Half Wit - Law Dictionary Search Results

Home Dictionary Name: half wit

Half cracked

Half demented half witted...

Half wit

A foolish person a dolt a blockhead a dunce...

One of a number of riotous persons in England who for six years 1811 17 tried to prevent the use of labor saving machinery by breaking it burning factories etc so called from Ned Lud a half witted man who some years previously had broken stocking frames...

Double or treble costs

Double or treble costs have been frequently granted by statute, e.g., to successful defendants in actions for irregular distress, by the (English) Distress for Rent Act, 1737 (11 Geo. 2, c. 19), s. 20. The true mode of estimating the amount of double costs was first to allow the successful party the single costs, including the expenses of witnesses, counsel's fees, etc., and then allow him one-half of the amount of the single costs, without deducting counsel's fees, etc. Treble costs consisted of the single costs, half the single costs, and half of that half. But the public statutes prior to 1842 which gave these costs were repealed by the (English) Limitations of Actions and Costs Act, 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 97), popularly called 'Pollock's Act,' which enacted that the successful party should be entitled only to full and reasonable costs, to be taxed by the proper officer-an enactment repealed in its turn by the (English) Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893 (see that title)....

Semiproof

Half proof evidence from the testimony of a single witness...

Marriage

Marriage. Marriage as understood in Christendom is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others, Hyde v. Hyde, 1866 LR 1 P&D 130. Where a marriage in a foreign country complies with these requirements it is immaterial that under the local law dissolution can be obtained by mutual consent or at the will of either party with merely formal conditions of official registration, and it constitutes a valid marriage according to English law, Nachimson v. Nachimson, 1930, P. 217. Previous to 1753 the validity of marriage was regulated by ecclesiastical law, not touched by any statutory nullity but modified by the Common law Courts, which sometimes interfered with the Ecclesiastical Courts, by prohibition, sometimes themselves decide on the validity of a marriage, presuming a marriage in fact as opposed to lawful marriage. A religious ceremony by an ordained clergyman was essential to a lawful marriage, at all events for dower and heirship; but if in an i...

Husband and wife

Husband and wife. the Common Law treated them, for most purposes, as one person, giving, with exceptions comparatively unimportant, the whole of a woman's property to her husband for his absolute use, and a husband could not make a grant to his wife at the Common Law, though he might do so: (1) under the Statute of Uses, by granting an estate to another person for her use; (2) by creating a trust in her favour; (3) by the custom of particular places; (4) by surrendering copyholds to her use; and (5) by will.Equity, however, from very early times, by the doctrines of 'separate use,' 'trusts,' and 'equity to a settlement,' very largely modified the Common Law in favour of the wife; and the statute law has, by s. 1 of the Law Reform (Married Women and Tortfeasors Act), 1935 (25 & 26 Geo. 5, c. 30), almost completely abolished the property distinction between an unmarried and a married woman. See MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY.At Common Law, a gift of either realty or personal-ity to a husband a...

Notice to quit

Notice to quit. Where there is a tenancy from year to year subsisting, it can only be put an end to by notice to quit, which may be given by either party, and must be given one half-year previously to the expiration of the current year of tenancy, so as to expire at the same period of the year in which the tenant entered upon the premises. This rule is to be invariably followed in all cases, except where there is some special agreement between the parties to a different effect, or where a particular local custom intervenes, or where the (English) Agricultural Holdings Act, 1923, applies, in which case, by s. 25 of that Act, a notice must be given to terminate the tenancy twelve months from the end of the then current year of the tenancy.Where the term of a lease is to end on a precise day, there is no occasion for a notice to quit previously to bringing an action of ejectment because both parties are equally apprised of the termination of the term. If a tenant continue in possession by...

<< Prev.
Next >>