Legal Term Dictionary

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  • MORTIFICATION
    In Scotch law. A term nearly synonymous with "mortmain." . Bell. Lands are said to be mortified for a charitable purpose.
  • MORTIS CAUSA
    Lat By reason of death; in contemplation of death. Thus used in the phrase "Donatio mortis causa*9 (q. ".) Mortis momentum est ultimnm vita) momentum. The last moment of life is the moment of death. Terrill v. Public Adm'r, 4 Bradf. Sur. (N. Y.) 245, 250.
  • MORTMAIN
    A term applied to denote the alienation of lands or tenements to any corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal. These purchases having been chiefly made by religious houses, in consequence of which lands became perpetually inherent in one dead hand, this has occasioned the general appellation of oomortmain'* to More...
  • MORTUARY
    In ecclesiastical law. A burial-place. A kind of ecclesiastical heriot being a customary gift of the second best living animal belonging to the deceased, claimed by and due to the ^minister in many parishes, on the death of his parishioners, whether buried in the church-yard or not 2 Bl. Comm. More...
  • MORTUARY TABLES
    Tables for estimating the probable duration of the life of a party at a given age. Gallagher v. Market St. Ry. Co., 67 Cal. 16, 6 Pac 871, 51 Am. Rep. 680.
  • MORTUUM VADIUM
    A dead pledge; a mortgage, (g. v.;) a pledge where the profits or rents of the thing pledged are not applied to the payment of the debt
  • MORTUUS
    Lat Dead. So in sheriff's return, mortuus est, he is dead. -Mortons sine prole. Dead without issue. In genealogical tables often abbreviated'to "m. s. p." Mortons exitns non est exitns. A dead issue is no issue. Co. Litt. 29. A child born dead is not considered as issue. Mos retlnendns More...
  • MOSTRENCOS
    In Spanish law. Strayed goods; estrays. White, New Recop. b. 2, tit 2, c. 6.
  • MOTE
    Sax. A meeting; an assembly. Used in composition, as burgmote, folkmote, etc. -Mote-hell. The bell which was used by the Saxons to summon people to the court. Cowell.
  • MOTEER
    A customary service or payment at the mote or court of the lord, from which some were exempted by charter or privilege. Cowell.
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