Black's Law Dictionary

Lat The words "in-wit," or "that is to say," so frequently used in pleading, are technically called the "videlicet" or "scilicet;" and when any fact alleged in pleading is preceded

It seems that a deaf and dumb man cannot alienate. Brower v. Fisher, 4 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.) 444; Brooke, Abr. "Eschete," pi. 4.

An inspeximus, (q. v.) Barring, Ob. St. 5.

Lat. In old English law. A king's widow. The widow of a tenant in capite. So called, because she was not allowed to marry a second time without the king's permission; obtaining her

Lat. The making a solemn profession to live a sole and chaste woman.

Widowhood.

Fr. Life; ocourring in the phrases cestui que vie, pur autre vie, etc.

Lat With force and arms. See Trespass.

The right of prospect; the outlook or prospect from the windows of one's hoflse. A species of urban servitude which prohibits the obstruction of such prospect. 3 Kent, Comm. 448. W

When a right of common is exercisable not over the whole waste, but only in convenient places indicated from time to time by the lord of the manor or his bailiff, it is said to be

In real actions, the defendant was entitled to demand a view, that is, a sight of the thing, in order to ascertain its identity and other circumstances. As, if a real action were b

Persons who are appointed by a court to make an investigation of cortain matters or to examine a particular locality, (as, the proposed site of a new road,) and to report to the co

A view or inspection taken by a jury, summoned upon an inquisition or inquest, or the place or property to which the inquisition or inquiry refers. Brown.

In English law. An examination to see if eveiy freeman above twelve years of age within the district had taken the oath of allegiance. and found nine freeman pledges for his peacea

In Fr. In old English law. A vivum vadium or living pledge, as distinguished from a mortgage or dead pledge. Properly, an estate given as security for a debt, the debt to be satisf

In ecclesiastical law. The eve or next day before any solemn feast.

Watchfulness; precaution ; a proper degree of activity and promptness in pursuing one's rights or guarding them from infraction or in making or discovering opportunities for the en

The laws aid those who are vigilant, not those who sleep upon their rights. 2 Inst. 690; Merchants' Bank of Newburyport, President, etc., of, v. Stevenson, 7 Allen (Mass.) 493; Bro

Lat. Strength; virtue; force; efficiency. Proprio vigore, by its own force.

Lat. In the ecclesiastical couris, service of a decree or citation viis et modis, i. e., by all "ways and means" likely to affect the party with knowledge of its contents, is equiv

In old English law, this word was used to signify the parts into which a hundred or wapentake was divided. It also signifies a town or city. —Demi-vill. A town consisting of five f

Go. Litt. 115. Vill is a neighborhood of many mansions, a collection of many neighbors, and under the term of "villa" boroughs and cities are contained.

Any small assemblage of houses for dwellings or business or both, in the country, whether they are situated upon regularly laid out streets and alleys or not, constitutes a village

An opprobrious epithet, implying great moral delinquency, and equivalent to knave, rascal or scoundrel. The word is libelous. 1 Bos. & P. 331.

A writ that lay for the bringing back of the king's bondmen, that had been carried away by others out of his manors whereto they belonged. Reg. Orig. 87.

In old English law. Villein service. Fleta, lib. 3, c. 13, § 1.

Lat In Saxon law. A royal residence. Spelman.

A person attached to a manor, who was substantially in the condition of a slave, who performed the base and servile work upon the manor for the lord, and was, in most respecte, a s

A villein who was annexed to the person of the lord, and transferable by deed from one owner to another. 2 Bl. Comm. 93.

A villein annexed to the manor of land ; a serf. —-Villein services. Base services, such as villeins performed. 2 Bl. Comm. 93. They were not, however, exclusively confined to vill

In feudal and old English law. A species of tenure in which the services to be rendered were certain and determinate, but were of a base or servile nafure; i. not suitable to a man

A servile kind of tenure belonging to lands or tenements, whereby the tenant was bound to do all such services as the lord commanded or were fit for a villein to do. Cowell. See Vi

A judgment which deprived one of his libera lea, whereby he was discredited and disabled as a juror or witness; forfeited his goods and chattels and lands for life; wasted the land

It is lawful to repel force by force, provided it be done with the moderation of blameless defense, not for the purpose of taking revenge, but to ward off injury. Co.. Litt. 162a.

A payment of a cortain quantity of wine instead of rent for a vineyard. 2 Mon. Ang. p. 980.

In Spanish law. An entail. Schm. Civil Law, 308.

In Spanish law. The band, chain or tie of marriage. White, New Recop. hi 1, tit. 6, c. 1,5 2.

See A Vinculo Matrimonii; Divorce.

Lat In the Roman law, an obligation is defined as a vinculum juris, i.e., "a bond of law," whereby one party becomes or is bound to another to do something according to law.

Lat. In the civil law. A defender.

Lat. In the civll law. To claim or challenge; to demand one's own; to assert a right in or to a thing; to assert or claim a property in a thing; to claim a thing as one's own. Calv

Lat In the civil law. The claiming a thing as one's own; the asserting of a right or title in or to a thing.

The sanction of the laws, whereby it is signified what evll or penalty shall be incurred by such as commit any publlc wrongs, and transgress or neglect their duty. 1 Steph. Comm. 3

In Roman law. A rod or wand; and. from the use of that instrument in their course, various legal acts came to be distinguished by the term; e. p., one of the three ancient modes of

See Damages.

This term includes all alcoholic beverages made from the juice of the grape by the process of fermentation, and perhaps simllar liquors made from apples and from some species of be

Fr. In French law. Rape. Barring, Ob. St 139.

Injury; Infringement; breach of right, duty or law. Ravishment; seduction. The statute 25 Edw. III. St. 5, c. 2, enacts that any person who shall violate the king's companion shall

An offense against the laws of nations. 4 Steph. Comm. 217.

The term "violence" is synonymous with "physical force," and the two are used interchangeably, in relation to assaults, by elementary writers on criminal law. State v. Wells, 81 Co

Characterized or caused by violence; severe; assailing the person (and metaphorically, the mind) with a great degree of force. —Violent death. Death caused by violent external mean

Co. Litt. 6b. Violent presumption is sometimes full proof.

Death caused by violent external means, as distinguished from nafural death, caused by disease or the wasting of the vital forces.

By the use of force; forcibly ; with violence. The term is used in indictments for certain offenses. State v. Blake, 39 Me. 324; State v. Wllliams, 32 La. Ann. 337, 36 Am. Rep. 272

In the law of evidence. Proof of a fact by the proof of circumstances which necessarily attend it. 3 Bl. Comm. 371. Violent presumption la many times equal to full proof. Id. See D

Mesne profits in Scotland. "They are so called because due on the tenant's forcible or unwarrantable detaining the possession after he ought to have removed." Ersk. Inst. 2, 6, 54;

11 Coke, 34. It Is a poisonous exposition which destroys the vitals of the text.

Lat. A man, especially as marking the sex. In the Latin phrases and maxims of the old English law, this word generally means "husband," the expression vir et uxor corresponding to

Lat (The plural of "vis.") Powers ; forces; capabilities; natural powers; powers granted or limited. See Ultra Vires.

It gains Strength by continuance. Mann v. Mann's Ex'rs, 1 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.) 231, 237.

Jenk. Cent 27. Husband and wife are considered one person in law.

Co. Litt. 112. Man and wife are, as it were, one person, because only one flesh and blood; although the property may be the wire's, the husband is keeper of it, sinco he is the hea

In old English law. A rod or staff; a rod or ensign of office. Cowell.

In old English law. The verge; the bounds of the king's household, within which the court of the steward had jurisdiction. Crabb, Eng. Law, 185.

A yard-land.

In old English law. A yard-land; a measure of land of variable quantity, containing in some places twenty, in others twenty-four, in others thirty, and in others forty, acres. Cowe

Lat. A pure virgin.

A writ for choice of a verderer in the forest. Reg. Orig. 177

The privy members of a man, to cut off which was felony by the common law, though the party consented to it Bract. 1. 3, 144; Cowell.

Co.. Litt. 70. A man fighting for God must not be involved in secular business.

The phrase "hy virtue" differs in meaning from "under color." For instance, the proper fees are received by virtue of the offico; extortion is under color of the office. Any rightf

Lat By virtue whereof. This was the clause in a pleading justifying an entry upon land, by which the party alleged that it was in virtue of an order from one entitled that he enter

Lat. By virtue of hls office. By the authority vested in him as the incumbent of the particular office.

Lat Any kind of force, violence or disturbance relating to a man's person or his property. —Vis ablativa. In the civil law. Ablative force ; force which is exerted in taking away a

An official indorsement upon a document, passport, commercial book, etc., to certify that it has been examined and found correct or in due form.

In the civil law. Ablative force ; force which is exerted in taking away a thing from another. Calvin.

In the civil and old English law. Armed force ; force exerted by means of arms or weapons.

An indorsement made on a passport by the proper authorities, denoting that it has been examined, and that the person who bears it is permitted to proceed on his Journey. Webster.

In old English law. Clandestine force; such as is used by night. Bract, fol. 162.

In the civil and old English law. Compulsive force ; that which is exerted to compel another to do an act against his will; force exerted by menaces or terror,

A decree of English nobility, next below that of earl. An old title of the sheriff.

In the civil law. Divine or superhuman force ; the act of God.

Lat. A right of way over another's land.

In Scotch law. Force and fear. Bell.

In old English law. Expulsive force; force used to expel another, or put him out of his possession. Bracton contrasts it with "vis simplex," and divides it into expulsive force wit

In the civil law. Exturbative force; force used to thrust out another. Force used between two contending claimants of possession, the one endeavoring to thrust out the other. Calvi

In the civil law. The force of a river; the force exerted by a stream or current; water-power.

The original act of force out of which an injury arises, as distinguished from "vis proxima," the proximate force, or immediate cause of the injury. 2 Greenl. Ev. § 224.

In old English law. Unarmed force; the opposite of "vis armata." Bract, fol. l62.

In old English law. Wrongful force; otherwise called "illicita" (unlawful.) Bract fol. 162.

In the civil law. Disquieting force. Calvin. Bracton defines it to be where one does not permit another to use his possession quietly and in peace. Bract, fol. 162.

In international law. The right of visit or visitation is the right of a cruiser or war-ship to stop a vessel sailing under another flag on the high seas, and send an officer to su

Inspection; superintendence ; direction; regulation. A power given by law to the founders of all eleemosynary corporations. 2 Kent, Comm. 300-303; 1 Bl. Comm. 480, 481. In England,

In English law. Books compiled by the heralds, when progresses were solemnly and regniarly made into every part of the kingdom, to inquire into the state of families, and to regist

An inspector of the government of corporations or bodies politic. 1 Bl. Comm. 482. Visitor is an inspector of the government of a corporation, etc. The ordinary is visitor of spiri

Tbe regarded office in the forest. Manw. i. 195.

In old English law. Lay force; an armed force used to hold possession of a church. Reg. Orig. 59, 60.

3 Inst. 176. Violence is Inimical to the laws.

In old English law. Lawful force. Bract, fol. 162.

A greater or superior force; an irresistible force. This term is much used iu the law of bailments to denote the interposition of violence or coercion proceeding from human agency,