charge

A charge filed with the Labor Board is not to be measured by the standards applicable to a pleading in a private lawsuit. Its purpose is merely to set in motion the machinery of an inquiry.

A duty or obligation imposed upon some person; a lien, incumbrance, or claim which is to be satisfied out of the specific thing or proceeds thereof to which it applies. To impose such an obligation; to create such a claim. To accuse. The distinctive significance of the term rests in the idea of obligation directly bearing upon the individual thing or person to be affected, and binding him or it to the discharge of the duty or satisfaction of the claim imposed. Thus, charging an estate with the payment of a debt is appropriating a definite portion to the particular purpose; charging a person with the commission of a crime is pointing out the individual who is bound to answer for the wrong committed; charging a jury is stating the precise principles of law applicable to the case immediately in question. In this view, a charge will, in general terms, denote a responsibility peculiar to the person or thing affected and authoritatively imposed, or the act fixing such responsibility. In Contracts. An obligation, binding upon him who enters into it, which may be removed or taken away by a discharge. Termes de la Ley. An undertaking to keep the custody of another person's goods. performance. Comyn, Dig. "Rent," c. 6; 2 Ball & B. 223. In Devises. A duty imposed upon a devisee, either personally, or with respect to the estate devised. In Equity Pleading. An allegation In the bill of matters which disprove or avoid a defense which it is alleged the defendant is supposed to pretend or intend to set up. Story, Eq. PI. § 31. In Practice. The instructions given by the court to the grand jury or inquest of the county, at the commencement of their session, in regard to their duty. The exposition by the court to the petit jury of those principles of the law which the latter are bound to apply in order to render such a verdict as will, in the state of facts proved at the trial to exist, establish the rights of the parties to the suit.

n. In general. An incumbrance, lien or burden; an obligation or duty; a liability; an accusation. Darling v. Rogers, 22 Wend. (N. Y.) 491. In contracts. An obligation, binding upon him who enters into it, which may be removed or taken away by a disebarge. Termes de 1a Ley. An undertaking to keep the custody of another person's goods. State v. Clark, 86 Me. 194, 29 AH. 984. An obligation entered into by the owner of an estate, which binds the estate for its performance. Com. Dig. "Rent," c. 6; 2 Ball & B. 223. In the law of wills. A responsibility or liability imposed by the testator upon a devisee personally, or upon the land devised.

In equity pleading. An allegation in the bill of matters which disprove or avoid a defense which it is alleged the defendant is supposed to pretend or intend to set up. Story, Eq. PI. § 31.

In equity practice. A paper presented to a master in chancery by a party to a cause, being a written statement of the items with which the opposite party should be debited or should account for, or of the claim of the party making it. It is more comprehensive than a claim, which implies only the amount due to the person producing it, while a charge may embrace the whole liabilities of the accounting party. Hoff. Mast. 36.

In common-law practice. The final address made by a judge to the jury trying a case, before they make up their verdict, in which he sums up the case, and instructs the jury as to the rules of law which apply to its various issues, and which they must observe, in deciding upon their verdict, when they shall have determined the controverted matters of fact. The term also applies to the address of the court to a grand jury, in which the latter are instructed as to their duties.

In Scotch law. The command of the king's letters to perform some act; as a charge to enter heir. Also a messenger's execution, requiring a person to obey the order of the king's letters; as a charge on letters of horning, or a charge against a superior. Bell.

— General charge. A charge or instruction by the court to the jury upon the case as a whole, or upon its general features or characteristics.

— Special charge. A charge or instruction given by the court to the jury, upon some particular point or question involved in the case, and usually in response to counsel's request for such instruction.

To lay on, to place upon or under a duty or a burden; to impose the money, as, to charge a debt upon the upon land, etc.; to place under a duty as by notice; to place upon a person the of the Rolls, three Vice-chan- Justices of Appeal,and the court the Lord Chancellor, and the two, v. Chftneellor; Master; England, whose business was brought in by merchants and; to pronounce or find, as ecclesiastical law. A church or yearly revenues, for the mainchant mass daily for the they appointed. religious edifice, in which dimanner as in the parochial founded in general at some itself, and designed for the as, in course of time, had distance from its site; and so church. chapel. The same thing to in writing of matters to justices in eyre, justices of as- Otherwise called capitula to placa An assembly of the prebendor collegiate church. particularly the latter, imhabit and distinguishing him in the law of evidence, the properly called reputation. to mark; to write. Chara writing; the oblitera-; to make or hold liable, as, duty or obligation of paying estate of a decedent, a legacy or obligation to know or do, burden of crime; to accuse; and formal allegation in a bill in equity, usually for the purpose of anticipating and meeting some matter of defense.

0. To impose a burden, obligation, or lien; to create a elaim against property; to claim, to demand; to accuse: to instruet a jury on matters of law.

1. A burden, incumbrance, charged with a debt. 2. A claim, up, or final address of a judge to a of a bill in equity, either alleging cipation of the defence, or to which fendant's answer. Charge and of taking accounts in chancery, account to the master, and the jections, or counter-claim. Charging under English statutes by a judgment of the debtor in any public company debt.

[Lat. onus.] A burden; an incumbrance or lien upon land; a duty or liability attached to, or obligation imposed upon a person.* 3 Co. 14, JBTarlerfscase, 1 Stqfh. Com. 848. 8 Id. 637. To CHARGE. nM.onerare.] To bind; to make or hold liable; to subject to, or burthen. Thus, land is said to be charged with a covenant of warranty, a debt, execution, (8 Co.l2, 14,) or trust. 4 £^ent's Com. 640. So a person is said to be charged with a duty or liability. 8 Co. ub. sup. " If two be bound in an obligation, there the charge shall survive: so it appears that when land shall be charged by any lien, the charge ought to be equal, and one alone shall not bear all the burthen, and the law on this point is grounded on great equity: but in all the cases at the common law, if the party who should be charged had aliened the land bona fide, before any action brought, the land in the hands of the purchaser was not subject to any charge or execution." Id. 14.

In practice. To subject land or person to execution. 8 Co. uh. sup. To charge a person in execution, is to take or arrest him by virtue of a writ of execution. 1 Tidd's Fr. 366, 867. 4 Term R. 867.

practice, is the opinlon expressed by the court to the ‘jury on the law arising out of a case before them, It should contain a clear and explicit exposition of the law, but the court ought at no time to undertake to decide the facts, for these are to be decided by the jury. 4 Rawle’s R. 195; 2 Penna. R, 27; 4 Rawle’s R. 356; Ib.100; 2Serg. & Rawle, 464; 1 Serg. & Rawle, 515; 8 Serg. & Rawle, 150.