Open

Manifest; apparent; outward; overt; public; not concealed; not closed, settled or fixed. Open account: an unsettled account between two persons having dealings with one anothet. Open corporation: a corporation in which all members have a voice in the election of ofl Scers. Open policy: a policy of insurance in which the amount of interest is not fixed, but left to be ascertained by the insured, in case of loss.

In old English law. Open law: the trial by duel or ordeal. In Scots la^o. Open doors: letters of open doors are process authorizing the ofl Scer to break open the doors of places in which the goods of a debtor are deposited.

In Saxon law. Open theft: manifest theft, — same with furtum manifestum.

adj. Subject to alteration and correction, unliquidated, unsettled, as an open account; accessible to all, free to the public, as an open court; apparent, known, made public, unconcealed, as open indecency. There are some other senses of rare occurrence. Open account, is one in respect to which nothing has occurred to bind either party by its statements; an account which is yet fully open to be disputed. But the phrase is also found in other senses. It sometimes designates an account of dealings which are still continuing; so that the account is open to further charges. It sometimes seems equivalent to mutual account, as meaning an account open to entries by either party. An open account is one in which some item of the contract is not settled by the parties, whether the account consists of one item or many; as where several loads of com are sold at the same time and delivered, and there is no stipulation as to the price, the account is open. Sheppard v. Wilkins, 1 Ala. 62. Where there have been running or current dealings between the parties, and the account is kept open with the expectation of further dealings, the account is said to be open. Goodwin v. Harrison, 6 Ala. 438. Open account, in legal as well as in ordinary language, means, an indebtedness subject to future adjustment, and which may be reduced or modified by proof. Nisbet r. Lawson, 1 Ga. 275. The phrase open accounts, in a statute of limitations, does not include the current account of a general agent of his expenditures for his principal. Dolhonde v. Laurans, 21 La. Ann. 406. An account cannot be considered an open account, and as such prescribed, by three debtor, with a statement In detail of its debtor and creditor items. Dixon v. Lyons, 13 La. Ann. 160. Open entry. An open and peaceable entry, within Mass. Gen. Sts. ch. 140, § 1, is an entry not opposed by the mortgagor or person claiming the premises, and made in the presence of two competent witnesses, whose certificate thereof is sworn to and duly recorded within thirty days, in the registry for the county where the land lies. Thompson v. Kenyon, 100 Mass. 108. Open insolvency. The "open and notorious insolvency," which excuses an assignee of a note from proceeding against the maker, before he can sue assignor or indorser, implies not merely the want of sufficient property to pay all of one's debts, but the absence of all property, within reach of the law, applicable to the payment of any debt. The insolvency of the estate of the maker of the note is not sufficient to excuse the assignee from proceeding against it. Nor does the death of the maker furnish such excuse, for the law supplies a representative where the decedent does not, and provides a remedy against the estate. Hardesty v. Klnworthy, 8 Blachf. 304. Open lewdness. If a man indecently exposes his person to a woman, and solicits her to have sexual intercourse with him, and persists in so doing, notwithstanding her opposition and remonstrance, this is "open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior," for which an indictment will lie, under Vt. Rev. Stat. ch. 99, § 8. The crime contemplated by that statute does not depend upon the number of persons to whom a man exposes himself. State v. Millard, 18 Vt. 574. Open policy, in marine insurance, is one in which the value of the subject insured is not fixed or agreed upon m the policy, as between the assured and the underwriter, but is left to be estimated in case of loss. The term is opposed to " valued policy," in which the value of the subject insured is fixed for the purpose of the insurance, and expressed on the face of the policy. Amoidd Mar. Ins. (4th ed.) pp. 217, 218; Crump Mar. Ins. § 369.