As If - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: as if Page: 5Treason
Treason [fr. trahir, Fr., to betray; proditio, Lat.], or leze-majesty, an offence against the duty of allegiance, and the highest known crime, for it aims at the very destruction of the commonwealth itself. Five species of treason are declared by the Treason Act, 1351, or 'Statute of Treasons' (25 Edw. 3, st. 5, c. 2), as follows:-(1) When a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the king (a queen regnant is within these words), of our lady his queen or of their eldest son and heir.(2) If a man do violate the king's companion (i.e., his wife), or the king's eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the king's eldest son and heir.(3) If a man do levy war against our lord the king in his realm. (After a battle has taken place, it is termed bellum percussum; before it, bellum levatum.)(4) If a man be adherent to the king's enemies in his realm, giving to them aid or comfort in the realm or elsewhere.(5) If a man slay the chancellor, treasurer, or the king's justices assigned to...
Settled land
Settled land. For the purposes of the (English) Settled Land Acts, 1882-1890, 'settled land' meant land, and any estate and interest therein, which was the subject of a settlement; and 'settlement' meant any instrument, or any number of instruments, under which any land, or any estate or interest in land, 'stands for the time being limited to or in trust for any persons by way of succession' (Settled Land Act, 1882, s. 2) (see infra for the statutory definitions in the Settled Land Act, 1925, which has repealed the S.L. Acts, 1882-1890). Where the settlement consists of more instruments than one it is commonly called a 'compound settlement,' though this term is not defined in the Acts themselves; as to compound settlements, see Re Du Cane & Nettlefold, (1898) 2 Ch 96; Re Munday & Roper, (1899) 1Ch 275; Re Lord Wimborne & Browne (1904) 1 Ch 537; Wolstenholme & Cherry, Conveyancing, etc., Acts.Prior to 1856 settled estates could not be sold or leased except under the authority of some po...
Priority
Priority, an antiquity of tenure in comparison with another less ancient; also that which is before another in order of time.As to priority among creditors, see (English) Admin-istration of Estates Act, 1869, reproduced by ss. 32 to 34, (English) Administration of Estates Act, 1925, and the First Sch., which provides that in the administration of the estate of any person who shall die on or after 1st January, 1870, no debt or liability of such person shall be entitled to any priority or preference by reason merely that the same is secured by or arises under a bond, deed, or other instrument under seal, or is otherwise made or constituted a specialty debt.The priority in legal and equitable assignments of equitable choses in action are determined accord-ing to the date of receipt of notice by the persons who are for the time being owners of the legal interest in the property assigned. Before 1926 the notice might be verbal; after 1926 it must, for the purposes of establishing priority a...
Power of Attorney
Power of Attorney (Letter of Attorney), a writing usually, but not always necessarily, under seal authorizing another person, who is called the attorney of the person appointing him, to do any lawful act in the stead of another, as to give seisin of lands, receive debts or sue a third person. it is either general or special. The nature of this instrument is to give the attorney the full power and authority of the maker to accomplish the act intended to be performed. If it is an authority coupled with an interest, e.g., if the attorney is authorized to collect debts and pay there out a debt due to himself, it is irrevocable. As it is necessary for certain purposes (e.g., execution of a deed) that it should be under seal, a power of attorney is usually in the form of a deed. By ss. 8 and 9 of the (English) Conveyancing Act, 1882, now (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, ss. 126 and 127, powers of attorney may be made irrevocable either absolutely or for a limited period according as they...
Restitutio in integrum
Restitutio in integrum, the rescinding of a contract or transaction, so as to place the parties to it in the same position, with respect to one another, which they occupied before the contract was made, or the transaction took place. The restitutio here spoken of is founded on the edict. If the contract or transaction is such as not to be valid, according to the jus civile this restitutio is not needed, and it only applies to cases of contracts and transactions, which are not in their nature or form invalid. In order to entitle a person to the restitutio, he must have sustained some injury capable of being estimated, in consequence of the contract or transaction, and not through any fault of his own, except in the case of one who is minor xxv. Annorum, who was protected by the restitutio against the consequences of his own carelessness.The following are the chief cases in which a restitutio might be decreed:-The case of vis et metus. When a man had acted under the influence of force or...
Limitation of actions and prosecutions
Limitation of actions and prosecutions. By various statutes, of which the first was 21 Jac. 1, c. 16, the (English) Limitation Act, 1623, and the principal succeeding ones, the Real Property Limitation Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 42), the (English) Civil Procedure Act (3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27) [see Read v. Price, (1909) 2 KB 724], and 37 & 38 Vict. c. 57, the (English) Real Property Limitation Act, 1874, certain periods are fixed within which, upon the principle Interest reipublic' ut sit finis litium, particular actions must be brought or proceedings taken.In the case of simple contract the remedy on the contract is barred, leaving the creditor free to enforce his claims by other means which may be still available, such as enforcing a lien, subsequent acknowledgment by the debtor or appropriation of payments, but not by way of set-off (9 Geo. 4, c. 14, s. 3). In regard to land, the right to it is destroyed after the statutory period and neither re-entry nor acknowledgment after the laps...
Cumulative legacies
Cumulative legacies, legacies so called to distinguish them from egacies which are merely repeated. In the construction of testamentary instruments, the question often arises, whether where a testator has twice bequeathed a legacy to the same person, the legatee is entitled to both, or only one of them; in other words, whether the second legacy must be considered as a mere repetition of the first, or as cumulative, i.e., additional. In determining this question, the intention of the testator, if it appears on the face of the instrument, prevails; but if it does not so appear, the following rules of contruction have been laid down:(I.) If the same specific thing be bequeathed tweice to a legatee, whether by the same instrument or not, he is entitled to one legacy only.(II.) If the legacies be not of a specific thing, but of quantity, e.g., a sum of money--(1) If they are bequeathed by the same instrument, and are of equal amount, the second legacy is nto cumulative, but the legatee is e...
Contribution
Contribution, to any fund shall not include any sums in repayment of loan. [Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), s. 80C(8)(ii)]Means the sum of money payable to the corporation by the principal employer in respect of an employee and includes any amount payable by or on behalf of the employee in accordance with the provisions of this Act. [Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 (34 of 1948), s. 2(4)]The word 'contribution' used in the proviso must also be given its due meaning. It cannot be understood as donations. If that be so, a voluntary contribution cannot amount to a compulsive donation. If the donor, in order to gain an advantage or benefit, if he apprehends that but the contribution some adverse consequence would follow, makes a donation certainly it ceases to be voluntary, Municipal Corpn. of Delhi v. Children Book Trust, AIR 1992 SC 1456 (1472): (1992) 3 SCC 390. [Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, (66 of 1957), s. 115(4)(a), Proviso]The performance by each of two or more pers...
Bond
Bond [fr. binda, band, bunden, A. S., to bind], a written acknowledgement or binding of a debt under seal. See DEED. No technical form of words is necessary to constitute a bond; see Gerrard v. Clowes, (1892) 2 QB 11; Strickland v. Williams, (1899) 1 QB 382. The person giving the bond is called the obligor, and he to whom it is given the obligee. A bond is called single (simplex obligatio) when it is without a penalty, but there is generally a condition added, that, if the obligor does or forbears from some act, the obligation shall be void, or else shall remain in full force, and the bond is then called a double or conditional one; see Dav. Prec. Vol. V., pt. Ii., p. 268. When a bond contains a penalty, which is generally double the amount of the principal sum secured, only the sum actually owing, with interest, can be recovered, and in no case can this exceed the amount appearing on the face of the bond. See 8 & 9 Wm. 3, c. 11, s. 8; Re Dixon, (1900) 2 Ch 561.Although it is unnecessa...
Bastard
Bastard [fornication], one born not of lawful marriage. [(English) Age of Marriage Act, 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. 5, c. 36)]The civil and canon laws did not allow a child to remain a bastard if the parents afterwards intermarried, but a proposal by the bishops to assimilate the law of England to the canon law in this respect was rejected by Parliament in 1235. See MERTON, STATUTE OF. The law of England remained thus for nearly 700 years, until the Legitimacy Act, 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. 5, c. 60), legitimated a child born out of wedlock upon the subsequent marriage of parents if they were domiciled in England or Wales at the date of marriage. See LEGITIMATION. In Scotland, however, and in most other Christian countries, including most, if not all, of the British Dominions, and most, if not all, of the United States of America, legitimation of the children has always followed the intermarriage of the parents.The mother of a bastard cannot validly contract with another person for the transfer to tha...
- << Prev.
- Next >>