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Spoliator

Defined in 3 dictionaries — Black's (1910), Kinney (1893), Anderson (1889)

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

Lat. A spoiler or destroyer. It is a maxim of law, bearing chiefly on evidence, but also upon the value generally of the thing destroyed, that everything most to his disadvantage is to be presumed against the destroyer, (spoliator,) contra spoliatorem omnia prœsumuntur. 1 Smith, Lead. Cas. 315.

A Law Dictionary and Glossary

George C. Kinney · 1893

I.

In old English law. A despoiler (of a deed). Spoliatus debet ante omnia restitul, I A prived of possession] ought first of all to be

A Dictionary of Law

William C. Anderson · 1889

A despoiler, a destroyer; a wrong-doer; one who fraudulently alters a writing. In odium spoliatoris omnia praesumuntur. In condemnation of the despoiler, all things are presumed. Omnia praesumuntur contra spoliatorem. All things are presumed against the despoiler: every presumption will be made against a person who destroys or suppresses that which might be evidence against him; also, all things are presumed against the wrong-doer: no man shall receive advantage from his own wrong. The rule, applied in all its rigor, is for wrong-doers — for those who have been guilty of fraud or willful disregard of duty.