Girth And Sanctuary

In Scotch law. A refuge or place of safety given to those who had slain a man in heat of passion (chaude melle), and unpremeditatedly. Abolished at the Reformation. 1 Hume, Hist. Eng. 235; 1 Ross, Lect. 331.

In Scotch Law. A refuge or place of safety given to those who had slain a man in heat of passion (chaude medley) and unpremeditatedly. Abolished at the Reformation. 1 Hume 235; 1 Ross, Lect. 331. • GIST (sometimes, also, spelled git). In Pleading. The essential ground or object of the action in point of law, without which there would be no cause of action. Gould, PI. c. 4, § 12; 19 Vt 102. The cause for which an action will lie; the ground or foundation of a suit, without which it would not be maintainable; the essential ground or object of a suit, without which there is not a cause of action. First Nat Bank of Flora V. Burkett, 101 111..394, 40 Am. Rep. 209. In stating the gist of the action, everything must be averred which is necessary to be proved at the trial. The moving cause of the plaintiff’s bringing the action, and the matter for which he recovers the principal satisfaction, is frequently entirely collateral to the gist of the action. Thus, where a father sues the defendant for a trespass for the seduction of his daughter, the gist of the action is the trespass and the loss of his daughter’s service^; but the collateral cause is the Injury done to his feelings, for which the principal damages are given. See 1 Vlner, Abr. 598; Tayl. Ev. 334; Bac., Abr. Pleas, B.; Doctr. Plac. 85; Damages.

In old Scotch law. An asylum given to murderers, where the murder was committed without any previous design, and in chaude mella, or heat of passion. Bell.