Stellionate

In Civil Law. A name given generally to all species of frauds committed in making contracts. This word is said to be derived from the Latin stellio, a kind of lizard remarkable for its cunning and the change of its color, because those guilty of frauds used every art and cunning to conceal them. But more particularly it was the crime of a person who fraudulently assigned, sold, or engaged the thing which he had before assigned, sold, or engaged to another, unknown to the person with whom he was dealing. Dig. 47. 20. 3; Code 9. 34. 1; Merlin, Rtpert.J La. Civ. Code, art. 2069; 1 Brown, Civ. Law 426. As a punishment those persons who granted double conveyances were declared infamous and their lives and goods were at the mercy of the king. Ersk. Prin. 441.

An obsolete name for offences that are by no means obsolete. It seems to have been vaguely used for a variety of wrongs, chiefly, however, such as involved fraud. Examples given in the books are: f raudulent bankruptcy; selling another man's property as one's own; making a second mortgage without giving notice of the first. Stet processus. Let the process practice by which a plaintiff agrees that all further proceedings in the action shall be stayed. In English practice, this course was usually pursued where the defendant became insolvent pending the action. The object was to prevent his obtaining judgment as in case of a nonsuit. Stet processus is an entry on the roll in the nature of a judgment of a direction that all further proceedings shall be stayed {i.e. that the process may stand), and it is one of the ways by which a suit may be put an end to by an act of the party, as distinguished from a termination of it by judgment, which is the act of the court. Brown.

ectvil law. A name given generally to all species of frauds committed in making contracts. This word is said to be derived from the latin séellzo, a kind of lizard remarkable for its cunning and the change of its colour, because those guilty of frauds used every art and cunning to conceal them.. But more particularly it was the crime of a person who fraudulently assigned, sold, or engaged in the thing which he had before assigned, sold, or engaged to another, unknown to the person with whom he was dealinv. Dig. 47, 20,3; Code, 9, 34, 1; Merl. Répert. h.t.; Code Civil, art. 2069; 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 426.