A warrant or authority or letters patent, issuing from the government or one of its departments, or a court empowering a person or persons named to do certain acts, or to exercise jurisdiction, or to perform the duties and; exercise the authority of an office, (as in the case of
More... A warrant or authority or letters patent, issuing from the government or one of its departments, or a court empowering a person or persons named to do certain acts, or to exercise jurisdiction, or to perform the duties and; exercise the authority of an office, (as in the case of an officer in the army or navy.) Bledsoe v. Colgan, 188 Cat 84, 70 Pac. 924; U. S. T. Planter, 27 Fed. Cas. 544; Dew v. Judges, 8 Hen. & M. (Va.) 1, 8 Am. Dec. 639; Scofleld v. Louns-bury, 8 Conn. 109.
Also, in private affairs, it signifies the authority or instructions under which one person transacts business or negotiates for another.
In a derivative sense, a body of persons to whom a commission is directed. A board or committee officially appointed and empowered to perform certain acts or exercise certain jurisdiction of a public nature or relation; as a "commission of assise."
In tbe civil law. A species of bailment being an undertaking, without reward, to do something in respect to an article balled; equivalent to "mandate."
In commercial law. The recompense or reward of an agent factor, broker, or bailee, when the same is calculated as a percentage on the amount of bis transactions or on the profit to the principal. But in this sense the word occurs more frequently in the plural. Jackson v. St an field, 137 Ind. 592, 37 N. E. 14, 23 I* R. A. 588; Ralston v. Kohl, 30 Ohio St. 98; Whitaker ?. Guano Co., 123 N. C. 368, 31 S. B. 629.
In criminal law. Doing or perpetration; the performance of an act. Groves v. State, 116 Ga. 516, 42 S. E. 755, 59 L. R. A. 598.
In practice. An authority or writ issuing from a court, in relation to a cause before it, directing and authorizing a person or persons named to do some act or exercise some special function; usually to take the depositions of witnesses.
A commission is a process issued under the seal of the court and the signature of the clerk, directed to some person designated as commissioner, authorizing him to examine the witness upon oath on interrogatories annexed thereto, to take and certify the deposition of the witness, and to return it according to the directions
given with the commission. Pen. Code Cal. I 135L
—Commission day. In English practice. The opening day of. the assise* .—Commission do lunatieo inquirendo. The same as a commission of lunacy, (see infra.) In re Mis-selwits, 177 Pa. 359, 35 Atl. 722.—Commission jlel credere, in commercial law, is where an agent of a seller undertakes to guaranty to his principal the payment of the debt due by the buyer. The phrase "del credere" is borrowed from the Italian language, in which its signification is equivalent to our word ''guaranty" or "warranty.M Story, Ag. 28.—Commission merchant. A term which is synonymous with "factor." It means one who receives goods, chattels, or merchandise for sale, exchange, or other disposition, and who is to receive a compensation for his services, to be paid by the owner, or derived from the sale, etc, of the goods. State v. Thompson, 120 Mo. 12, 25 S. W. 346; Perkins v. State, 50 Ala. 154; White v. Com.. 78 Va. 484.—Commission of anticipation. In English law. An authority under the great seal to collect a tax or subsidy before the day.—Commission of appraisement and sale. Where property has been arrested in an admiralty action in rem and ordered by the court to be sold, the order is carried out by a commission of appraisement and sale; in some cases (as where the property is to be released on bail and the value is disputed) a commission of appraisement only is required. Sweet—Commission of array. In English law. A commission issued to send Into every county officers to muster or set in military order the inhabitants. The introduction of commissions of lieutenancy, which contained, in substance, the same powers as these commissions, superseded them. 2 Steph. Comm. (7th Ed.) 582.—Commission of assise. Those issued to judges of the high court or court of appeal, authorizing them to sit at the assises for the trial of civil actions.—Commission of bankrupt. A commission or authority formerly granted by the lord chancellor to such persons as he should think proper, to examine the bankrupt in all matters relating to his trade and effects, and to perform various other important duties connected with bankruptcy matters. But now, under St. 1 A 2 Wm. IV. c. 56, § 12, a fiat issues instead of such commission.—Commission of charitable uses. This commission issues out of chancery to the bishop and others, where lands given to charitable uses are misemployed, or there is any fraud or dispute concerning them, to inquire of and redress the same, etc.—Commission of delegates. When any sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause by the archbishop, this commission, under the great seal, was directed to certain persons, usually lords, bishops, and judges of (lie law, to sit and hear an appeal of the same to the king, in the court of chancery. But latterly the judicial committee of the privy council has supplied the place of this commission. Brown.—Commission of lunacy. A writ issued out of chancery, or such court as may have jurisdiction of the case, directed to a proper officer, to inquire whether a person named therein is a lunatic or not 1 Bouv. Inst n. 382, et $eq.; In re Moore, 68 Cal. 281, 9 Pac. 164.—Commission of partition. In the former English equity practice, this was a commission or authority issued to certain persons, to effect a division of lands held by tenants in common desiring a partition; when the commissioners reported, the parties were ordered to execute mutual conveyances to confirm the division.—Commission of rebellion. In English law. An attaching process, formerly issuable out of chancery, to enforce obedience to a process or decree; abolished by order of 26th August 1841.—Commission of review. In Ikigiish ecclesiastical law. A commission formerly sometimes granted In extraordinary cases, to revise the sentence of the court of delegates. 3 Bl. Comm. 67. Now out of use, the
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rivy council being substituted for the court of elegates, as the great court of appeal in all ecclesiastical causes. 3 Steph. Comm. 432.— Commission of tbe peace. In English law. A commission from the crown, appointing certain persons therein named, jointly and severally, to keep the peace, etc Justices of the peace are always appointed by special commission under the great seal, the form of which was settled by all the judges, A. D. 1590, and continues with little alteration to this day. 1 Bl. Comm. 351; 3 Steph. Comm. 39, 40.—Commission of treaty with foreign princes. Leagues and arrangements made between states and kingdoms, by their ambassadors and ministers, for the mutual advantage of the kingdoms in alliance. Wharton.—Commission of unlivery. In an action in the English admiralty division, where it is necessary to have the cargo in a ship unladen in order to have it appraised, a commission of unlivery is issued and: executed by the marshal. Williams & B. Adm. Jur. 233. —Commission to examine witnesses. In practice. A commission issued out of the court in which an action is pending, to direct the taking of the depositions of witnesses who are beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court. —Commission to take answer in chancery. In English law. A commission issued when defendant lives abroad to swear him to such answer. 15 & 16 Vict. c. 86, I 21. Obsolete. See Jud. Acts, 1873, 1875.—-Commission to take depositions. A written authority issued by a court of justice, giving power to take the testimony of witnesses who cannot be personally produced in court Tracy v. Suydam, 80 Barb. (N. Y.) 110.
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