Pound - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition pound

Definition :

Pound [fr. pund, Sax.; pondo, Lat.], a certain weight, consisting in troy weight of 12, in avoirdupois of 16 ounces; the sum of 20s, said to be so called because in Saxon times 240 pence weighed a pound. See Lambard, 219. A pound Scots, anglice, a shilling.

A penfold, an inclosure, a prison in which beasts seized for rent (see DISTRESS) or caught on the land of another (see DAMAGE FEASANT) may be kept until they are replevied or redeemed. It is either overt, i.e., open overhead; or covert, i.e., in a close. See 1 & 2 P. & M. c. 12, whereby no distress of cattle may be driven more than three miles from where it was taken, and not more than 4d. may be taken for any one whole distress impounded; the (English) Distress for Rent Act, 1737, s. 10, empowering any person lawfully distraining for rent to impound the distress on the premises chargeable with the rent.

By s. 7 of the (English) Protection of Animals Act, 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. 5, c. 27) penalties are imposed for impounding or confining any animal in any pound without supplying it with wholesome and suitable food and water'any one may supply the animal in pound if kept for six hours or longer without sufficient suitable food. The reasonable cost may be recovered from the owner as a civil debt. These provisions extend an old law. See Co. Litt. 47 b as to expenses, etc., and, in Scotland, see 55 & 56 Vict. c. 55, s. 380.

Pound-breach in the case of distress for rent makes the breaker liable to the party grieved to treble damages and costs, by the Sale of Distress Act, 1690, s. 4, and in the case of distress on cattle damage feasant to a penalty of not more than 5l., recoverable before justices of the peace, by the Pound-Breach Act, 1843.