Misprision - Law Dictionary Search Results

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Misprision

Misprision [fr. mepris, Fr.], neglect, negligence, or oversight.All such high offences as are under the degree of capital, but nearly bordering thereon, are misprisions; and it is said that a misprision is contained in every treason and felony whatsoever, and that, if the Crown so please, the offender may be proceeded against for the misprision only. And upon the same principle, while the court of Star Chamber existed, it was held that the sovereign might remit a prosecution for treason, and cause the delinquent to be censured in that Court, merely for a high misdemeanour; as in the case of Roger, Earl of Rutland, in 43 Eliz., concerned in Essex's rebellion. Every great misdemeanour, according to Coke, which has no certain term appointed by the law, is sometimes called a misprision.Misprisions are divided in the text-books into two kinds:-(1) Negative, the concealment of what ought to be revealed; such is misprision of treason, the bare knowledge and concealment of treason without any ...

misprision

misprision [Anglo-French, error, wrongdoing, from Old French, from mesprendre to make a mistake, from mes- wrongly + prendre to take, from Latin prehendere to seize] 1 : neglectful or wrongful performance of an official duty 2 : a clerical error in a legal proceeding that can be corrected in a summary proceeding 3 : the concealment of a treason or felony and failure to report it to the prosecuting authorities by a person who has not committed it [ of felony] [ of treason] ...

High Steward, Court of the Lord

High Steward, Court of the Lord, a tribunal instituted for the trial of peers or peeresses indicted for treason or felony, or for misprision of either, but not for any other offence. The office of Lord High Steward is very ancient, and was formerly hereditary, or held for life, or dum bene se gesserit; but it has been for many centuries granted pro hac vice only, and always to a lord of Parliament. When, therefore, such an indictment is found by a grand jury of freeholders in the King's Bench, or at the assizes before a judge of oyer and terminer, it is removed by a writ of certiorari into the Court of the Lord High Steward, which alone has power to determine it.The sovereign, in case a peer be indicted for treason, felony, or misprision, appoints a Lord High Ste-ward pro vice, by commission under the Great Seal, which, reciting the indictment so found, gives him power to receive and try it secundum legem et consuetudinem Angli'. When the indictment is regularly removed by certiorari, ...

Misprise

See Misprize...

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...

Forfeiture

Forfeiture, a penalty for an offence or unlawful act, or for some wilful omission of a tenant of property whereby he loses it, together with his title, which devolves upon others.Forfeiture resulted from the following circumstan-ces:--(1) Treason, misprision of treason, felony, murder, self-murder, pr'munire, and striking or threatening a judge. But the (English) Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 23), enacted that no conviction, etc., for treason or felony, or felo de se, shall cause any forfeiture except as consequent on outlawry. The Act also makes provision for the appointment by the Crown of administrators of the property of convicts.(2) Conveyance contrary to law, as transferring a freehold to an alien, who formerly could take lands but could not hold them; wherefore upon office found the Crown was entitled to the land. But the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1914 (substituted for the (English) Naturalization Act, 1870), subject to certain provisoes, enables ali...

Sessions of the peace

Sessions of the peace, sittings of justices of the peace for the execution of those powers which are confided to them by their commission, or by charter, and by numerous statutes. They are of three descriptions:-I. Petty Sessions.--Metropolitan Police magistrates can act alone (see that title), with that exception, every meeting of two or more justices in the same place, for the execution of some power vested in them by law, whether had on their own mere motion, or on the requisition of any party entitled to require their attendance in discharge of some duty, is a petty or petit session. The occasions for holding petty sessions are very numerous, amongst the most important of which is the bailing persons accused of felony, which may be done after a full hearing of evidence on both sides, where the presumption of guilt shall either be weak in itself, or weakened by the proofs adduced on behalf of the prisoner. See PETTY SESSIONS.As to right of the public to attend petty sessions, see OP...

Trespass

Trespass [fr. transgressio, Lat.], any transgression of the law, less than treason, felony, or misprision of either.An unlawful act committed against the person or property of another esp. wrongful entry on another's real property, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.The action of trespass lies where a trespass has been committed either to the plaintiff's person or property. A trespass is an injury committed with violence, and this violence may be either actual or implied; and the law will imply violence, though none is actually used, where the injury is of a direct and immediate kind, and committed on the person or tangible and corporeal property of the plaintiff. Of actual violence an assault and battery is an instance; of implied, a peaceable but wrongful enter upon the plaintiff's lands, Steph. Plead., 7th Edn., 11, 37, 154. As to trespass on the case, see CASE and VI ET ARMIS.Trespass, as an unlawful act committed against a person and property of another, Black's Law Dictionary (7th E...

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