Communis Error
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary · Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
Lat. A common error; an opinion or practice which has commonly been held or observed, though originally perhaps without adequate foundation in law.* Cowma Bis error facit ja«. Common error makes law.
4 InsL 240. Noy^s Max. 32, max. 27. Broom's Max. 99, 100.
A common error may in some cases pass current as law. Thus, a practice which has been generally observed in a state for a great length of time, without objection or question, though it possibly might have originally been impeached, will be upheld in law, if the public good require it. This maxim is frequently applied to modes of conveyance which have been long in use.
PUnod. 33 b. Shep. Touch, 40. Story, J., 5 Mason*s R. 67, 69. 4 N. Hamp. R. 458. 2 Hilliard's Real Prop. 268.