Legal Term Dictionary

According to language; following expression in words. A literal construction of a document adheres closely to Its words, without making differences for extrinsic circumstances; a literal performance of a condition is one which complies exactly with its terms. -Literal contract. In Roman law. A species of written contract in which More...

According to language; following expression in words. A literal construction of a document adheres closely to Its words, without making differences for extrinsic circumstances; a literal performance of a condition is one which complies exactly with its terms. -Literal contract. In Roman law. A species of written contract in which the formal act by which an obligation was superinduced on the convention was an entry of the sum due, where it should be specifically ascertained, on the debit side of a ledger. Maine, Anc. Law. 320. A contract, the whole of the evidence of which is reduced to writing, and binds the party who subscribed it, although he has received no consideration. Lec. El. Dr. Rom. J 887.-Literal proof. In the civil law. Written evidence. Less...

Pertaining to polite learning; connected with the study or use of books and writings. The word "literary," having no legal signification, is to be taken in its ordinary and usual meaning. We speak of literary persons as learned, erudite; of literary property, as the productions of ripe scholars, or, at More...

Pertaining to polite learning; connected with the study or use of books and writings. The word "literary," having no legal signification, is to be taken in its ordinary and usual meaning. We speak of literary persons as learned, erudite; of literary property, as the productions of ripe scholars, or, at least, of professional writers; of literary institutions, as those where the positive sciences are taught, or persons eminent for learning associate, for purposes connected with their professions. This we think the popular meaning of the word; and that it would not be properly used as descriptive of a school for the instruction of youth. Indianapolis v. McLean, 8 Ind. 332. -Literary composition. In copyright law. An original result of mental production, developed in a series of written or printed words, arranged for an intelligent purpose, in an orderly succession of expressive combinations. Keene v. Wheatley, 14 Fed. Cas. 192; Wool-sey v. Judd, 4 Duer (N. Y.) 396.-Literary property may be described as the right which entitles an author and his assigns to all the use and profit of his composition, to which no independent right is, through any act or omission on his or their part, vested in another person. 9 Amer. Law Reg. 44. And see Keene v. Wheatley. 14 Fed. Cas. 192; Palmer v. De Witt, 32 N. Y. Super. Ct. 552. A distinction is to be taken between "literary property" (which is the natural, common-law right which a person has in the form of written expression to which he has, by labor and skill, reduced his thoughts) and "copyright," (which is a statutory monopoly, above and beyond natural property, conferred upon an author to encourage and reward a dedication of his literary property to the public.) Abbott. Less...

In English ecclesiastical law. One who qualifies himself for holy orders by presenting himself as a persou accomplished in classical learning, etc.. not as a graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, etc.

In English ecclesiastical law. One who qualifies himself for holy orders by presenting himself as a persou accomplished in classical learning, etc.. not as a graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, etc. Less...

"Ad literaturam po-neve" means to put children to school. This liberty was anciently denied to those parents who were servile tenants, without the lord's consent. The prohibition against the education of sons arose from the fear that the son, being bred to letters, might enter Into holy orders, and so More...

"Ad literaturam po-neve" means to put children to school. This liberty was anciently denied to those parents who were servile tenants, without the lord's consent. The prohibition against the education of sons arose from the fear that the son, being bred to letters, might enter Into holy orders, and so stop or divert the services which he might otherwise do as heir to his father. Paroch. Antiq. 401. Less...

In Roman law. The contract of nomen, which was constituted by writing, (stripturd.) It was of two kinds, viz.: (1) A re in personam, when a transaction was transferred from the daybook (adversaria) into the ledger (codex) in the form of a debt under the name or heading of the More...

In Roman law. The contract of nomen, which was constituted by writing, (stripturd.) It was of two kinds, viz.: (1) A re in personam, when a transaction was transferred from the daybook (adversaria) into the ledger (codex) in the form of a debt under the name or heading of the purchaser or debtor, (nomen;) and (2) a persond in personam, where a debt already standing under one nomen or heading was transferred in the usual course of novatio from that nomen to another and substituted nomen. By reason of this transferring, these obligations were called "nomina transcripti-tia." No money was, in fact, paid to constitute the contract. If ever money was paid, then the nomen was orcartttm, (i. e., a real contract, re contractus,) and not a nomen proprium. Brown. Less...

A party to a lawsuit; one engaged in litigation; usually spoken of active parties, not of nominal ones.

A party to a lawsuit; one engaged in litigation; usually spoken of active parties, not of nominal ones. Less...

Lat. To litigate; to carry on a suit, (litem agcre,) either as plaintiff or defendant; to claim or dispute by action; to test or try the validity of a claim by action.

Lat. To litigate; to carry on a suit, (litem agcre,) either as plaintiff or defendant; to claim or dispute by action; to test or try the validity of a claim by action. Less...

To dispute or contend in form of law; to carry on a suit.

To dispute or contend in form of law; to carry on a suit. Less...

A judicial controversy. A contest in a court of justice, for the purpose of enforcing a right.

A judicial controversy. A contest in a court of justice, for the purpose of enforcing a right. Less...

In Scotch law. The pendency of a suit; it Is a tacit legal prohibition of alienation, to the disappointment of an action, or of diligence, the direct object of which is to obtain possession, or to acquire the property of a particular subject The effect of it is analogous to More...

In Scotch law. The pendency of a suit; it Is a tacit legal prohibition of alienation, to the disappointment of an action, or of diligence, the direct object of which is to obtain possession, or to acquire the property of a particular subject The effect of it is analogous to that of inhibition. Bell. Less...