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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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FIANCER
L. Fr: To pledge one's faith. Kelham.

L. Fr: To pledge one's faith. Kelham. Less...
FIANZA
Sp. In Spanish law, trust, confidence, and correlatively a legal duty or obligation arising therefrom. The term is sufficiently broad in meaning to include both a general obligation and a restricted liability under a single instrument Martinez v. Run-kle. 57 N. J. Law, 111, 30 Atl. 593. But in a More...

Sp. In Spanish law, trust, confidence, and correlatively a legal duty or obligation arising therefrom. The term is sufficiently broad in meaning to include both a general obligation and a restricted liability under a single instrument Martinez v. Run-kle. 57 N. J. Law, 111, 30 Atl. 593. But in a special sense, it designates a surety or guarantor, or the contract or engagement of suretyship. Less...
FIAR
In Scotch law. He that has the fee or feu. The proprietor is termed 4*flar," in contradistinction to the life-renter. 1 Karnes, Eq. Pref. One whose property is charged with a life-rent

In Scotch law. He that has the fee or feu. The proprietor is termed 4*flar," in contradistinction to the life-renter. 1 Karnes, Eq. Pref. One whose property is charged with a life-rent Less...
FIARS PRICES
The value of grain In the different counties of Scotland, fixed yearly by the respective sheriffs, in the month of February* with the assistance of juries. These regulate the prices of grain stipulated to be sold at the flar prices, or when no price bas been stipulated. Ersk. 1, 4, More...

The value of grain In the different counties of Scotland, fixed yearly by the respective sheriffs, in the month of February* with the assistance of juries. These regulate the prices of grain stipulated to be sold at the flar prices, or when no price bas been stipulated. Ersk. 1, 4, 6. Less...
FIAT
(Lat. "Let it be done.") In English practice. A short ortier or warrant of a judge or magistrate directing some act to be done; an authority issuing from some competent source for the doing of some legal act. One of the proceedings in the English bankrupt practice, being a power, More...

(Lat. "Let it be done.") In English practice. A short ortier or warrant of a judge or magistrate directing some act to be done; an authority issuing from some competent source for the doing of some legal act. One of the proceedings in the English bankrupt practice, being a power, signed by the lord chancellor, addressed to the court of bankruptcy, authorizing the petitioning creditor to prosecute his complaint before it 2 Steph. Comm. 199. By the statute 12 & 13 Vict. c. 116, fiats were abolished. -Fiat Justitia. Let justice be done. On a petition to the king for his warrant to bring a writ of error in parliament, he writes on the top of the petition, "Fiat justitiar and then the writ of error is made out etc. Jacob.-Fiat ut petitur. Let it be done as it is asked. A form of granting a petition.-Joint flat. In English law. A fiat, in bankruptcy, issued against two or more trading partners. . Fiat Justltia, mat caelum. Let right be done, though the heavens should fall. Fiat prout fleri eonsuevit, (nil temero noTandum.) Let it be done as it hath used to be done, (nothing must be rashly innovated.) Jenk. Cent 116, case 39; Branch, Prlnc. Less...
FICTIO
In Roman law. A fiction; an assumption or supposition of the law. "Fictio" in the old Roman law was properly a term of pleading, and signified a false averment on the part of the plaintiff which the defendant was not allowed to traverse; as that the plaintiff was a Roman More...

In Roman law. A fiction; an assumption or supposition of the law. "Fictio" in the old Roman law was properly a term of pleading, and signified a false averment on the part of the plaintiff which the defendant was not allowed to traverse; as that the plaintiff was a Roman citizen, when in truth he was a foreigner. The object of the fiction was to give the court jurisdiction. Maine, Anc. Law, 25. Fictio oedit ?eritatL Fietio juris non est ubi Veritas. Fiction yields to truth. Where there is truth, fiction of law exists not Fietio est oontra veritatom, sod pro veritate habetur. Fiction is against the truth, but it is to be esteemed truth. Fiotio juris non est ubi Veritas. Where truth is, fiction of law does not exist Fiotio legis inique operator alien! damnum vel injuriam. A legal fiction does not properly work loss or injury. 3 Coke, 86; Broom, Max. 129. Fictio legis neminem lsedit. A fiction of law Injures no one. 2 Rolle, 502 ; 3 BL Comm. 43; Low v. Little, 17 Johns. (N. Y.) 348. Less...
FICTION
An assumption or supposition of law that something which is or may be false is true, or that a state of facts exists 'which has never really taken place. New Hampshire Strafford Bank v. Cornell, 2 N. H. 324; Hibberd v. Smith, 67 Cal. 547, 4 Pac. 473, 56 Am. More...

An assumption or supposition of law that something which is or may be false is true, or that a state of facts exists 'which has never really taken place. New Hampshire Strafford Bank v. Cornell, 2 N. H. 324; Hibberd v. Smith, 67 Cal. 547, 4 Pac. 473, 56 Am. Rep. 726. A fiction is a rule of law which assumes as true, and will not allow to be disproved, something which is false, but not impossible. Best, Ev. 419. These assumptions are of an innocent or even beneficial character, and are made for the advancement of the ends of justice. They secure this end chiefly by the extension of procedure from cases to which it is applicable to other eases to which it is not strictly applicable, the ground of inapplicability being some difference of an immaterial character. Brown. Fictions are to be distinguished from presumptions of law. By the former, something known to be false or unreal is assumed as true; by the latter, an inference is set up, which may be and probably is true, but which, at any rate, the law will not permit to be controverted. Mr. Best distinguishes legal fictions from presumptions juris et de jure, and divides them into three kinds,-affirmative or positive fictions, negative fictions, and fictions by relation. Best, Pres. p. 27, ? 24. Less...
FICTITIOUS
Founded on a fiction; haying the character of a fiction; false, feigned, or pretended. -?Fictitious action. An action brought for the sole purpose of obtaining the opinion of the court on a point of law, not for the settlement of any actual controversy between the parties. Smith v. Junction Ry. More...

Founded on a fiction; haying the character of a fiction; false, feigned, or pretended. -?Fictitious action. An action brought for the sole purpose of obtaining the opinion of the court on a point of law, not for the settlement of any actual controversy between the parties. Smith v. Junction Ry. Co., 29 Ind. 551.-Fictitious name* A counterfeit, feigned, or pretended name taken by a person, differing in some essential particular from his true name, (consisting of Christian name and patronymic,) with the implication that it is meant to deceive or mislead. But a fictitious name may be us"d so long or under such circumstances as to become an "assumed" name, in which case it may become a proper designation of tbe individual for ordinary business and legal purposes. See Pollard v. Fidelity F. Ins. Co., 1 S. D. 570, 47 N. W. 1060: Carlock v. Cagnacci, 88 Cal. 600, 26 Pac. 597.-Fictitious plaintiff. A person appearing in the writ or record as the plaintiff in a suit, but who in reality does not exist, or who is ignorant of the suit and of the use of his name in it It is a contempt of court to sue in the name of a fictitious party. See 4 Bl. Comm. 134. Less...
FIDE-COMMISSARY
A term derived from the Latin "fidei-commissarius" and occasionally used by writers on equity jurisprudence as a substitute for the law French term "cestui que trust" as being more elegant and euphonious. See Brown v. Brown, 83 Hun, 160, 31 N. Y. Supp. 650.

A term derived from the Latin "fidei-commissarius" and occasionally used by writers on equity jurisprudence as a substitute for the law French term "cestui que trust" as being more elegant and euphonious. See Brown v. Brown, 83 Hun, 160, 31 N. Y. Supp. 650. Less...
FIDEI-COMMISSARIUS
In the civil law this term corresponds nearly to our "cestui que trust." It designates a person who has the real or beneficial interest in an estate or fund, the title or administration of which is temporarily confided to another. See Story, Eq. Jur. ? 966.

In the civil law this term corresponds nearly to our "cestui que trust." It designates a person who has the real or beneficial interest in an estate or fund, the title or administration of which is temporarily confided to another. See Story, Eq. Jur. ? 966. Less...

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