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Legal Term Dictionary

Search our free database of thousands of legal terms. The easiest-to-read, most user-friendly guide to legal terms.This dictionary is from the early 20th century and is not to be construed as legal advice.

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LETTING OUT
The act of awarding a contract; e. g., a construction contract, or contract for carrying the mails.

The act of awarding a contract; e. g., a construction contract, or contract for carrying the mails. Less...
LETTRE
Fr. In French law. A letter. It is used, like our English "letter," for a formal instrument giving authority. -Lettres do cachet. Letters issued and signed by the kings of France, and countersigned by a secretary of state, authorizing the imprisonment of a person. It is said that they were More...

Fr. In French law. A letter. It is used, like our English "letter," for a formal instrument giving authority. -Lettres do cachet. Letters issued and signed by the kings of France, and countersigned by a secretary of state, authorizing the imprisonment of a person. It is said that they were devised by Pere Joseph, under the administration of Richelieu. They were at first made use of occasionally as a means of delaying the course of justice; but during the reign of Louis XIV. they were obtained by any person of sufficient influence with the king or his ministers. Under them, persons were imprisoned for life or for a long period on the most frivolous pretexts, for the gratification of private pique or revenge, and without any reason being assigned for such punishment They were also granted by the king for the purpose of shielding his favorites or their friends from the consequences of their crimes; and thus were as pernicious in their operation as the protection afforded by the church to criminals in a former age. Abolished during the Revolution of 1789. Wharton. Less...
LEUCA
In old French law. A league, consisting of fifteen hundred paces, Spelman. In old English law. A league or mile of a thousand paces. Domesday; Spelman. A privileged space around a monastery of a league or mile in circuit Spelman.

In old French law. A league, consisting of fifteen hundred paces, Spelman. In old English law. A league or mile of a thousand paces. Domesday; Spelman. A privileged space around a monastery of a league or mile in circuit Spelman. Less...
LEVANDAE NAVIS CAUSA
Lat. For the sake of lightening the ship; denotes a purpose of throwing overboard goods, which renders them subjects of general average.

Lat. For the sake of lightening the ship; denotes a purpose of throwing overboard goods, which renders them subjects of general average. Less...
LEVANT ET COUCHANT
L. Fr. Rising up and lying down. A term applied to trespassing cattle which have remained long enough upon land to have lain down to rest and risen up to feed; generally the space of a night and a day, or, at least one night.

L. Fr. Rising up and lying down. A term applied to trespassing cattle which have remained long enough upon land to have lain down to rest and risen up to feed; generally the space of a night and a day, or, at least one night. Less...
LEVANTES ET CUBANTES
Rising up and lying down. A term applied to cattle. 3 Bl. Comm. 9. The Latin equivalent of "levant et couchant."

Rising up and lying down. A term applied to cattle. 3 Bl. Comm. 9. The Latin equivalent of "levant et couchant." Less...
LEVARI FACIAS
Lat. A writ of execution directing the sheriff to cause to be made of the lands and chattels of the judgment debtor the sum recovered by the judgment. Pentland v. Kelly, 6 Watts & S. (Pa.) 4S4. Also a writ to the bishop of the diocese, commanding him to enter More...

Lat. A writ of execution directing the sheriff to cause to be made of the lands and chattels of the judgment debtor the sum recovered by the judgment. Pentland v. Kelly, 6 Watts & S. (Pa.) 4S4. Also a writ to the bishop of the diocese, commanding him to enter Into the benefice of a judgment debtor, and take and sequester the same into his possession, and hold the same until he shall have levied the amount of the judgment out of the rents, tithes, and profits thereof. -Levari facias damn a de disseisitoribns. A writ formerly directed to the sheriff for the levying of damages, which a disseisor had been condemned to pay to the disseisee. Cowell.- Levari facias qnando vioecomcs retnrna-vit qnod non habnit emptores. An old writ commanding the sheriff to sell the goods of a debtor which he had already taken, and had returned that he could not sell them; and as much more of the debtor's goods as would satisfy the whole debt. Cowell.-Levari facias residnnm deblti. An old writ directed to the sheriff for levying the remnant of a partly-satisfied debt upon the lands and tenements or chattels of the debtor. Cowell. Less...
LEVATO VELO
Lat. An expression used in the Roman law, and applied to the trial of wreck and salvage. Commentators disagree about the origin of the expression; but all agree that its general meaning is that these causes shall be heard summarily. The most probable solution is that it refers to the More...

Lat. An expression used in the Roman law, and applied to the trial of wreck and salvage. Commentators disagree about the origin of the expression; but all agree that its general meaning is that these causes shall be heard summarily. The most probable solution is that it refers to the place where causes were heard. A sail was spread before the door and officers employed to keep strangers from the tribunal when these causes were heard, this sail was raised, and suitors came directly to the court, and their causes were heard immediately. As applied to maritime courts, its meaning is that causes should be heard without delay. These causes require dispatch, and a delay amounts practically to a denial of justice. (See Cod. 11, 4, 5.) Bouvier: Less...
LEVEE
An embankment or artificial mound of earth constructed along the margin of a river, to confine the stream to its natural channel or prevent Inundation or overflow. State v. New Orleans ft N. El R. Co., 42 La. Ann. 138, 7 South. 226; Royse v. Evansville ft T. H. R. More...

An embankment or artificial mound of earth constructed along the margin of a river, to confine the stream to its natural channel or prevent Inundation or overflow. State v. New Orleans ft N. El R. Co., 42 La. Ann. 138, 7 South. 226; Royse v. Evansville ft T. H. R. Co., 160 Ind. 502, 67 N. E. 446. Also (probably by an extension of the foregoing meaning) a landing place on a river or lake; a place on a river or other navigable water for lading and unlading goods and for the reception and discharge of passengers to and from vessels lying in the contiguous waters, which may be either a wharf or pier or the natural bank. See Coffin v. Portland (C. C.) 27 Fed. 415; St. Paul v. Railroad Co., 63 Minn. 330,68 N. W. 458, 34 L. R. A. 184; Napa v. How-land, 87 Cal. 84, 25 Pac. 247. -Levee distriot. A municipal subdivision of a state (which may or may not be a public corporation) organized for the purpose, and charged with the duty, of constructing and maintaining such levees within its territorial limits as are to be built and kept up at public expense and for the general public benefit. See People v. Levee Dist No. 6, 181 Cal. 30, 63 Pac. p76. Less...
LEVIABLE
That which may be levied. That which is a proper or permissible subject for a levy; as, a "leviable interest" in land. See Bray v. Ragsdale, 53 Mo. 172.

That which may be levied. That which is a proper or permissible subject for a levy; as, a "leviable interest" in land. See Bray v. Ragsdale, 53 Mo. 172. Less...

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