Overt

OVERTE, or OUVERTE (Law Fr. and Eng.) Open. Pound overt, an open or uncovered pound. 3 Bl. Comm. 12. Market overt, open market. 2 Id. 449. Lettres ouvertes, open letters; letters patent {q. V.) OVERT ACT CLaw La,t. apertum factum).

In criminal law. An open, manifest act, from which criminality may be implied. 193 111. App. 128. Brande. An open act, which must be manifestly proved. 3 Inst. 12.

Open. An overt act in treason is proof of the intention of the traitor, because it opens his designs: without an overt act, treason cannot be committed; 2 Cliitty, Cr. Law 40. An overt act is one which manifests the intention of the traitor to commit treason; Archb. Cr. PI. 379; 4 Bla. Com. 79; Co. 5d Inst. 12; Respublica v. Malin, 1 Dali. (U. 8.) 33, 1 L. Ed. 25; U. 8. v. Vigol, 2 Dali. (U. S.) 346, 1 L. Ed. 409; Re Bollman, 4 Cra. (U. S.) 75, 2 L. Ed. 554; U. S. v. Pryor, 3 Wash. C. C. 234, Fed. Cas. No. 16,096. In order to sustain a conviction for treason under the

Open; manifest; publlc; issuing in action, as distinguished from that which rests merely in intention or design.

— Market overt. See Market

— Overt act. In criminni law. An open, manifest act from which criminality may be implied. An open act, which must be manifestly proved. 3 Inst. 12. An overt act essential to establish an attempt to commit a crime is an act done to carry out the intention, and it must be such as would naturally effect that result unless prevented by some extraneous cause. People v. Mills, 178 N. Y. 274, 70 N. E. 786, 67 L R. A. 131. In reference to the crime of treason, and the provision of the federal constitution that a person shall not be convicted thereof unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same "overt act," the term means a step, motion, or action really taken in the execution of a treasonable purpose, as distinguished from mere words, and also from a treasonable sentiment, design, or purpose not issuing in action.

— Overt word. An open, plain word, not to be misunderstood. Cowell.

overte, ouverte, I. fr. and open, manifest act from which thing done toward carrying out

Open; manifest; public; issuing in action, as distinguished from that Which rests merely in intention or design.

i Open; public: opposed to covert. An overt act is something actually done toward carrying out intention, as, to commit treason, or to effect the object of a conspiracy.' An attempt to steal, accompanied by an overt act toward its commission, constitutes an attempt to commit larceny. An overt act must be such as will apparently result, in the natural course of events, if not hindered by extraneous causes, in the commission of the crime itself. Mere preliminary preparations are not overt acts.* See Accomplice; Conspiracy; Tbbabon. Market overt. A public market, q. v. ' Drew V. Drew, 87 Me. 392 (1854); Waters v. Tompans, 2 Crompt., M. & K. *T26 (183.5); 24 Mich. 22. « Patterson •». State, 12 Tex. Ap. 222 (1882). ' Newburyport Turnpike Corporation v. Eastern E. Co., 23 Pick. 329 (1839); Boston, &c. E. Co. v. Mayor of Lawrence, 2 Allen, 108 (1861). * F. overt; ovrir, to open. Pound overt. A common public pound, q. V.

Open, evident, Ovel, debet, I. The origin of the thing ought to be Court of Probate, v. Court, 110. Oitster. Shows to you. v. Partner. whither; whereas; with; within. Beyond the sea. fr. To put out; take away; dispossess; to Dispossession of a freehold or chattel real, corporeal or incorporeal; the most general from the possession of land; whereby the only regain possession by employing legal Ousterlemain (to remove the hand): 1. The livery, ward's lands out of the hands of the guardian arriving at the proper age; a writ against the 2. A delivery of lands out of the King's for the p Utitioner on a monstrans de droit. further; beyond. Ouster le mer: beyond barristers, v.' Queen's Counsel. Either a tenant taken for theft outside the thief taken within it. The privilege enjoyed manor of trying one of his tenants taken elseout of the protection of the law; whose propforfeited, and who has, in general, no legal rights. bore a caput lupinum, and might be killed at by which a defendant or person in concriminal process was declared an outlaw. If it amounted to conviction and attainder. utlagatum. Attendant term. Ovesque: with. v. Market. En owel main: 0^7ling. The offence of transporting wool or sheep out of the kingdom.

Open; public. In the law of crimes, overt is applied to " act," to intensify the distinction between a design or intent, and something actually and manifestly done in the execution of it. In the law of sales, market overt (}. B.) is a public market. Overt act. In modem prosecutions for treason in England, much stress has been laid upon the necessity of making due proof of some manifest, open act of treasonable nature, in order that no one should be condemned for mere treasonable designs or words. It is necessary, in order to a conviction, to substantiate either one overt act by at least two witnesses, or two overt acts of the same character by one witness apiece. The importance of any such rule in the law of treason, in the United States, is much diminished by the careful definitions of treason, which the constitutions prescribe. Overt act, in the act of congress of Feb. 12, 1793, respecting fugitives, &c., means one which is both intended and calculated to elude the master's vigilance. Jones v. Van Zandt, 5 How. 215, 228.