Quality

Of Persons. The state of condition of a person. Two contrary qualities cannot be in the same person at the same time.

Dig. 41. 10. 4.

Every one is presumed to know the quality of the person with whom he is contracting. In the United States the people are all upon an equality in their civil rights. In Pleading. That which distinguishes one thing from another of the same kind. It is, in general, necessary, when the declaration alleges an injury to the goods and* chattels, or any contract relating to them, that the quality should be stated; and it is also essential, in an action fpr the recovery of real estate, that its quality should be shown: as, whether it consists of houses, lands, or other hereditaments, whether the lands are meadow, pasture, or arable, etc. The same rule requires that in an action for an injury to real property, the quality should be shown; Steph. PI.

214, 215.

See, It Is often allowable to omit from the Indictment, and it is seldom necessary to prove with precision, allegations of quality, or, in other words, those allegations which describe the mode in which certain acts have been done. Thus, if the charge is of a felonious assault with a staff, and the proof is of such an assault with a stone, or if a wound, alleged to have been given with a sword, is proved to have been inflicted by an axe, or if a pistol is stated to have been loaded with a bullet, and it turns out to have been loaded with some other destructive material, the charge is substantially proved, and no variance occurs: 5 C. & P. 128; 9 id.

525, 548.

QUAMDIU SE BENE GESSERIT (Lat. as long as he shall behave himself well). A clause inserted in commissions, when such instruments were written in Latin, to signify the tenure by which the officer held his office. By the British Act of Settlement (1700) the commissions of the judges were so established; before then they held their office durante bene plaoito, during the king’s will. QUANDO ACCIDERINT (Lat. when they fall In). When a defendant, executor, or administrator pleads plene administravit, the plaintiff may pray to have judgment of assets quando accidcnnt; Bull. N. P. 1G9; Bac. Abr. Executor (M). A similar judgment may be taken at the plaintiff’s election, In an action against an heir, on a plea of riens pei'de scent, instead of taking Issue on the plea. In either of these cases if assets afterwards come to the hands of the executor or heir a scire facias must be sued out before execution can issue, or there may be an action of debt, suggesting a devastavit; 2 Bouv. Inst. 3708. It Is also sometimes termed a judgment of assets in futuro. By taking a judgment in this form the plaintiff admits that the defendant has fully administered to that time; 1 Pet. C. O. 442, n.; and therefore the plaintiff will not be allowed to give evidence of effects come to defendant’s hands before the judgment. For this reason the scire facias on a judgment of assets quando acciderint must only pray execution of such assets as have come to the defendant’s hands since the former judgment, and if it pray judgment of assets generally, it cannot be supported.

See 2 Com. Dig. Pleader (2 D 9).

QUANTI M I NO R IS (Lat). The name of a particular action in Louisiana. An action quanti minoris is one brought for the reduction of the price of a thing sold, in consequence of defects in the thing which is the object of the sale.