Legal Term Dictionary

A homestead or hoinesfall which is accessory to a house.

A homestead or hoinesfall which is accessory to a house. Less...

Swindling; shrewd cunning. The use of tricks and artifice.

Swindling; shrewd cunning. The use of tricks and artifice. Less...

Principal; leading; head; eminent in power or importance; the most important or valuable of several. Declaration in chief is a declaration for the principal cause of action. 1 Tidd, Pr. 419. Examination in chief Is the first examination of a witness by the party who produces him. 1 Greenl. Ev. More...

Principal; leading; head; eminent in power or importance; the most important or valuable of several. Declaration in chief is a declaration for the principal cause of action. 1 Tidd, Pr. 419. Examination in chief Is the first examination of a witness by the party who produces him. 1 Greenl. Ev. f 445. —Ohlef baron. The presiding judge of the English court of exchequer; answering to the chief justice of other courts. 3 BL Comm. 44; 3 Steph. Comm. 401.—Chief Clerk. The principal clerical officer of a bureau or department, who Is generally charged, subject to the direction of his superior officer, with the superintendence of the administration of the business of the office—Chief judge. The judge of the London bankruptcy court is so called. In general, the term is equivalent to "presiding justice" or "presiding magistrate." Bean v. Loryea, 81 Cal. 151, 22 Pac. 513.—Chief Justice. The presiding, eldest, or principal judge of a court of justice.—Chief justice of England. The presiding judge in the king's bench division of the high court of justice, and, in the absence of the lord chancellor, president of the high court, and also an ex officio judge of the court of appeals. The full title is "Lord Chief Justice of England." —Chief justice of the common pleas. In England. The presiding judge in the court of common pleas, and afterwards in the common pleas division of the high court of justice, and one of the ex officio judges of the high court of appeal.—Chief justiciar. In old English law. A high judicial officer and special magistrate, who presided over the aula regis of the Norman kings, and who was also the principal minister of state, the second man in the kingdom, and, by virtue of his office, guardian of the realm in the king's absence. 3 Bl. Comm. 38.—Chief lord. The immediate lord of the fee, to whom the tenants were directly and personally responsible.—Chief magistrate. The head of the executive department of government of a nation, state, or municipal corporation. Mclntire v. Ward, 3 Yeates (Pa.) 424.—Chief pledge. The borsholder, or chief of the borough. Spelman. —Chief rents. In English law. Were the annual payments of freeholders of manors; and were also called "quit-rents," because by paying them the tenant was freed from all other rents or services. 2 Bl. Comm. 42.—Chief, tenant In* In English feudal law. All the land in the kingdom was supposed to be holden mediately or immediately of the king, who was styled the "Lord Paramount," or "Lord Above All;" and those that held immediately under him, in right of his crown and dignity, were called his tenants "in capite" or "in chief," which was the most honorable species of tenure, but at the Bame time subjected the tenant to greater and more burdensome services than inferior tenures did. Brown. Less...

In feudal law. A small rent paid to the lord paramount

In feudal law. A small rent paid to the lord paramount Less...

This word has two meanings in law: (1) In the law of the domestic relations, and as to descent and distribution, it is used strictly as the correlative of "parent" and means a son or daughter considered as in relation with the father or mother. (2) In the law of More...

This word has two meanings in law: (1) In the law of the domestic relations, and as to descent and distribution, it is used strictly as the correlative of "parent" and means a son or daughter considered as in relation with the father or mother. (2) In the law of negligence, and in laws for the protection of children, etc., it is used as the opposite of "adult/' and means the young of the human species, (generally under the age of puberty,) without any reference to parentage and without distinction of sex. Miller v. Finegan, 26 FJa. 29, 7 South. 140, 6 L. R. A. 813. —Child', part. A "child's part," which a widow, by statute in some states, is entitled to take in lieu of dower or the provision made for her by will, is a full share to which a child of the decedent would be entitled, subject to the debts of the estate and the cost of administration up to and including distribution. Benedict v. Wilms rth, 46 Fla. 535, 35 South. 84.—Natural child. A bastard; a child born out of lawful wedlock. But in a statute declaring that adopted shall have all the rights of "natural" children, the word "natural" was used in the sense of "legitimate." Barns v. Allen, 9 Am. Law Reg. (O. S.) 747. In Louisiana. Illegitimate children who have been adopted by the father. Civ. Code La, art. 220. In the civil law. A child by natural relation or procreation; a child by birth, as distinguished from a child by adoption. Inst. 1, 11, pr.; Id. 3, 1, 2; Id. 3, 8, pr. A child by concubinage, in contradistinction to a child by marriage. Cod. 5, 27.—Quasi posthumous child. In the civil law. One who, born during the life of his grandfather or other male ascendant, was not his heir at the time he made his testament, but who by the death of his father became his heir in his life-time. Inst. 2, 13, 2; Dig. 28, 3, 13. Less...

Offspring; progeny. Legitimate offspring; children% born in wedlock. Bell v. Phyn, 7 Ves. 458. The general rule is that "children," in a bequest or devise, means legitimate children. Under a devise or bequest to children, as a class, natural children are not included, unless the testator's intention to include them More...

Offspring; progeny. Legitimate offspring; children% born in wedlock. Bell v. Phyn, 7 Ves. 458. The general rule is that "children," in a bequest or devise, means legitimate children. Under a devise or bequest to children, as a class, natural children are not included, unless the testator's intention to include them is manifest, either by express designation or necessary implication. Heater v. Van Auken, 14 N. J. Eq. 159; Gardner v. Heyer, 2 Paige (N. Y.) 11. In deeds, the word "children" signifies the immediate descendants of a person, in the ordinary sense of the word, as contradistinguished from issue; unless there be some accompanying expressions, evidencing that the word is used in an enlarged sense. Lewis, Perp. 196. In wills, where greater latitude of construction is allowed, in order to effect the obvious intention of the testator, the meaning of the word has sometimes been extended, so as to include grandchildren* and it has been held to be synonymous with issue. Lewis, Perp. 195, 196; 2 Crabb, .Real Prop. pp. 38, 39, §| 988, 989 ; 4 Kent. Comm. 345, 346, note. The word "heirs," in Its natural signification, is a .word of limitation; and it is presumed to be used in that sense, unless a contrary intention appears. But the term "children, in its natural sense, is a word of purchase, and is to be taken to have been used as such, unless there are other expressions in the will showing that the testator intended to use it as a word of limitation only. Sanders, Matter of, 4 Paige (N. Y.) 293; Rogers v. Rogers, 3 Wend. (N. Y.) 503, 20 Am. Dec. 716. In the natural and primary sense of the word "children," it implies immediate offspring, and, in its legal acceptation, is not a word of limitation, unless it is absolutely necessary so to construe it in order to give effect to the testator's intention. Echols v. Jordan, 39 Ala. 24. "Children" is ordinarily a word of description, limited to persons standing in the same relation, and has the same effect as if all the names were given; but heirs, in the absence of controlling or explanatory words, includes more remote descendants, and is to be applied per stirpes. Bal-eom y. Haynes, 14 Allen (Mass.) 204. Less...

In Saxon. law. The right which a lord had of taking a fine of his bondwoman gotten with child without his liceuse. Termes de la Ley; Cowell.

In Saxon. law. The right which a lord had of taking a fine of his bondwoman gotten with child without his liceuse. Termes de la Ley; Cowell. Less...

In English law. The stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds is a nominal office in the gift of the crown, usually accepted by members of the house of commons desirous of vacating their seats. By law a member once duly elected to parliament is compelled to discharge the duties of the More...

In English law. The stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds is a nominal office in the gift of the crown, usually accepted by members of the house of commons desirous of vacating their seats. By law a member once duly elected to parliament is compelled to discharge the duties of the trust conferred upon him, and is not enabled at will to resign it. But by statute, if any member accepts any office of profit from the crown, (except officers in the army or navy accepting a new commission,) his seat is vacated. If, therefore, any member wishes to retire from^ the representation of the county or borough by which he Was sent to parliament, he applies to the lords of the treasury for the stewardship of one of the Chiltern Hundreds, which having received, and thereby accomplished his purpose, he again resigns the office. Brown. Less...

In old English law. A road, way, highway. It is either the king's highway (chiminus regis) or a private way. The first is that over which the subjects of the realm, and all others under the protection of the crown, have free liberty to pass, though the property In the More...

In old English law. A road, way, highway. It is either the king's highway (chiminus regis) or a private way. The first is that over which the subjects of the realm, and all others under the protection of the crown, have free liberty to pass, though the property In the soil itself belong to some private individual; the last is that in which one person or more have liberty to pass over the land of another, by prescription or charter. Wharton. Less...

A toll for passing on a way through a forest; called in the civil law "pedagium." Cowell.

A toll for passing on a way through a forest; called in the civil law "pedagium." Cowell. Less...