Definitions from Case Law

intentional and unlawful damage, injury or destruction of real or personal property

flagellation or torture by or upon a person clad in undergarments, a mask or bizarre costume, or the condition of being fettered, bound or otherwise physically restrained on the pa

Safe custody is as mach the duty of the carrier as due transport and right delivery

the rule ceases to be operative whenever, and as long as, the place is closed against the servant... The master who furnishes the place may, of course, abandon or suspend its use,

positive enactments, but does not include judicial decisions in common-law tort cases.

when one union disclaims the work, § 10(k) proceedings terminate, not because all 'parties' to the dispute have settled or agreed to settle within the meaning of the statute, but o

In both cases, the allied armies were to be supplied, not by sales made directly to their agents, (for this is not required by either,) but by carrying supplies to the Peninsula, w

all the judges who concurred in those decisions were of opinion, that the mere sailing under an enemy's license, without regard to the object of the voyage, or the port of destinat

the general rule is, for a sailing vessel, meeting a steamer, to keep her course, while the steamer takes the necessary measures to avoid a collision. And though this rule should n

any transfer of title or possession of tangible personal property for consideration.

any sale of tangible personal property and any sale of or charge made for labor and services rendered in respect to real or personal property, which is not a sale at retail; '(f) T

There is nothing upon the face of the contract from which it can be satisfactorily inferred that it was intended to be a sale by the acre. The language of the contract on the part

in order to sustain such a sale, it must be made to appear, first, that the price paid approximates reasonably near to a fair and adequate consideration for the thing purchased; an

A sale made by a party who is in possession of a tract of public land with an intent thereafter to enter it as a homestead is equivalent to a relinquishment of his right to enter,

To give validity to such a sale by a mortgagor it must be shown that the conduct of the mortgagee was, in all things, fair and frank, and that he paid for the property what it was

if the nature or situation of the property is such that it cannot be conveniently examined in bulk, he has a right, and it is for the convenience of trade that he should be permitt

This sale having been made by a trustee to himself, must have been set aside and annulled on the application of the cestui que trust, but no such application being made, it cannot

A promise to return the money borrowed, is, indeed, one among the ordinary indications of a loan... But he who sells his lands or stock, and takes a note in payment, holds in his h

wherever a sale is made of property not present, but at a remote distance, which the seller knows the purchaser has never seen, but which he buys upon the representation of the sel

it is equally well settled that if the contract is such as to clearly express the intention of the parties that the builder shall sell and the purchaser shall buy the ship before i

the sale on execution transfers the property of the thing to the purchaser as completely as if the owner had sold it himself; but it transfers only the rights of the debtor, such a

all types of sales or dispositions.' S.Rep.

Payment and discharge of a bond is neither sale nor exchange within the commonly accepted meaning of the words.

when he sells his entire stock to one or more persons. This is an unusual occurrence, out of the ordinary mode of transacting such a business, is prima facie evidence of fraud, and

as it is the sale that passes the title, the vendee must take it from the day of the sale. The evidence may be procured, therefore, before or after suit brought; or before or after

the 'sales' referred to in the statute include forced sales such as have sufficed, under long accepted income tax practice, to establish a deductible loss in the case of non-capita

even when such payments were made for actual sales promotional services, they were a form of indirect price discrimination because the recipient of the allowances could shift part

a tax on the freedom of purchase

any point on the low-water line, so situated that there is some area within three geographical miles seaward from such point that is more than three geographical miles from all oth

Salvage is a compensation for actual service rendered to the property charged with it. It is demandable of right for vessels saved from pirates or from the enemy. In order, however

we do not think the claim [for salvage] can be said to arise upon any contract, express or implied, with the government of the United States. But the claim may properly be said to

Compensation for salvage service presupposes good faith, meritorious service, complete restoration, and incorruptible vigilance, so far as the property is within the reach or under

if they are guilty of embezzlement, whether at sea, in port, or even after the property is delivered into the custody of the law, it works a forfeiture of their claim to salvage

the reward in derelict cases should be governed by the same principles as other salvage cases—namely, danger to property, value, risk of life, skill, labor, and the duration of the

These are not matters of contract, according to the most eminent commentators on the subject, and they certainly are not cases of tort.

must include estimated resale or second-hand value

Courts of admiralty will enforce contracts made for salvage service and salvage compensation, where the salvor has not taken advantage of his power to make an unreasonable bargain;

As to the claims of the salvors, it may be remarked, that maritime Courts always approach them with great benignity and favour. Yet, in proportion to the inclination to favour wher

The applicable rule is that, where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are t

Here we cannot help seeing, that the matters sought to be put in issue by the replication are those necessarily involved in the former trial; and to uphold it would be to permit th

A reissue patent is for the same invention as the original if the reissue fully describes and claims the very invention intended to be secured by the original patent; if it describ

If a person be tried for an offense in a tribunal deriving its jurisdiction and authority from the United States, and is acquitted or convicted, he cannot again be tried for the sa

the effect of the Sansome rule is simply this: a distribution of assets that would have been taxable as dividends absent the reorganization or liquidation does not lose that charac

A 'satellite zone' is an area which is not contiguous with the main attendance zone surrounding the school.

a work in which prevalent follies or vices are assailed with ridicule, or are attacked through irony, derision, or wit.

the whole extent of the rule is that the judgment is satisfied when the execution has been so used as to change the title of the goods, or in some way to deprive the debtor of his

It is undoubtedly well settled as a general principle, that a court of law will not permit an outstanding satisfied mortgage to be set up against the mortgagor... Yet the legal tit

the saving clause was designed merely to exonerate the United States from any claim of the patentee or his assigns in the event that any other person should prove a superior title.

[T]he saving clause...always has been construed as permitting substantive rights under the maritime law to recover money for service rendered, or as damages for tortious injuries,

a practice of purchasing shares of a security for his own account shortly before recommending that security for long-term investment and then immediately selling the shares at a pr

the combined federal and state provisions.

a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.

The scheme in each case had reached fruition. The persons intended to receive the money had received it irrevocably. It was immaterial to them, or to any consummation of the scheme

The phrase is a broad one and extends to a great variety of transactions. But broad as are the words 'to defraud,' they do not include threat and coercion through fear or force. Th

the ordinary understanding of 'scholarships' and 'fellowships' as relatively disinterested, 'no-strings' educational grants, with no requirement of any substantial quid pro quo fro

any teaching regularly of two or more persons in a group.

in, or on the grounds of, a public, parochial or private school or within a distance of 1,000 feet from the grounds of a public, parochial or private school.

a mental state embracing intent to deceive, manipulate, or defraud.

a general indefinite equity, not applicable to one tract of land more than to another... It is a scintilla juris which we should find much difficulty in supporting against a comple

A mere scintilla of evidence is not enough to require the submission of an issue to the jury. The decisions establish a more reasonable rule that in every case, before the evidence

The weight of the evidence under the Employers' Liability Act must be more than a scintilla before the case may be properly left to the discretion of the trier of fact

A scire facias is a judicial writ used to enforce the execution of some matter of record on which it is usually founded; but though a judicial writ, or writ of execution, it is so

there is no pretence to say that a scire facias can be maintained, and a judgment had thereon, against a dead corporation, any more than against a dead man.

The writ of scire facias is no more an execution than an action of debt would have been: and the execution, which was issued on the judgment against the executrix, is not an execut

the scope of a consent decree must be discerned within its four corners, and not by reference to what might satisfy the purposes of one of the parties to it. Because the defendant

The law is well settled, that by the reference of an action to the determination of an arbitrator, nothing is included in the submission but the subject-matter involved in it… And

the legislature intended no more than to interdict the party from an imparlance, or any other means or contrivances for mere delay. He should not by sham pleadings, or by other pre

If business has been transacted in certain cases it is implied that the like business may be transacted in others. The inference to be drawn is, that everything fairly within the s

A second appeal lies only when the court below, in carrying out the mandate of this court, is alleged to have committed an error. But, on an appeal from the mandate, it is well set

if the 'lands were probably within the scope of the project from the time the Government was committed to it,' no enhancement in value attributable to the project is to be consider

to rearrange the content of the signal of the programming so that the programming cannot be viewed or heard in an understandable manner.

A scratch or transferred sale is one in which there is an offsetting purchase and sale at the same price on the same day.

Courts of law cannot incorporate into a sealed instrument what the parties left out of it, even though the omission was occasioned by the clearest mistake; nor can they reject what

A state legislature may certainly provide, that the same remedy shall be had in a promissory note, as on a bond or sealed instrument; but it will not thereby make the note a bond o

In a broad sense, a seaman is a mariner of any degree, one who lives his life upon the sea. It is enough that what he does affects 'the operation and welfare of the ship when she i

The law does not cover probable or expectant seamen but seamen in being. The fact that [a worker] had been, or expected in the future to be, a seaman does not render maritime work

the burden is upon one who sets up a seaman's release to show that it was executed freely, without deception or coercion, and that it was made by the seaman with full understanding

in this statute 'seamen' is to be taken to include stevedores employed in maritime work on navigable waters as the plaintiff was, whatever it might mean in laws of a different kind

It is a special favour, and a peculiar privilege allowed to them, and to them only; and is confined strictly to demands for wages. The reason upon which this privilege is founded,

When the sea, or a bay, is named as a boundary, the line of ordinary high-water mark is always intended where the common law prevails.

Such use of a searchlight is comparable to the use of a marine glass or a field glass. It is not prohibited by the Constitution.

The Government's activities in electronically listening to and recording the petitioner's words violated the privacy upon which he justifiably relied while using the telephone boot

When an arrest is made, it is reasonable for the arresting officer to search the person arrested in order to remove any weapons that the latter might seek to use in order to resist

The right without a search warrant contemporaneously to search persons lawfully arrested while committing crime and to search the place where the arrest is made in order to find an

It is not an assertion of the right on the part of the government always recognized under English and American law, to search the person of the accused when legally arrested, to di

one's house cannot lawfully be searched without a search warrant, except as an incident to a lawful arrest therein. The search of a private dwelling without a warrant is in itself

The issue of a second warrant is essentially a new proceeding which must have adequate support. The fact that it is a second warrant gives the commissioner no privilege to dispense

It is a cardinal rule that, in seizing goods and articles, law enforcement agents must secure and use search warrants wherever reasonably practicable. This rule rests upon the desi

The 'seashore' is that well-defined area, lying between high-water mark and the low-water mark, of waters in which the tide daily ebbs and flows.

as between the holder and the drawer or indorser of a dishonoured bill, the question of their liability depends not on actual notice, but on seasonable diligence, which is in all c

She must be so tight that the water will not reach the cargo, so strong that these ordinary applications of external force will not spring a leak or sink her, so sound that she wil

The ship should be in a condition to encounter whatever perils of the sea a ship of that kind, and laden in that way, may be fairly expected to encounter on the voyage

a change made in the indictment, after it was found, by striking out some words in it, and then proceeding to try the prisoner upon the indictment as thus changed.

With obvious purpose to assure the continuation and render possible the effectiveness of such forces the declaration and guarantee of the Second Amendment were made. It must be int

Second appeals or writs of error are allowed, but the rule is universal that they bring up only the proceedings subsequent to the mandate, and do not authorize an inquiry into the

A combination not merely to refrain from dealing with complainant, or to advise or by peaceful means persuade complainant's customers to refrain ('primary boycott'), but to exercis

secondary features that happen to be associated with the particular type of speech but have nothing to do with its content, whereas, here, the asserted justification for the displa

in order to maintain a title by secondary evidence, the claimant must show to the satisfaction of the court: 1st, that the grant was obtained and made in the manner the law require

It is a general rule of the law of evidence, that secondary evidence of the contents of written instruments is not admissible, when the originals are within the control or custody

buyers' competition, commonly termed secondary-line competition