Faith

A term used In the law only in connection with the adjectives good and bad, as expressing the belief, intent, or purpose with which a transaction has been entered into or completed. See Goon Faith.

1. Confidence; credit; reliance. Thus, an act may be said to be done "on the faith" of certain representations.
2. Belief; credence; trust. Thus, the constitution provides that "full faith and credit" shall be given to the judgments of each state in the courts of the others.
3. Purpose; intent; sincerity; state of knowledge or design. This is the meaning of the word in the phrases "good faith" and "bad faith."

In Scotch law. A solemn pledge; an oath. "To make faith" is to swear, with the right hand uplifted, that one will declare the truth. 1 Forb. Inst pt. 4, p. 235.

Belief; confidence; reliance; credence; trust, q. v. Fair intent of purpose; honesty, openness, uprightness; sincerity; fidelity to a representation, promise, or duty. Good faith. Honest, lawful intent; thfe condition of acting without knowledge of fraud and without intent to assist in a fraudulent or otherwise unlawful scheme. Bad faith. Guilty knowledge or willful ignorance. The corresponding Latin expressions are bona fides, and mala fides. See Fides. A creditor,' holder, possessor,^ pi^rchaser,^ or transferee in good faith is one who has loaned monpy or purchasec Tprbperty faiiiy,.in the usual bourse ofbusi; ness, and without being cognizant of, or implicated in, Khy intent which the borrower or seller may have had to evade the claims of his creditors or to defraud some person interested in the matter.^*" The title of a person who takes negotiable paper before it is due, for a valuable consideration, can only be defeated by showing bad faith in him, which implies guilty knbwledge or willful ignorance of the facts impairing the title of the party from whom he received it. The burden of proof lies on the assailant of the taker's title.," A purchaser in good faith of negotiable paper for 1 Warner v. Arctic Ice Co., 74 Me. 479 (1883). 2 Satcher v. Satcher, 41 Ala. 40 (1867). s Lawrence v. Fmch, 17 N. J. B. 239 (1865). < Morgan v. Hazlehurst Lodge, 53 Miss. 683 (1876). = See 1 Bl. Com. 274. « 1 Pars. Contr. 333. ' See 66 Ga. 722;' 30 Minn. 87S. 8 See 31 Md. 454; 8 Wheat. 79; 12 Tex. 322; 24 id. 379. "See 71 Ala. 231; 44 Conn. 459; 65 Barb. 231; 7Johns. Ch. 65; 2 Utah, 52. i« [1 Abbott's Law Diet. 636; 111 U. S. 80. " Hotchkiss V. Tradesmen's, &c. Nat, Banks, 31 Wall. 359 (1874), cases; Dresser v. Missouri, &c. Co., 93 U. S. value, before maturity, takes it freed from all infirmities in its origin, unless it is absolutely void for want of power in the maker to issue it, or its circulation is by law prohibited by reason of the illegality of the consideration. His transferee, with notice of the infirmities, may equally recover.^ A party who, before its maturity and for a valuable consideration, purchases mercantile paper from the apparent owner thereof, ' acquires a right thereto which can only be defeated by proof of bad faith or of actual notice of such facts as impeach the validity of the transaction.* A holder in good faith is a purchaser for value without notice, or his successor. ^ The bad faith in the taker of negotiable paper-' which will defeat a recovery by him must be something more than a failure to inquire into the consideration upon which it was made or accepted, because of rumors or general reputation as to the bad character of the maker or drawer.* See further Negotl^te, 2; Notice, 1; Lost,' 2. One who buys at a voluntary sale from his debtor, crediting the consideration on a pre-existing debt,, is not a bona fide purchaser for value: he advances nothing, and, if the title fails, loses nothing.^ The highest good faith' is exacted of a person dealing with a trustee respecting the trust property. See Trust, 1; Fiduciary. Full faith and credit. ' ' Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Eecords, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. " * For the history of this prdvision, see Extradition, page 441. A record must be authenticated as prescribed by act of May 35, 1790.' The records and judicial proceedings of the courts of any State (authenticated as herein prescribed) " shall have such faith and credit given to them, in every (jourt within the United States, as they have by law or usage in the courts of the State frora which they are taken." ** The judgments of the courts of the United States have invariably been recognized as upon the same 1 Cromwell v. County of Sac, 96 U. S., 61, 59 (1877), cases. Field, J.; Bowditch v. New England Life Ins. Co., 141 Mass. 396 (1886)., = Swift V, Smith, 103 U. S. 444 (1880), Strong, J. 3 Mc Clure li. Township of Oxford, 94 U. S. 432 (1876), Waite, C. J. * Goetz V. Bank of Kansas City, 119 U. S. 660 (1887), Field, j; See, in general, 22 Cent. Law J. 437-42 (1886), cases. = Overstreet v. Manning, 67 Tex. 661 (1887); 61 id. 648. " Constitution, Art, IV, sec. 1. ' Caperton v. Ballard, 14 Wall. 241 (1871). footing, so far as coucerns the oblig:ation created by them, with domestic judgments of the States.' A judgment duly rendered in one State is conclusive as to the merits of the case in evei*y other State, a But want of jurisdiction over the party, or matter, may be shown dehors, emd even in contradiction of the record.^ The Federal courts give the judgment of a State_ court the force and effect to which it is entitled in the ■ Courts of the State. No greater effect can be given to any judgment of a court of one State in another State than is given to It in the State where rendered. Any other rule would contravene the policy of the provision of the Constitution and laws of the t Tnited States on that subject.' The evils which would result from a general system of re-examination of the judicial proceedings of other States are apparent. The f ramers of the Constitution intended to attribute to the " public acts, records, and judicial proceedings " of each of the States positive and absolute verity, so that they cannot be contradicted, or the truth of them denied, any more than in the State where they originated.* The duty to follow the courts of a State, upon questions arising upon the construction of its own statutes, rests upon comity... The provision relates only to the conclusiveness of judgments as between parties and privies.' See Comity; Law, Foreign. The Federal courts, exercising their original jurisdiction, take notice, without proof, of the laws of the several States; but, as no State court is charged with a knowledge of the laws of another State, in the Supreme Court, when acting under its appellate jurisdiction, whatever was matter of fact in the court whose judgment is under review, continues matter of fact.' Fait Mally. When a public officer gives a bond conditioned faithfully to discharge his official duties, " faithfully " implies that he has assumed the measure of responsibility laid on him by law had no bond been given. Everything is unfaithfulness which the law does not excuse.^ " Fairly and impartially," in the expression " faithfully, fairly, and impartially," add something to the 1 Embry v. Palmer, 107 V. S. 10-11 (1882), cases. a M'Elmoyle v. Cohen, 13 Pet. 336 (1839). s Thompson v. Whitman, 18 Wall. 463-64 (1873), cases; Pennoyer v. Nell, 95 V. S. 729 (1877); 30 Gratt. 266. * Board of Public Works v. Columbia College, 17 WaU 529 (1873); Robertson v. Piokrell, 111 U. S. 611 (1883); Chicago, &c. E. Co. v. Wiggins Ferry Co., 119 id. 622 (1887). s 3 Story, Const., 3 ed., § 1310. 'Wiggins Ferry Co. v. Chicago, &c. E. Co., 3 Mc Crary, 609, 613 (1883), oases; 11 F. E. 381, 384. ' Chicago, &c. E. Co. v. Wiggins Ferry Co., 119 U. S. 623 (1887). force of the word "faithfully," and should not be omitted from a statutory form of an oath of offiee.i A bond that one will "well, truly, firmly, and impartially " perform the duties of an office, is not invalid as varying from the statutory form "for the faithful performance of his duties." ^

In Scotch law. A solemn pledge; an oath. " To make faith " is to swear with the right hand uplifted, that one will declare the truth. 1 Forbes* Inst. part 4, p. 235. This phrase seems to be the literal translation of affidare, (q. v.)