Placer

See Mines and Mining. PLACET (Fr.). The name of a document in French practice requesting an audience of the court. Outside of Paris the request is made verbally, in Paris the avout) of the plaintiff sends his request to the clerk of the court who puts the case on the list. PLACITA COMMUNIA (Lat.). Common pleas. All civil actions between subject and subject 3 Bla. Com. 38, *40; Cowell, Pita. See Placitum. PLACITA CORONA (Lat.). Pleas of the crown. All trials for crimes and misdemeanors, wherein the king is plaintiff, on behalf of the people. 3 Bla. Com. 40*; Cowell, Plea. PLACITA JURIS (Lat). Arbitrary rules of law. Bac. Law Tr. 73; Bac. Max. Keg. 12 -, constitution or rescript of the emperor; the decision of a’ judge or award of arbitrators. Yicat, Yoc. Jur.; Calvinus, Lex; Dupin, No tions sur Ic Droit. In Old English Law (Ger. plats, Lat. platea, i. e. fields or streets). An assembly of all degrees of men, where the king presided and they consulted about the great affairs of the kingdom: first held, as the name would show, in the fields or street. Cowell. So on the continent. Ilinc. de Or dine Palatii, c. 29; Bertinian, Annals of France in the year 767; Const. Car. Mag. cap. ix.; Ilinc. Epist. 197, 227; Laws of the Longobards, passim. A lord’s court Cowell. An/ ordinary court. Placita is the style of the English courts at the beginning of the record at nisi prius; in this sense, placita are divided into pleas of the crown and common pleas, which see. Cowell. A trial or suit in court. Cowell; Jacobs. A fine. Black Book of Exchequer, lib. 2, tit. 13; 1 Hen. I. cc. 12, 13. A plea. This word is nomen generalissi mum, and refers to all the pleas in the case. 1 Saund. 388, n. 6. By placitum is also understood the subdivisions in abridgments and other works, where the point decided in a case is set down separately, and, generally, numbered. In citing, it is abbreviated as follows; Viner, Abr. Abatement pi. 3. Placitum nominatum is the day appointed for a criminal to appear and plead. Placitum fractum. A day past or lost to the defendant. 1 Hen. I. c. 59.

In mining law. A superficial deposit of sand, gravel or disintegrated rock, carrying one or more of the'precious metals, along the course or under the bed of a water-course, ancient or current or along the shore of the sca. Under the acts of congress, the term Includes all forms of mineral deposits, except veins of quartz or other rock in place. Rev. St. U. S. § 2329 (U. S. Co.mp. St. 1901, p. 1432). See Montana Coal & Coke Co., v. Livingston, 21 Mont. 59, 52 Pac. 780; Gregory v. Pershbaker, 73 Cal. 109, 14 Pac. 401; Freezer v. Sweeney, 8 Mont. 508, 21 Pac. 20.

— Placer claim. A mining claim located on the public domain for the purpose of placer mining, that is, ground within the defined boundaries which contains mineral in its earth, sand, or g;ravel; ground which includes valuable deposits not "in place," that is, not fixed in rock, or which are in a loose state. U. S. v. Iron Silver Min. Co.., 128 U. S. 673, 9 Sup. Ct. 195, 32 L. Ed. 57l; Clipper Min. Co., v. Eli Min. Co., 194 U. S 220, & Sup. Ct. 632, 48 L. Eli. 944; Wheeler v. Smith, 5 Wash. 704, 32 Pac. 784.

— Placer location. A placer elaim located aad occupied on the public domain.