Definition of Causa

Lat. 1. A cause, reason, occasion, motive or inducement 2. In the civil law and in old English law. The word signified a source, ground, or mode of acquiring property; hence a title; one's title to property. Thus, "Titulus est justa causa possidendi id quod nostrum est;" title is the lawful ground of possessing that which is ours. 8 Coke, 153. See Mackeld. Rom. Law, §§ 242, 283. 3. A condition; a consideration; motive for performing a juristic act. Used of contracts, and found in this sense in the Scotch law also. Bell. 4. In old English law. A cause; a suit or action pending. Causa testamentaria, a testamentary cause. Causa matrimonialis, a matrimonial cause. Bract fol. 61. 5. In old European law. Any movable thing or article of property. 6. Used with the force of a preposition, it means by virtue of, on account of. Aiso with reference to, in contemplation of. Causa mortis, in anticipation of death.
—Cansa cansans. The immediate cause ; the last link in the chnin of causation.
—Cansa data et non secnta. In the civil law. Consideration given and not followed, that is, by the event upon which it was given. The name of an action by which a thing given in the view of a certam event was reclaimed if that event did not take place. Dig. 12, 4; Cod. 4, 6.
—Cansa hospitandi. For the purpose of being entertained as a guest. 4 Maule & S. 310.
—Cansa jactitationis maritagii. A form of action which anciently lay against a party who boasted or gave out that he or she was married to the plaintiff, whereby a common reputation of their marriage might ensue. 3 Bl. Comm. 93.
—Causa matrimonii praelocuti. A writ lying where a woman has given lands to a man in fee-simple with the intention that he shall marry her, and he refuses so to do within a reasonable time, upon suitable request. Cowell. Now obsolete. 3 Bl. Comm. 183, note.
—Causa mortis. In contemplation of approaching death. In view of death. Commonly occurring in the phrase donatio causa mortis, (q. v.)
—Causa patet. The reason is open, obvious, plain, clear, or manifest. A common expression in old writers. Perk. c. 1, §§ 11, 14, 07.
—Causa proxima. The immediate, nearest, or latest cause.
—Causa rei. In the civil law. The accessione, appurtenances, or fruits of a thing; comprehending ali that the claimant of a principal thing can demand from a defendant in addition thereto, and especially what he would have had, if the thing had not been withheld from him, Inst. 4, 17, 3; Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 166.
—Causa remota. A remote or mediate cause ; a cause operating indirectly by the intervention of other causes.
—Causa scieutiæ patet. The reason of the knowledge is evident. A technical phrase in Scotch practice, used in depositions of witnesses.
—Causa sine qua non. A necessary or inevitable cause ; a cause without which the effect in question could not have happened. Hayes v. Railroad Co., Ill U. S. 228, 4 Sup. Ct. 369, 28 In Ed. 410.
—Cansa turpis. A base (immoral or illegal) cause or consideration.