Rank modus
Defined in 2 dictionaries — Black's (1910), Abbott (1879)
Black's Law Dictionary
Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
One that is too large. Rankness is a mere rule of evidence, drawn from the improbability of the fact, rather than at fule of law. 2 Steph. Comm. 729.
Defined under Modus in Black's Law Dictionary.
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Every modus of tithes is presumably based on a composition on fairly equitable terms, by which the modus is substituted for the payment of tithe. See Modus. If then, a modus be so large that it, beyond dispute, exceeds the value of the tithes in the time of Richard I. (the date of legal memory), it is called a rank modus, and will not be accepted as a legal modus; for, as it would be destroyed by any direct evidence proving its non-existence at any time since that era, so also it is destroyed by carrying in itself this internal evidence of a much later origin. 2 Bl. Com. 30, 31 j 2 Steph. Com. 729.