Legal Term Dictionary

v. To render accessible, visible, or available; to submit or subject to examination, inquiry, or review, by the removal of restrictions or impediments. -Open a case. In practice. To open a case is to begin it; to make an initiatory explanation of its features to the court, jury, referee, etc., More...

v. To render accessible, visible, or available; to submit or subject to examination, inquiry, or review, by the removal of restrictions or impediments. -Open a case. In practice. To open a case is to begin it; to make an initiatory explanation of its features to the court, jury, referee, etc., by outlining the nature of the transaction on which it is founded, the questions involved, and the character and general course of the evidence to be adduced.-Open a commission. To enter upon the duties under a commission, or commence to act under a commission, is so termed in English law. Thus, the judges of assise and nm prius derive their authority to act under or by virtue of commissions directed to them for that purpose; and, when they commence acting under the powers so committed to them, they are said to open the commissions; and the day on which they so commence their Proceedings is thence termed the "commission ay of the assizes." Brown.-Open a oourt. To open a court is to make a formal announcement, usually by the crier or bailiff, that its session has now begun and that the business before the court will be proceeded with.-Open a credit. To accept or pay the draft of a correspondent who has not furnished funds. Par-dessue, no. 206.-Open a deposition. To. break the seals by which it was secured, and lay it open to view, or to bring it into court ready for use.-Open a judgment. To lift or relax the bar of finality and conclusiveness which it imposes so as to permit a re-examination of the merits of the action in which it was rendered. This is done at the instance of a party showing good cause why the execution of the judgment would be Inequitable. It so far annuls the* judgment as to prevent its enforcement until the final determination upon it, but does not in the mean time release its lien upon real estate. See Insurance Co. v. Beale, 110 Pa, 321, 1 Atl. 026. -Open a rule. To restore or recall a rule which has been made absolute to its conditional state, as a rule nisi, so as to readmit of cause being shown against the rule. Thus, when a rule to show cause has been made absolute under a mistaken impression that no counsel had been instructed to show cause against it, it is usual for the party at whose instance the rule was obtained to consent to have the rule opened, by which all the proceedings subsequent to the day when cause ought to have been shown against it are in effect nullified, and the rule is then argued in the ordinary way. Brown.- Open a street or highway. To establish It by law and make it passable and available for public travel. See Reed v. Toledo, 18 Ohio, 161; Wilcoxon v. San Luis Obispo, 101 Cal. 508, 35 Pac 988; Gaines v. Hudson County Ave. Com'rs, 37 N. J. Law, 12.-Open bids. To open bids received on a foreclosure or other judicial sale is to reject or cancel them for fraud, mistake* or other cause, and order a resale ot the property. Andrews v. Scotton, 2 Bland (Md.) 644.-Open tbe pleadings. To state briefly at a trial before a jury the substance of the pleadings. This is done by the junior counsel for the plaintiff at the commencement of the trial. Less...

adj. Patent; visible; apparent'; notorious; not clandestine; not closed, set* tied, fixed, or terminated. ---Open bulk. In the mass; exposed to view; not tied or sealed up. In re Sanders (C. CA 52 Fed. 802, 18 L. R. A. 549.-Open court. This term may mean either a court which has More...

adj. Patent; visible; apparent'; notorious; not clandestine; not closed, set* tied, fixed, or terminated. ---Open bulk. In the mass; exposed to view; not tied or sealed up. In re Sanders (C. CA 52 Fed. 802, 18 L. R. A. 549.-Open court. This term may mean either a court which has been formally convened and declared open for the transaction of its proper judicial business, or a court which is freely open to the approach of all decent and orderly persons in the character of spectators. Hobart v. Hobart, 45 Iowa, 501; Conover v. Bird, 56 N. J. Law, 228, 28 Ati. 428; Ex parte Branch, 63 Ala. 383; Hays v. Railroad Co., 99 Md. 413, 58 Atl. 439.-Open doors. In Scotch law. "Letters of open doors" are process which empowers the messenger, or officer of the law, to break open doors of houses or rooms in which the debtor has placed his goods. Bell.-Open fields, or meadows. In English law. Fields which are undivided, but belong to separate owners; the part of each owner is marked off by boundaries until the crop has been carried off, when the pasture is shared promiscuously by the joint herd of all the owners. Elton, Commons, 31; Sweet- Open law. The making or waging of law. agna Charta, c. 21.-Open season. That portion of the year wherein the laws for the preservation of game and fish permit the killing of a particular species of game or the taking of a particular variety of fish.-Open theft. In Saxon law. The same with the Latin "furtum manifesium" (q. v.) As to open "Account," "Corporation," "Insolvency." "Lewdness.' "Possession," and. "Verdict" see those titles. Less...

In American practice. The beginning; the commencement; the flrst address of the counsel.

In American practice. The beginning; the commencement; the flrst address of the counsel. Less...

The time after corn is carried out of the fields.

The time after corn is carried out of the fields. Less...

A composition of a dramatic hind, set to music and sung, accompanied with musical instruments, and enriched with appropriate costumes, scenery, etc. The house In which operas are represented is termed an "opera-house." Rowland v. Kleber, 1 Pittsb. R. (Pa.) 7L

A composition of a dramatic hind, set to music and sung, accompanied with musical instruments, and enriched with appropriate costumes, scenery, etc. The house In which operas are represented is termed an "opera-house." Rowland v. Kleber, 1 Pittsb. R. (Pa.) 7L Less...

Such tenants, under feudal tenures, as held some little portions of land by the duty of performing bodily labor and servile works for their lord.

Such tenants, under feudal tenures, as held some little portions of land by the duty of performing bodily labor and servile works for their lord. Less...

One day's work performed by a tenant for his lord.

One day's work performed by a tenant for his lord. Less...

In general, the exertion of power; the process of operating or mode of action; an effect brought about in accordance with a definite plan. See Little Rock v. Parish, 36 Ark. 166; Fleming OU Co, v. South Penn Oil Co., 37 W. Va. 653, 17 & E. 203. In surgical More...

In general, the exertion of power; the process of operating or mode of action; an effect brought about in accordance with a definite plan. See Little Rock v. Parish, 36 Ark. 166; Fleming OU Co, v. South Penn Oil Co., 37 W. Va. 653, 17 & E. 203. In surgical practice, the term is of Indefinite import, but may be approximately defined as an act or succession of acts performed upon the body of a patient, for his relief or restoration to normal conditions, either by manipulation or the use of surgical instruments or both, as distinguished from therapeutic treatment by the administration of drugs or other remedial agencies. See Akrldge v. Noble, 114 Ga, 949, 41 S. E. 78. -Criminal operation. In medical jurisprudence. An operation to procure an abortion. Miller v. Bayer, 94 Wis. 123, 68 N. W. 869.- Operation of law. This term expresses the manner in which rights, and sometimes liabilities, devolve upon a person by the mere application to the particular transaction of the es^ tablished rules of law, without the act or cooperation of the party himself. Less...

A workman; a laboring man; an artisan; particularly one employed in factories. Cocking v. Ward (Tenn. Ch. App.) 48 S. W. 287; In re City Trust Co., 121 Fed. 706, 58 C. C. A. 126; Rhodes v. Matthews, 67 Ind. 131.

A workman; a laboring man; an artisan; particularly one employed in factories. Cocking v. Ward (Tenn. Ch. App.) 48 S. W. 287; In re City Trust Co., 121 Fed. 706, 58 C. C. A. 126; Rhodes v. Matthews, 67 Ind. 131. Less...

That part of a conveyance, or of any Instrument intended for the creation or transference of rights, by which the main object of the instrument is carried into effect. It is distinguished from Introductory matter, recitals, formal conclusion, etc.

That part of a conveyance, or of any Instrument intended for the creation or transference of rights, by which the main object of the instrument is carried into effect. It is distinguished from Introductory matter, recitals, formal conclusion, etc. Less...