Cognisance

See Cognizance. C0GNITI0NIBUS AD M ITTEND IS. A writ requiring a justice or other qualified person, who has taken a fine and neglects to certify it in the court of common pleas, to do so. COGNIZANCE (Lat. cognitio, recognition, knowledge; spelled, also, Conusance and Cognisance). Acknowledgment; recognition; jurisdiction; judicial power; hearing a matter judicially.

See 12 Ad. & EL 259.

Of Pleas. Jurisdiction of causes. A privilege granted by the king to a city or town to hold pleas within the same.

Termes de la Ley

It is in frequent use among the older writers on English law In this latter sense, but is seldom used, if at all, in America, except in its more general meaning. The universities of Cambridge and Oxford possess this franchise; 11 East 543; 1 W. Bla. 454; 3 Bla. Com. 298. Claim of Cognizance (or of Conusance). An intervention by a third person, demanding judicature in the cause against the plaintiff, who has chosen to commence his action out of claimant's court.

2 Wils. 409; 2 Bla. Com. 350, n.

It is a question of jurisdiction between the two courts; Fortesc. 157; 5 Viner, Abr. 588; and not between the plaintiff and defendant, as in the case of plea to the jurisdiction, and must be demanded by the party entitled to conusance, or his representative, and not by the defendant or his attorney; 1 Chit. PL 403. There are three sorts of conusance. Tenere placita, which does not oust another the plea is commenced in one court, of which conusance belongs to aother. A conusance of exclusive jurisdiction: as, that no other court shall hold plea, etc.

Hardr. 509; Bac. Abr. Courts, D. In Pleading.

The answer of the defendant in an action of replevin who is not entitled to tbe distress or goods which arc the subject of the action — acknowledging the taking, and justifying it as having been done by the command of one who is so entitled.

Lawes, PL 35.

An acknowledgment made by t lie deforciant, in levying a fine, that the lands in question are the right of the complainant.

2 Bla. Com. 350. See Inhabitants of Sturbridge v. Winslow, 21 Pick. (Mass.) 87; Noble v. Holmes, 5 Hill (N. Y.) 194.

COGNOMEN (Lat).

A family name

The prcenomen among the Romans distinguished the person, the nomen the gens, or all the kindred descended from a remote common stock through males, while the cognomen denoted the particular family. The agnomen was added on account of some particular event, as a further distinction. Thus, in the designation Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, Publius is the prcenomen, Cornelius Is the nomen, Scipio the cognomen, and Africanus the agnomen.

Vlcat. See Cas. temp, Hardw. 286; 6 Co. 65.

COGNOVIT ACTIONEM (Lat. he has confessed the cause of action. Cognovit alone is in common use with the same significance). A written confession of a cause of action by a defendant, subscribed, but not sealed, and authorizing the plaintiff to sign judgment and issue execution, usually for a sum named. COHABIT (Lat. con and habere). To live together in the same house, claiming to be married. The word does not include In Its signification, necessarily, occupying the same bed; 1 Hagg. Cons. 144; Dunn v. Dunn, 4 Paige, Ch. (N. Y.) 425; though the word is popularly, and sometimes in statutes, used in this latter sense; State v. Byron, 20 Mo. 210; Bish. Marr. & Div. § 506, n.; Jackson v. State, 116 Ind. 461, 19 N. E. 330; Pruner v. Com., S2 Va. 115; Com. v. Dill, 159 Mass. 61, 34 N. E. 81; I v. U. S., 116 U. S. 55, 6 Sup. Ct. 278, 29 L. Ed. 561.