Fine, a sum of money or mulct imposed upon an offender, also called a ransom. See PENALTY.
An amicable final agreement or compromise of a fictitious or actual suit to determine the true possessor of land, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 646.
A sum of money paid by a tenant at his entrance into his land; or for the renewal of a lease; and see FINES IN COPYHOLDS.
An assurance by matter of record, founded on a supposed previously existing right, abolished by the Fines and Recoveries Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 74). In every fine, which was the compromise of a fictitious suit and resembled the transactio of the Romans, there was a suit supposed, in which the person who was to recover the thing was called the plaintiff, conusee, or recognisee, and the person who parted with the thing the deforceant, conusor, or recognisor. It was termed a fine for its worthiness, and the peace and quiet it brought with it'finis fructus exitus et effectus legis. There are five essential parts to the levying of a fine:-(1) The original writ of right, usually of covenant, issued out of the Common Pleas against the conusor; and the pr'cipe, which was a summary of the writ and upon which the fine was levied; (2) the royal license (licentia concordandi) for the levying of the fine, for which the Crown was paid a sum of money called King's silver, which was the post-fine, as distinguished from the pr'-fine, which was due on the writ; (3) the conusance or concord itself, which was the agreement expressing the terms of the assurance, and was indeed the conveyance; (4) the note of the fine, which was an abstract of the original contract or concord; (5) the foot of the fine, or the last part of it, which contained all the matter, the day, year, and place, and before what justices it had been levied. A fine was said to be engrossed when the chirographer made the indentures of the fine and delivered them to the party to whom the conusance was made. The chirograph, or inden-tures, was evidence of the fine.
A fine without proclamation was a fine at the Common Law, and a fine with proclamations (which was to be proclaimed openly in the Common Pleas once a term for four terms next after its engrossment) was a fine according to the statute 4 Hen. 7, c. 24, and of this sort were most fines. A fine was single when an estate was granted to the consignee, and nothing rendered to the cognisor; or double, when there was a render back again either of the land itself or something out of it, for some new estate. See RECOVERY.