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Subpoena - Law Dictionary Search Results

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Notice of writ

Notice of writ, against defendant out or jurisdiction. See SUMMONS....


Out of court

Out of court, deprived of all right to have one's case so much as considered by the court. A plaintiff in an action at Common Law must have declared within one year after the service of a writ of summons, otherwise he was out of court, unless the court had, by special order, enlarged the time for declaring....


Notice to third party

Notice to third party, i.e., to a person not being a party to the writ of summons in an action. See also THIRD PARTY....


Official solicitor

Official solicitor. The duties of this officer at the present time are nowhere very clearly defined: see (English) Judicature Act, 1925, s. 129, replacing (English) Official Solicitor Act, 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5, c. 30). A petition or summons respecting any dealing with a dormant fund, i.e., a fund in Court which has not been dealt with for fifteen years, must be served on the Official Solicitor: (English) R.S.C. Ord. XXII., Rule 11; and he has placed upon him by the (English) Court of Chancery Act, 1860 (20 & 23 Vict. c. 149), s. 2, the duty of visiting prisoners committed for contempt, and he may be assigned as solicitor to pauper litigants, and acts as guardian ad litem to persons under a disability. Subject to an order to the contrary, under Ord. LXIII., Rule 13, his costs are taxed as between party and party, Eady v. Elsdon, (1901) 2 KB 460....


Original Writ or Original

Original Writ or Original [breve originale, Lat.], was the beginning or foundation of a real action at Common Law. It is also applied to processes for some other purposes.It was a mandatory letter issuing out of the Common Law or ordinary jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (see now CHANCERY), under the Great Seal, and in the sovereign's name, addressed to the sheriff of the county where the injury was committed, containing a summary statement of the cause of complaint, andrequiring him to command the defendant to satisfy the claim, and, on his failure to comply, then to summon him to appear in one of the superior Courts of Common Law. In some cases it simply required the sheriff to enforce the appearance. Original writs differed from each other in their tenor, according to the nature of the plaintiff's complaint, and were conceived in fixed and certain forms. Many of these are of a remote antiquity; others are of later origin, and their history is as follows:-The ancient writs had p...


Mesne process

Mesne process, all those writs which intervene in the progress of a suit or action between its beginning and end, as contradistinguished from primary and final process. Thus, the capias or mesne process was issued after a writ of summons, which was the primary process, and before a capias ad satisfaciendum, which was the final process, or process of execution. See IMPRISONMENT.By the (English) Judgments Act, 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 110), s. 1, the power of arrest upon mesne process was relaxed, and confined to the case of a debtor about to quit England, and where the amount of the debt was 20l. or upwards; and by the (English) Debtors Act, 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 62), s. 6, it is enacted, that 'after the commencement of the Act a person shall not be arrested upon mesne process in any action.' Nevertheless, where a plaintiff has good cause of action against the defendant to the amount of 50l. or upwards, and the defendant is about to quit England, and the absence of the defendant from Engla...


Moor

Moor, an officer in the Isle of Man, who summons the Courts for the several sheadings. The officer is similar to our bailiff of a hundred...


Knowledge of the decree

Knowledge of the decree, the expression 'knowledge of the decree' in Art. 164 means knowledge of the particular decree which is sought to be set aside. When the summons was not duly served, limitation under Art. 164 does not start running against the defendant because he has received some vague information that some decree has been passed against him. It is a question of fact in each case whether the information conveyed to the defendant is insufficient to impute to him knowledge of the decree within the meaning of Art. 164. The test of the sufficiency is not what the information would mean to a stranger, but what it meant to the defendant in the light of his previous dealings with the plaintiff and the facts and circumstances known to him. If from the information conveyed to him the defendant has knowledge of the decree sought to be set aside, time begins to run against him under Art. 164. It is not necessary that a copy of the decree should be served on the defendant. It is sufficien...


Masters of the Supreme Court

Masters of the Supreme Court, in the King's Bench Division, officials, seven in number, deriving their title from the (English) Jud. (Officers) Act, 1879 (see now Jud. Act, 1925, ss. 106, 122, Sched. III., Part I.), and filling the places of the Masters of the Common Law Courts, the King's Coroner and Attorney, the Master of the Crown Office, the two Record and Writ Clerks, and the three Associates. Their jurisdiction is mainly to hear summonses for directions (see DIRECTIONS, SUMMONS FOR), to supervise pleadings, and decide as to discovery. There are also Masters in the Chancery Division who have succeeded to the position and powers of the Chief Clerks of the Chancery judges, the title of 'Master of the Supreme Court' having been substituted for that of 'Chief Clerk in 1897. Under the present system there are three sets of Chancery Chambers, each with four Masters and attached to two judges. The duties of the Masters are to hear summonses for directions, take accounts and answer inqui...


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...



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