Legal Term Dictionary

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  • CUCKING-STOOL
    An engine of correction for common scolds, which in the Saxon language is said to signify the scolding-stool, though now it is frequently corrupted into ducking-stool, because the judgment was that, when the woman was placed therein, she should be plunged in the water for her punishment. It was also More...
  • CUEILLETTE
    A term of French maritime law. See A CUEILLETTE.
  • CUI ANTE DIVORTIUM
    (To whom before divorce.) A writ for a woman divorced from her husband to recover her lands and tenements which she had in fee-simple or in tall, or for life, from him to whom her husband alienated them during the marriage, when she could not gainsay it. Reg. Orig. 233,
  • CUI BONO
    For whose good; for whose use or benefit "Cai bono is ever of great weight in all agreements." Parker, C. J., • 10 Mod. 135. Sometimes translated, for what good, for what useful purpose. Cuicunque aliquis quid eoncedit con-eedere videtur et id, sine quo res ipsa esse non potnit. 11 More...
  • CUI IN VITA
    (to whom in life.) A writ of entry for a widow against him to whom her husband aliened her lands or tenements in his life-time; which must contain in it that during his life she could not withstand it Reg. Orig. 232; Fitah. Nat Brev. 193. Cnl jnrisdietio data est, More...
  • CUL DE SAC
    (Fr. the bottom of a sack.) A blind alley; a street which is open at one end only. Bartlett v. Bangor, 67 Me. 467; Perrin v. Railroad Co., 40 Barb. (N. Y.) 65; Talbott v. Railroad Co., 31 Grat (Va.) 691; Uickok v. Plattsburg, 41 Barb. (N. Y.) 135.
  • CULAGIUM
    In old records. The laying up a ship in a dock, in order to be repaired. Cowell; Blount.
  • CULPA
    Lat A term, of the civil law, meaning fault, neglect, or negligence. There are three degrees of culpa^lata culpa, gross fault or neglect; levis culpa, ordinary fault or neglect; levissima culpa, slight fault or neglect,—and the definitions of these degrees are precisely the same as those in our law. Story, More...
  • CULPABILIS
    Lat. In old English law. Guilty. Culpabilis dc intrusione,—guilty of intrusion. Fleta, lib. 4, c. 30, § 11. Aon culpa bills, (abbreviated to non cal.) In criminal procedure, the plea of "not guilty." See CULPRIT.
  • CULPABLE
    Blainable; censurable; involving the breach of a legal duty or the commission of a fault. The term is not necessarily equivalent to "criminal,"-for, in present use, and notwithstanding its derivation, it implies that the act or conduct spoken ot is reprehensible or wrong but not that It involves malice or More...
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