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Deposition
Deposition: (1) Depriving of a dignity, etc. (2) The act of giving public testimony, technically, the evidence put down in writing by way of answer to questions. It is an incontrovertible rule at Common Law, that when the witness himself can be produced, his deposition may not be read, for it is not the best evidence. But it may be read not only where it appears that the witness is actually dead, but in all cases where he is dead for all purposes of evidence: as where diligent search has been made for the witness and he cannot be found; where he resides in a place beyond the jurisdiction of the Court; or where he has become lunatic. See now, however, R. S.C. 1883, Ord. XXXVII., rr. 1, 5; and EVIDENCE; PERPETUATE TESTIMONY, BILLS TO.As to deposition in criminal proceedings (in connec-tion with which the term is most commonly used), see especially the (English) Indictable Offences Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 42), s. 17, and the (English) Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c....
Magna Carta
Magna Carta, [Latin 'great charter'] The English charter that King John granted to the barons in 1215 and Henry III and Edward I later confirmed. It is generally regarded as one of the great common-law documents and as the foundation of constitution liberties. The other three great charters of English Liberty are the Petition of Right (3 Car. (1628)), the Habeas Corpus Act (31 Car. 2 (1679)), and the Bill of Rights (1 Will. SM. (1689)). Also spelled Magna charta, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 963.This Great Charter is based substantially upon the Saxon Common Law, which flourished in this kingdom until the Normaninvasion consolidated the system of feudality, still the great characteristic of the principles of real property. The barons assembled at St.Edmund's Bury, in Suffolk, in the later part of the year 1214, and there solemnly swore upon the high alter to withdraw their allegiance from the Crown, and openly rebel, unless King John confirmed by a formal charter the ancient li...
Graveyard
Graveyard, Under the Mahomedan Law the graveyards may be of two kinds - a family or private graveyard and a public graveyard. A graveyard is a private one which is confined only to burial of corpses of the founder, his relations or his descendants. In such a burial ground no person who does not belong to the family of the founder is permitted to be bury to his dead. On the other hand if any member of the public is permitted to be buried in a graveyard and this practice grows so that it is proved by instances adequate in character, number and extent, then the presumption will be that the dedication is complete and the graveyard has become a public graveyard where the Mahomedan public will have the right to bury their dead. It is also well settled that a conclusive proof of the public graveyard is the description of the burial ground in the revenue records as a public graveyard, Syed Mohd. Salie Labbai v. Mohd. Hanifa, AIR 1976 SC 1569 (1584): (1976) 4 SCC 780: (1976) 3 SCR 721.Once a Ka...
Plant
Plant, has been defined as the tools, machinery, fixtures, buildings, grounds, etc. of a factory or business; the apparatus or equipment for a certain mechanical operation or process, Steel City Beverages Ltd. v. State of Bihar, (1996) 1 Pat LJR 868.Plant, has frequently been used in fiscal and other legislation. It is one of a fairly large category of words as to which no statutory definition is provided ('trade', office even 'income' are others), so that it is left to the court to interpret them. It naturally happens that as case follows case, and one extension leads to another, the meaning of the word gradually diverges from its natural or dictionary meaning. This is certainly true for plant, I.R.C. v. Scottish & Newcastle Breweries Ltd., (1982) 1 WLR 322: (1982) 2 All ER 230: 55 TC 252 (HL).Plant, in the relevant sense, although admitted not a term of art, and therefore part of the general English tongue, is not, in this sense, an ordinary word, but one of imprecise application, an...
Birth, Concealing
Birth, Concealing. See Offences against the Person Act, 1861, s. 60, which enacts that every person who shall, by any secret disposition (see R. v. Brown, 1870 LR 1 CCR 244) of the dead body of a child, whether such child died before, at, or after his birth, endeavour to conceal the birth thereof, shall be guilty of a misdeameanour, punishable with imprisonment not exceeding two years. To constitute the offence it must be established that the mother was delivered of a child within the meaning of the statute (see R. v. Colmer, 9 Cox, 506; R. v. Hewitt, 4 F. & F. 1101), that there was a definite act of concealment of the body as distinguished from abandonment, that the child was dead at the time, and that a body has been found and identified with that of the child to whom the charge relates. S. 60 of the Act provides, further, that if any woman tried for the murder of a child is acquitted thereof, she can lawfully be convicted of concealment of birth if there is evidence of that offence....
Mortmain
Mortmain [fr. mort, Fr., dead, and main hand], such a state of possession of land as makes it inalienable; whence it is said to be in dead hand--in a hand that cannot shift away the property. It takes place upon alienation to any corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal, 2 Bl. Com. 268.By several old statutes, alienation of lands and tenements in mortmain, i.e., to religious and other corporations, which were supposed to hold them in a dead or unserviceable hand, were prohibited under pain of forfeiture to the lord, the fruits of whose feudal seigniory (the great hinge of government in those days) were thus impaired. But either with or without the consent of the immediate lords (for this is doubtful), this forfeiture might be dispensed with by a licence in mortmain from the Crown, which licence was made sufficient without any such consent by 7 & 8 Wm. 3, c. 37, repealed and reenacted by the consolidating mortmain and (English) Charitable Uses Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. ...
Corpse
Corpse. Removing a corpse from a grave is a misdemeanour at Common Law, Reg. v. Sharpe, (1857) 26 LJ C 47; R. v. Kenyon, (1901) 36 LJ News. 571. Refusing to bury dead bodies by those whose duty it is to do so is punishable by the temporal courts, independently of spiritual censures, on indictment or information. There is no property in a dead body, Williams v. Williams, (1882) 20 Ch D 659.Dissection.--The (English) Anatomy Act, 1832 (2 & 3 Wm. 4, c. 75), makes dissection legal. See DISSECTION.As to post-mortem examinations, see (English) Public Health Act, 1936 (26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8, c. 49), ss. 161 to 163, and Public Health (London) Act, 1936; for disposing of infectious bodies, see the same Acts respectively.A gaoler cannot detain the dead body of a person in his custody under a ca. sa. (capias ad satisfaciendum) until the executors of the deceased person satisfy his pecuniary claims upon the deceased, R. v. Fox, (1841) 2 QB 246; S.C. Re Wakefield, (1841) 1 G&D 566.See BURIAL and CRE...
Widow
Widow, a woman whose husband is dead and who has not remarried, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1592.A widow is entitled equally with next of kin to administration of her deceased husband's estate subject to the discretion of the Court [see In the Estate of Paine, A.J., (1916) 115 LT 935]In regard to deaths after 1925, by the Administration of Estates Act, 1925, s. 46:-(1) The residuary (real and personal) estate of an intestate shall be distributed in the manner or be held on the trusts mentioned in this s., namely:-(i) If the intestate leaves a husband or wife (with or without issue) the surviving husband or wife shall take the personal chattels (q.v.) absolutely and in addition the residuary estate of the intestate shall stand charged with the payment of a net sum of 1000l. free of death duties and costs to the surviving husband or wife (with interest from date of death at 5 per cent. per annum until paid or appropriated and subject thereto as provided).(a) If the intestate lea...
Threats
Threats, or menaces of bodily hurt, through fear of which a man's business is interrupted, are civil injuries affecting the right of personal security. The remedy for this species of injury is in pecuniary damages.By the Larceny Act, 1916, s. 30,Every person who with intent:(a) to extort any valuable thing from any person, or(b) to induce any person to confer or procure for any person any appointment or office of profit or trust,(1)publishes or threatens to publish any libel upon any other person whether living or dead; or(2)directly or indirectly threatens to print or publish or directly or indirectly proposes to abstain from or offers to prevent the printing or publishing of any matter or thing touching any other person (whether living or dead),shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and on conviction thereof liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding two years.See also, s. 29 (ibid.), as to threats to accuse of certain serious crimes, and BLACKMAIL.Th...
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