Fact

[L.Lni. factum, q. v.] A thing done; a circumstance, event or occurrence. This word was anciently used almost exclusively as the synony me of act or deed; e. g. "accessary before and after the fact;" but in modem law it has the broader sense of circumstance. Fact is contrasted with law in the common phrases, "attorney at law and attorney in fad;** ** issue in law, and issue mfact; ' " fraud in law, and fraud in fact.^' The Lat faeium had sometimes the more intense 59 sense of a thing done in vidaiion of lair. See Factum.