Lay
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia · John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
In English Law. That which relates to persons or things not ecclesiastical. In the United States, the people are not by law divided, as in England, into ecclesiastical and lay. The law makes no distinction between them. The word is also used in the sense of opposed to professional. Also applied to a share of the profits of a fishing or whaling voyage, allotted to the officers and seamen, in the nature of wages.
Coffin V. Jenkins, 3 Story 108, Fed. Cas. No. 2,948.
In Pleading. To state or to allege. The place from whence a Jury are to be summoned is called the venue, and the allegation in the declaration of the place where the jury is to be summoned is, in technical language, said to lay the venue.
3 Steph. Com. 574; 3 Bouvler, Inst. n. 2830.
To lay damages. To state at the conclusion of the declaration the amount of damages which the plaintiff claims.
And. Steph. PI. § 220.