Privy

One who is a partaker or has any part or interest in any action, matter, or thing. Co. Litt. 271a. One who has an interest in an estate created by another, or in a contract or conveyance to which he is not a party. A mutual or successive relationship of persons. 263 111. 203; 246 111. 573. Privity may be:. (1) Of contract, being the relation which (2) In estate, as between lessor and lessee. (3) In blood, as between an heir and his ancestor. (4) In representation, as between a testator and his executors. (5) In tenure, as between a lord and his feudal tenants. (6) In person, as between husband and wife or trustee and beneficiary. (7) In possession, as between joint tea ants or tenants in common. (8) In law, as where the law casts land upon another without privity of blood or estate, as by escheat. A more general division has been made into privies in estate, privies in blood, and privies in law. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 189.

One who is a partaker or has any part or interest in any action, matter, or thing.

A person who is in privity with another. See Privies; Privity. As an adjective, the word has practically the same meaning as "private."

— Privy council. In English law. The principal council of the sovereign, composed of the cabinet ministers, and other persons chosen by the king or queen as privy councillors. 2 Steph. Comm. 479, 480. The judicial committee of the privy council acts as a court of ultimate appeal in various cases.

— Privy councillor. A member of the privy council.

— Privy purse. In English law. The income set apart for the sovereign's personal use.

— Privy seal. In English law. A seal used in making out grants or letters patent, preparatory to their passing under the great seal. 2 Bl. Comm. 347.

— Privy signet. In English law. The signet or seal which is first used in making out grants and letters patent, and which is always in the custody of the principal secretary of state. 2 Bl. Comm. 347.

— Privy token. A false mark or sign, forged object, counterfeited letter, key, ring, etc., used to deceive persons, and therebv fraudulently get possession of property. St. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 1. A false privy token is a false private document or sign, not such as is calculated to deceive men generally, but designed to defraud one or more individuals. Cheating by such false token was not indictable at common law. Pub. St. Mass. 1882, p. 1294.

— Privy-verdict. In, practice. A verdict given privily to the judge out of court, but which was of no force unless afterwards affirmed by a public verdict given openiv in court. 3 Bl. Comm. 377. Kramer v. Kister, 187 Pa. 227, 40 Atl. 1008, 44 In R. A. 432 ; Barrett v. State, 1 Wis. 175; Young v. Seymour, ,4 Neb. 89 ; Co.m. v. Heller, 5 Phila. (Pa.) 123. Now generally Superseded by the "sealed verdict," i. e , one written out. sealed up, and delivered to the judge or the clerk of the court.

V. Privies; Privity.

» 1, adj. (1) Connected with; concerned with; affected alike. (2) In the sense of "private," used in the English phrases privy council, privy seal, qq. V. Privy verdict. A verdict given privily to the judge, out of court; similai- to a sealed verdict.^ See further Verdict. 2, n. A person so connected with another in an estate, a right, or a liability as to be affected as he is affected. Privies are persons between whom some connection exists, arising from a mutual contract: as, donor and donee; lessor and lessee; or, persons related by blood: as, ancestor and heir.' Privies in blood. Ancestor and heir, and co-parceners. Privies in estate. Lessor and lessee, donor and donee, and joint-tenants. Privies in representation. Testator and executor, intestate and administrator. Privies in law. Are created by the lawcasting land upon a person, as, in escheat." Privity. (1) Mutual or successive rela/tionship to the same rights of property.^ (2) Participation; complicity. 1 See Constitution, A.-t. I, sec. 6. • 1 Bl. Com. 16-1. ' Pri'v-y. 'L.priva Cus, apart: privus, single. «.3 Bl. Com. 377; 5 ?hila. 124; 6 id. 530. s 1 Greenl. Ev. § If i). As to privies in estate, see May refer to some fault or neglect in which one personally participates; as, in the expression, "loss occasioned without the privity " of another vessel. * Privity of contract. Something on which an obligation, an engagement, a promise can be implied.2 No action lies where there is no privity of contract. Thus, B cannot maintain an action against C, where A. who is under a contract to sell an article to B, is induced by C to sell to C himself." The holder of a bill or check cannot sue the bank for refusing payment, in the absence of proof that the bill was accepted by the bank or cliarged against the drawer.* When one suffers loss from the negligence of another, and there is neither fraud or collusion nor privity of contract, the person causing the loss is not liable therefor, unless the act is one immediately dangerous to the lives of others, or is an act not performed in pursuance of a legal duty.' The rule undoubtedly is that a person cannot be affected by any evidence, decree, or judgment to which he was not actually, or in consideration of law, a privy. This rule has been departed from so that wherever i-eputation would be admissible evidence, there a verdict between strangers, in a former action, is also evidence; as, in cases of public rights of way, immemorial customs, disputed boundaries, and pedigrees.* A party claiming through another is estopped by that which is established as to that other respecting the same subject-matter.' The ground upon which persons standing in this relation to a litigating party are bound by the proceedings is, that they are identified with him in interest; and whenever this identity is found to exist, all are alike concluded.^ See Adjudication, Former. Because they are identified in interest, the admission of one privy binds his fellows." See Res, Inter alios.

V. Priviti/. Privy council: the Enghsh royal council, the judicial committee of which acts, or formerly acted, in lunacy, ecclesiastical, and admiralty cases as a court of last appeal; and has power of inquiring into offences against the government; V. Court, 6, 14. Privy seal t in England, grants and letters pass first under the privy signet, kept by a secretary of state; then under the privy seal, kept by the Lord Privy Seal, usually a baron and member of the Cabinet; and then, if necessary, under the Great Seal. Privy verdict: one formerly given to the judge out of court, when the jury had agreed after adjournment.

1. As an adjective (and this, is its original force), means connected with; likewise affected; concerned with another; as well conversant or acquainted with something. In a secondary use, it appears as a noun, signifying a person who is connected with another in such way as to be affected as he is, by matter involving estates, rights, liabilities, &c., in which the two are concerned. Privies: persons between whom some connection exists, arising from some mutual contract entered into with each other, as between donor and donee, lessor and lessee; or persons related by blood, as ancestor and heir, &c. Privity: the connection between persons who are privies; mutual or successive relationship to the same rights of property. The noun privy is used with various adjuncts, in order to express the nature of the privity or connection which exists between persons. Thus persons related by blood, as ancestor and heir, for instance, are denominated privies in blood; those related to a party by mere right of representation, as executors or administrators of a deceased person, are denominated privies in representation or in right; those connected with each other in respect of estate, as lessors and lessees, donors and donees, &c., are denominated privies in estate. Various more minute classifications and distinctions are drawn in the older books. Wharton makes six kinds of privies: Privies of blood, such as the heir to his ancestor; privies in representation, as executors, or administrators to their deceased testator or intestate; privies in estate, between grantor and grantee, lessor and lessee, assignor and assignee, &c.; privies in respect of contract; privies in respect of estate and contract, as where the lessee assigns his interest, but the contract between the not having accepted of the assignee; privies in law, as the lord by escheat, a tenant by the curtesy, or in dower, the incumbent of a benefice, a husband suing or defending in right of his wife, &c. For other lines of distinction, see Jacob or Tomlins. 2. As an adjective, solely, privy is used in a sense partly embodying or suggesting " private," in several terms of English law. Privy council. The council of state held by the English sovereign with councillors, to concert matters for the public service and for the honor and safety of the realm. It is summoned on a warning of forty-four hours, and never held without the presence of a secretary of state. The junior delivers his opinion first, and the sovereign, if present, last. It is dissolved six months after the demise of the crown, unless.sooner determined by the successor. The privy council has power to inquire into all offences against the government, and to commit the offenders to take their trial. It has also the judicial authority of a court of justice in colonial causes, in appeals from the ecclesiastical com-ts, in applications to prolong the terms of patents for new inventions, and in certain cases arising out of the copyright acts. These functions are exercised •through the judicial committee. There are also other committees of the privy council charged with various matters. The -judicature acts contemplate that the jurisdiction exercised by the judicial committee of the privy council upon appeals from the high court of admiralty, and 'from orders in lunacy made by the lord chancellor or other person having jurisdiction in lunacy, will be transferred tothe court of appeal established by that act; and -provision is also made by that act for the hearing of aU appeals to the queen in council before the court of appeal. See 1 Bl. Com. 229; 2 Steph. Com. 457; Jud. Act, 1873, §§ 18, 55. Privy councillor. A member of the privy council. Privy councillors are made such by the sovereign's nomination, without either patent or grant; and on such nomination, and after honorable " during the Ufe of the sovereign who has chosen them, but subject to removal at his discretion. Their number is indefinite. Their duties are: to advise the sovereign according to the best of their cunning and discretion; to advise for the sovereign's honor and good of ■ the public, without partiality through affection, love, meed, doubt, or dread; to keep the sovereign's counsel secret; to avoid corruption; to help and strengthen the execution of what shall be there resolved; to withstand aU persons who would attempt the contrary; to observe, keep, and do all that a true and good councillor ought to do to his sovereign. See 2 Steph. Com. 469. Privy purse. The income set apart for the personal use of the English sovereign. Privy seal. A seal which the sovereign affixes to grants or things which pass the great seal. First, they pass the privy signet, then the privy seal, and, lastly, the great seal of England. The privy seal is also used in matters of small moment which never pass the great seal. Cowel; 2 Bl. Com. 347; 1 Steph. Com. 619. Privy signet. The sovereign's privy seal; it is in the custody of one of the principal secretaries of state. Privy tithes. Small tithes. Privy verdict. When the judge has left or adjourned the court, and the jury being agreed, in order to be delivered from their confinement, obtain leave to give their verdict privily to the judge out of court, this is called a privy verdict; but such verdicts are now disused. See 8 Bl. Com. 377. A somewhat similar practice exists, however, known as a sealed verdict, in which the jury are allowed to write down their verdict, seal it up, and deliver it to the clerk. They are then allowed to go home, but must return next morning, when the verdict is opened and read in their hearing.