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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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MEANDER
To meander means to follow a winding or flexuous course; and when it is said, in a description of land, "thence with the meander of the river," it must mean a meandered line,-a line which follows the sinuosities of the river, or, in other words, that the river is the More...

To meander means to follow a winding or flexuous course; and when it is said, in a description of land, "thence with the meander of the river," it must mean a meandered line,-a line which follows the sinuosities of the river, or, in other words, that the river is the boundary between the points indicated. Turner v. Parker, 14 Or. 341, 12 Pac. 495; Schurmeier v. St. Paul & P. R. Co., 10 Minn. 100 (Gil. 75), 88 Am. Dec. 59. This term is used in some jurisdictions with the meaning of surveying and mapping; a stream according to its meanderings, or windings and turnings. See Jones v. Petti-bone, 2 Wis. 317. -Meander lines. Lines run in surveying particular portions of the public lands which border on navigable rivers, not as boundaries of the tract, but for the purpose of defining the sinuosities of the banks of the stream, and as the means of ascertaining the quantity of land in the fraction subject to sale, and which is to be paid for by the purchaser. In preparing the official plat from the field notes, the meander line is represented as the border line of the stream, and shows that the water-course, and not the meander line as naturally run on the ground, is the boundary. St. Paul & P. R. Go. v. Schurmeier, 7 Wall. 286, 19 L. Ed. 74; Niles v. Cedar Point Club, 175 U. S. 300, 20 Sup. Ct. 124, 44 L. Ed. 171. Less...
MEANS
1. The Instrument or agency through which an end or purpose is accomplished. 2. Resources; available property; money or property, as an available instrumentality for effecting a purpose, furnishing a livelihood, paying a debt, or the like. -Means of support. This term embraces all those resources from which the necessaries More...

1. The Instrument or agency through which an end or purpose is accomplished. 2. Resources; available property; money or property, as an available instrumentality for effecting a purpose, furnishing a livelihood, paying a debt, or the like. -Means of support. This term embraces all those resources from which the necessaries and comforts of life are or may be supplied, such as lands, goods, salaries, wages, or other sources of income. Meidel v. Anthis, 71 111. 241. Less...
MEASE, OR MESE
Norman-French for a house. Utt ?? 74, 251.

Norman-French for a house. Utt ?? 74, 251. Less...
MEASON-DUE
(Corruption of maxson de Dieu.) A house of God; a monastery; religious house or hospital. See 39 Eliz. c. 5.

(Corruption of maxson de Dieu.) A house of God; a monastery; religious house or hospital. See 39 Eliz. c. 5. Less...
MEASURE
That by which extent or dimension is ascertained, either length, breadth, thickness, capacity, or amount. Webster. The rule by which anything is adjusted or proportioned. -Measure of damages. The rule, or rather the system of rules, governing the adjustment or apportionment of damages as a compensation for injuries in actions More...

That by which extent or dimension is ascertained, either length, breadth, thickness, capacity, or amount. Webster. The rule by which anything is adjusted or proportioned. -Measure of damages. The rule, or rather the system of rules, governing the adjustment or apportionment of damages as a compensation for injuries in actions at law.-Measure of value. In the ordinary sense of the word, "measure" would mean something by comparison with which we may ascertain what is the value of anything. When we consider, further, that value itself is relative, and that two things are necessary to constitute it, independently of the third thing, which is to measure it, we may define a "measure of value'* to be something by comparing with which any two other things we may infer their value in relation to one another. 2 Mill, Pol. Econ. 101. Less...
MEASURER, OR METER
An officer in the city of London, who measured woolen clothes, coals, etc.

An officer in the city of London, who measured woolen clothes, coals, etc. Less...
MEASURING MONEY
In old English law. A duty which some persons exacted, by letters patent, for every piece of cloth made, besides alnage. Now abolished.

In old English law. A duty which some persons exacted, by letters patent, for every piece of cloth made, besides alnage. Now abolished. Less...
MECHANIC
A workman employed in shaping and uniting materials, such as wood, metal, etc., into some kind of structure, machine, or other object, requiring the use of tools. Story v. Walker, 11 Lea (Tenn.) 517, 47 Am. Rep. 305; In re Osborn (D. C.) 104 Fed. 781; Savannah & C. R. More...

A workman employed in shaping and uniting materials, such as wood, metal, etc., into some kind of structure, machine, or other object, requiring the use of tools. Story v. Walker, 11 Lea (Tenn.) 517, 47 Am. Rep. 305; In re Osborn (D. C.) 104 Fed. 781; Savannah & C. R. Co. v. Callahan, 49 Ga. 511; Berks County v. Bertolet, 13 Pa. 524. Less...
MECHANIC'S LIEN
A species of lien created by statute iu most of the states, which exists in favor of persons who have performed work or furnished material in and for the erection of a building. Their lien attaches to the land as well as the building, and is intended to secure for More...

A species of lien created by statute iu most of the states, which exists in favor of persons who have performed work or furnished material in and for the erection of a building. Their lien attaches to the land as well as the building, and is intended to secure for them a priority of payment The lien of a mechanic is created by law, and is Intended to be a security for the price and value of work performed and materials furnished, and as such it attaches to and exists on the land and the building erected thereon, from the commencement of the time that the labor is being performed and the materials furnished; and the mechanic has an actual and positive interest in the building anterior to the time of its recognition by the court or the reducing of the amount due to a judgment. First Nat. Bank v. Campbell, 24 Tex. Civ. App. 160, 58 S. W. 630; Carter v. Humboldt F. Ins. Co., 12 Iowa, 292; Barrows v. Baughman, 9 Mich. 217. Less...
MECHANICAL
Having relation to, or produced or accomplished by, the use of mechanism or machinery. Used chiefly in patent law. See compound terms infra. -Mechanioal equivalent. A device which may be substituted or adopted, instead of another, by any person skilled in the particular art from his knowledge of the art, More...

Having relation to, or produced or accomplished by, the use of mechanism or machinery. Used chiefly in patent law. See compound terms infra. -Mechanioal equivalent. A device which may be substituted or adopted, instead of another, by any person skilled in the particular art from his knowledge of the art, and which is competent to perform the same functions or produce the same result, without introducing an original idea or changing the general idea of means. Johnson v. Root, 13 Fed. Cas. 823; Smith v. Marshall. 22 Fed. Cas. 595; Alaska Packers' Ass'n v. Letson (C. C.) 119 Fed. 611; Jensen Can-Filling Mach. Co. v. Norton, 67 Fed. 239, 14 C. C. A. 383; Adams Electric R. Co. v. Lindell R. Co., 77 Fed. 440. 23 C C. A. 223.-Mechanical movement. A mechanism transmitting power or motion from a driving part to a part to be driven ; a combination and arrangement of mechanical parts intended for the translation or transformation of motion. Campbell Printing Press Co. v. Miehle Printing Press Co., 102 Fed. 159, 42 C. C. A. 235.-Mechanical process. See PROCESS.-Mechanical skill. As distinguished from invention or inventive capacity, this term means such skill, intelligence, ingenuity, or constructive ability in the adaptation of means to ends as would be possessed and exhibited by an ordinarily clever mechanic in the practice of his particular art or trade. See Hollister v. Benedict & B. Mfg. Co., 113 U. S. 59. 5 Sup. Ct. 717, 28 L. Ed. 901: Johnson Co. v. Pennsylvania Steel Co., 67 Fed. 942; Perfection Window Cleaner Co. v. Bos-ley. 2 Fed. 577; Stimpson v. Woodman, 10 Wall. 117, 19 L. Ed. 866. Less...

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