Co. Litt. 47a.

Lat. To be in a state of solvency; i. e., able to pay.

A solvent person is one who is able to pay all hls just debts in full out of his own present means. See Dig. 50, 16, 114. And see Solvency.

Lat. To pay; to comply with one's engagement; to do what one has undertaken to do; to release one's self from obligation, as by payment of a debt. Calvin. —Solvere pœnas. To pay th

To pay the penalty.

No one is considered to be solvent unless he can pay all that he owes. Dig. 50, 16, 114.

Lat He paid; paid. 10 East, 206. —Solvit ad diem. He paid at the day. The technical name of the plea, in an action of debt on bond, that the defendant paid the money on the day men

He paid at the day. The technical name of the plea, in an action of debt on bond, that the defendant paid the money on the day mentioned in the condition. 1 Archb. N. P. 220, 221.

A plea that the money was paid before the day appointed.

He paid after the day. The plea in an action of debt on bond that the defendant paid the money after the day named for the payment, and before the commencement of the suit. 1 Archb

A partnership is moreover dissolved by the death of a partner. Inst. 3, 26, 5; Dig. 17, 2.

In the same manner that a thing ls bound it Is unloosed. Livingston v. Lynch, 4 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.) 582.

A celebrated decision of the English king's bench, in 1771, (20 How. St. Tr. It) that slavery no longer existed in England in any form, and could not for the future exist on Englis

In French law. A demand served by a hulssier, by which one party calls upon another to do or not to do a certain thing. This document has for its object to establish that upon a ce

Sleep-walking. Whether this condition is anything more than a co-operation of the voluntary muscles with the thoughts which occupy the mind during sleep is not settled by physiolog

In ecclesiastical law, an officer of the ecclesiastical courts whose duty was to serve citations or process.

An immediate male descendant; the correlative of "father." Technically a word of purchase, unless explained. Its meaning may be extended by construction to include more remote desc

The Vel-leian decree of the senate. A decree enacted in the consulship of Velleius, by which married women were prohibited from making contracts. Story, Confl. Laws, § 425.

The husband of one's daughter.

This term denotes the normal condition of the human mind,—that state in which its faculties of perception and judgment are ordinarily well developed, and not impnired by mania, ins

A tax of forty shillings anciently laid upon every knight's fee. Cowell.

Lat. In the civil law. Hurtful; injurious; hindering; excusing or justifying delay. Morbus sotiticus is any illness of so serious a nature as to prevent a defendant from appearing

If there is no time specified for the performance of an act or if it is specified that it is to be performed soon, the law implies that it is to be performed within a reasonable ti

An arbitrary exaction, formerly existing in Scotland and Ireland. Whenever a chieftain had a mind to revel, he came down among the tenants with his followers, by way of contempt ca

In Scotch law. A person who takes meat and drink from others by force or menaces, without paying for it. Bell.

Lat In the civil law. Sister; a sister. Inst. 3, 6, 1.

The killing or murder of a sister; one who murders his sister. This is not a technical term of the law.

Lat. In the civil law. Lot; chance; fortune; hazard; a lot, made of wood, gold or other material. Money borrowed or put out at interest. A principal sum or fund, such as the capita

Lat In the civll law. A drawing of iqts. Sortitio judicum was the process of selecting a number of judges, for a criminal trial, by drawing lots.

In English law. A drain or water-course. The channels or water-courses used for draining mines are so termed; and those mines which are near to any given sough, and lie within the

A mortuary or customary gift due ministers, in many parishes of England, on the death of parishioners. It was originally voluntary and intended as amends for ecclesiastical dues ne

adj. Whole; in good condition; marketable. So used in warranties of chattels. See Brown v. Bigelow, 10 Allen (Mass.) 242; Hawkins v. Pemberton, 35 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 383; Woodbury

This phrase is often used in the law of wills, to signify testamentary capacity.

When an action is brought, not for the recovery of lands, goods or sums of money, (as is the case in real or mixed actions or the personui action of debt or detinue,) but for damag

General health; freedom from any permanent disease. 1 Car. & M. 291

The origins from which particular positive laws derive their authority aud coercive force. Such are constitutions, treaties, statutes, usages, and customs. In another sense, the au

Fr. In French law. Under private signature; under the private signature of the parties. A contract or instrument thus signed ls distinguished from an "authentic act," which is form

L. Fr. Under. Bendloe, 33.

The produce of the taxes appropriated to pay the interest of such part of the English national debt as was advanced by the South Sea Company and its annuitants. The holders of Sout

A chief ruler with supreme power; a king or other ruler with limited power. In English law. A gold coin of' Great Britain, of the value of a pound sterling. —Sovereign people. A te

A term familiarly used to describe the political body, consisting of the entire number of citizens and qualified electors, who, in their collegiate capacity, possess the powers of

That power in a state to which none other is superior or equal, and which includes ali the specific powers which are necessary to accomplish the legitimate ends and purposes of gov

A right which the state alone, or some of its governmental agencies, can possess, and which it possesses in the character of a sovereign, for the common benefit, and to enable it t

States whose subjects or citizens are in the habit of obedience to them, and which are not themselves subject to any other (or paramount) state in any respect. The state is said to

The possession of sovereign power; supreme political authority; paramount control of the constitution and frame of government and its administration; the self-sufficient source of

In old Scotch law. Surety. Skene.

February; so called in South Wales. Cowell.

In Scotch law. Terms used to express the form by which the number of cattle brought upon a common by those having a servitude of pasturage may be justly proportioned to the rights

In old English law. To be leviable. An old exchequer term applied to sheriff's returns. 4 Inst. 107; Cowell; Spelman.

An abbrevlation of "sine prole," without issue. Also an abbreviation of "same principle," or "same point," indicating, when inserted between two citations, that the second involves

Lat. A sword-bearer. Blount.

Lat. In the civll law. Impotent persons. Those who, on account of their temperament or some accident they have suffered, are unable to procreate. Inst. 1, 11, 9; Dig. 1, 7, 2, 1.

Lat. Here and there; scattered; at intervals. For instance, trespass to realty by cutting timber sparsly (here and there) through a tract.

In old English law. A court for the speedy execution of Justice upon military delinquents. Cowell.

In practice. To argue. "The case was ordered to be spoke to again." 10 Mod. 107. See Imparlance; Speaking with Prosecutor.

This is the official designation of the president or chairman of certain legislative bodies, particniarly of the house of representatives in the congress of the United States, of o

See Demurrer.

See Order.