Dictum

(pi. DICTA.) L.Lat. [from dicere, to say.] A saying or remark; an opinion expressed by a judge in deciding a cause or question, either aside from the point to be decided, and hence said to be extra judicial, or obiter, (by the way) or given without deliberation, as a hasty opinion at nisi prius,* Lord Mansfield, in Saunderson v, Rowles, observed upon an opinion of Lord Holt, cited on the argument of the cause, *' that is an obiter saying only, and not a resolution or determination of the court, or a direct, soleom opinion of the great judge from whom it dropped. This dictum of Lord Chief Justice Holt's is no formed decisive resolution, no adjudication, no professed deliberate determination."

4 Burr, 2064, 2068.

These extra-judicial dicta are not usually considered as binding upon courts.

2 Powell on Dev, (by Jarman,) 200. 2 Kent's Com^ 111, 835.

An assertion or statement. Gratis dictum; a gratuitous or voluntary representation; one which a party is not bound to make.

2 Kent's Com. 466.

Simplex dictum; a mere assertion; an assertion without proof. Bract, fol.

320.

In old practice. The verdict of a jury. Sijuratores in dicto suo perseverent; if the jurors persist in their verdict. Bract, fol.

201.

Si velint emendare dictum suum; if they wish to amend their verdict. Id, fol.

296.

See /(f. fol. 292. Dictum is one of the component parts of the word verdict, [veredictum, q. v.)