Indictable - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: indictable Page: 6Amendment
Amendment, a correction of any errors in the writ or pleadings in actions, suits, or prosecutions. The power of allowing amendments has been much extended by modern statutes and rules, but it will not be exercised to the prejudice of a party to the proceeding; apart from this, it is in general a mere matter of costs.1. Amendment of proceedings in the Supreme Court. By R. S. C. Ord. XXVIII., r. 1, the Court or a judge may, at any stage of the proceedings, allow either party to alter or amend his indorsement or pleadings, in such manner and on such terms as may be just, and all such amendments shall be made as may be necessary for the purpose of determining the real questions in controversy between the parties. This is the general principle. The remaining rules of the Order prescribe the practice in detail; they allow the plaintiff to amend his statement of claim once without leave, and the defendant similarly to amend a counterclaim or set-off. But a defence cannot be amended without le...
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....
Summons
Summons [fr. the writ called summoneas--Pegge's Anecd. Of the Eng. Lang., 2nd Edn. 173], a call of authority, admonition to appear in court, a citation.1. To commence Action in High Court, By R.S.C. Ord. II., r. 1(see Annual Practice):-Every action in the High Court shall be commenced by a writ of summons, which shall be indorsed with a statement of the nature of the claim made, or of the relief or remedy required in the action, and which shall specify the Division of the High Court to which it is intended that the action should be assigned.See also SUMMARY JUDGMENT.2. To Judges' or Masters' Chambers.--The means by which one party brings the other before a judge (or a master) to settle matters of detail in the procedure of a suit; as, for directions; to modify pleadings when inconvenient, to require security for costs, to change the venue, etc. There is an appeal from the decision of a master to the judge, and from the judge's decision to the Court of Appeal.3. To Court of Summary Juri...
Combination
Combination, a banding together of persons for any particular purpose, as of workmen for the purposes of a strike. See (English) Conspiracy and Protection of Property act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 86), by which (s. 3) 'an agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or procure to be done any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute between employers and workmen shall not be indictable as a crime if such act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime.' See TRADE DISPUTE....
Felony
Felony [fr. felonie, Fr.; felonia, Lat.; some deduce it fr. Gk., a deceiver, and fallo, Lat., to deceive; Spelman derives it fr. the Teutonic or German fee, a fieu or fiet, and lon, price or value; Coke says, 'Ex vi termini significat quodlibet capitale crimen felleo animo perpetratum,' Co. Litt. 391 a], originally the state of having forfeited lands and goods to the Crown upon conviction for certain offences, and then, by transition, any offence upon conviction for which such forfeiture followed, in addition to any other punishment prescribed by law, as distinguished from misdemeanour, upon conviction for which to forfeiture followed. All indictable offences are either felonies or misdemeanours, but a material part of the distinction is taken away by the Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 23), which abolishes forfeiture for felony, and provides for the administration of the estates of felons while undergoing sentence; see Carr v. Anderson, (1903) 2 Ch 279.The only remaining distin...
Eavesdroppers
Eavesdroppers, persons who listen under walls or windows, or the eaves of a house, to hearken after discourse, and thereupon to frame slanderous and mischievous tales. They were in early times presentable at the Court-leet, or indictable at the sessions, and punishable by fine and finding sureties for good behaviour, 2 Hawk. P.C., c. x., s. 58....
Dog stealing
Dog stealing is punishable on summary conviction, for the first offence, by six months' imprisonment and hard labour, or fine not exceeding 20l. beyond the value of the dog. A second offence is, however, an indictable misdemeanour, punishable by imprisonment with or without hard labour not exceeding eighteen months. Similar punishment is provided for persons found in possession of dogs or their skins, knowing them to have been stolen, and a justice may order the restoration of the stolen property to the owner. Corruptly taking money or reward, to aid in the recovery of a stolen dog, is punishable by imprisonment with or without hard labour for eighteen months. Dogs are not the subject of larceny at common law. See (English) Larceny Act, 1861, ss. 18, 19, 21 and 22; Larceny Act, 1916, ss. 5 and 48, and Sched...
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....
Criminal Evidence Act
Criminal Evidence Act, 1898 (English) (61 & 62 Vict. c. 36), the general Act by which every person charged with an offence and his or her wife or husband became a competent, but not a compellable, witness for the defence at every stage of the proceedings.The Evidence Acts, 1851 and 1853, whichmade parties and spouses admissible witnesses (they having been previously incompetent on the groundof interest), expressly excepted criminal proceedings from its opertion; but a series of enactments dealing with particular offences, from the Licensing Act, 1872, downto the Chaff Cutting Machines Accidents Act, 1897 (of which s. 20 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, was by far the most important), did away with this exception, in particular cases and in varying phraseology, but without qualifications except that against compellability, and enabled accused persons to give evidenceon oath in their own defence.The Act of 1898, superseding [see Charnock v. Merchant, (1900) 1 QB 474] but not expr...
Crime
Crime, is a word, of which the interpretation has varied with the philosophic bias of the writer; it has been described as the violation of a right, when considered in reference to the evil tendency of such violation, as regards the community at large, but this definition is too wide; and would include any evil act or movement whether or not it is punishable by law. The (English) Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 112), s. 5, defines crime for the limited purposes of the Act as either felonies or specified offences or misdemeanours, while 'offence' means any act which is not a 'crime' and is punishable on indictment or summary conviction. In our law misdemeanour is generally used in cotradistinction to felony, and comprehends all indictable offences which do not amount to felony, as perjury, battery, libels, conspiracies, etc. see OFFENCE, and consult Russell on Crimes, and Mellor v. Denham, (1880) 5 QBD 467, and other cases decided upon the meaning of 'criminal cause or ...
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