Lead

To conduct or direct; to conduct in the way of duty. Lead a use: to specify or direct the use to which a conveyance is to operate. Lead a witness: to suggest by the mode of interrogation the answer desired. Lead in a cause: to have the management of the trial upon one sida upon and followed as a guide for subsequent decisiona Leading counsel: v. Lead. Leading question: v. Lead.

The counsel on either side ofa litigated action who is charged with the principal management and direction of the party’s case, as distinguished from his juniors or subordinates, is said to “lead in the cause,” and is termed the “leading counsel” on that side,:

V. To conduct in the way of duty. More frequently, "mislead." See INSTRUCT, 3. Lead a use. To declare or specify what ude.^^ Lead a witness. To suggest, by interrogation, the nature of the answer or answers » -yer is a suffix, as in sawyer. "Revenue Act 13 July, 1866, § 79: 14 St. L. 121. » Gk. laoa, the people. * A. S. lecgan, to cause to lay: licgan, to lie. » 8 Kent, 202. • [Cone V. Hartford, 38 Conn. 376 (1859), Storrs, C. J.; 19 id. 597. 'Fuller V. Springfield, 128 Mass. 291 (1877), Gray, C. J. 'Foster v. Park Commissioners, 133 Mass. 329 (1882), Field, J. » Charlestown, &c. R. Co. v. County Commissioners, 7 Mete. 84 (1843). 1" Bowman v. Boston, 5 Cush. 8 (1849); Fernald c. Boston, 12 id. 678-79 (1863). it is desired that the witness shall make. See Leading Question. Ijead in a cause or trial. To have the chief management of one side of a matter in litigation. See Leading Ccnmsel. Leading ease. A decision which is regarded, more or less generally, as settling the law upon the question involved. The idea may have been originally that such case stands first, in time, in a series of cases — takes the lead, is followed by others, enunciates the rule. Decisions, with and without annotations, and illustrative-of different branches of the law, have been collected and styled " Leading Cases." Leading counsel. That attorney, of two or more employed upon the same side of a cause, who has the principal management of his client's case. Leading question. A question which plainly suggests the answer wanted from a witness. See further Question, 1.

Occurs in some technical phrases. To lead a use. A deed made previous to a fine and recovery, in old English conveyancing, for the purpose of directing to what uses they should operate, was said to lead the use. When lands were conveyed by that species of conveyance termed a fine and recovery, the legal seisin and estate became thereby vested in the cognisee or recoveror; i.e., in the person who was the object of that conveyance. But, if the owner of the estate declared his intention that such fine or recovery should inure or operate to the use of a third person, a use immediately arose to such third person out of the seisin of the cognisee or recoveror; and the statute of uses transferred the actual possession to such use, without any entry on the part of such third person. The deed by which the owners of estates so declared their intention with regard to the lands thus conveyed was termed either a deed to lead the uses, or a deed to declare the uses: when executed prior to the levying the fine, or suffering the recovery, it bore the former appellation; when executed subsequently thereto, it bore the latter. (1 Cru. Dig. 396.) Brown. The expression leading a use was employed of a deed whereby a person covenanted to levy a fine, or suffer a recovery of lands, to certain uses upon which it was intended to settle the lands. The deed was then said to lead to the uses of the fine; that is, to give effect to the uses so specified. Or, if a fine or recovery were had without any previous settlement, and a deed were afterwards made between the parties, declaring the uses to which the same would be applied, this would be equally good as if the fine had been expressly levied, or the recovery suffered, in consequence of a deed directing its operation to those particular uses. So that the difference between a deed leading the use and a deed declaring the use was that the former was made previous to the fine or recovery, and the latter subsequently thereto. Mozley & W. To lead in a cause. To have the charge or direction of the prosecution or defence of a cause, upon its trial. The counsel to whom is assigned the principal management of the case for each party is termed the leading counsel on that side. To lead a witness. Signifies the practice of suggesting or implying to a witness, by form of question, what answer he is expected or desired to give. A question so phrased as to suggest the preference of the examining counsel as to the answer, or so as to furnish the witness with the answer, is called a "leading question." A question is leading which puts into a witness's mouth the words that are to be echoed back, or plainly suggests the answer which the party wishes to get from him. People v. Mather, 4 Wend. 229, 247. Leading case. A reported decision which has come to be generally regarded with approval, as settling the law on the question involved. Compare Causes Celebres.