TENOR. In pleading, the "tenor" of | etc.) had the effect of passing not mere a document is sometimes said to be shown when an exact copy is set out in the pleading. Also, the word is often used to denote the true meaning or purport of an instrument. TENURE. In the law of public officers. The period during which an officer holds office. In the law of real property. The legal mode in which one owns an estate in lands. ly the estate of the person making the conveyance, but the whole fee simple, to the injury of the person really entitled to the fee; and they were hence called "tortious conveyances." Litt. par. 611; Co. Litt. 271b, note 1; 330b, note 1. But this operation has been taken away. Sweet. TRANSITORY ACTION. An action that is personal-i. e., brought against the person of the defendant-and possible to be brought in any county in which service of process upon the defendant is obtained. TRESPASS. Any misfeasance or act of one man whereby another is injuriously treated or damnified. 3 Bl. Comm. 208. TERM. Of court. The word "term" when used with reference to a court, signifies the space of time during which the court holds a session. A "session" signifies the time during the term when the court sits for the transaction of business, and the session commences when the court convenes for the term, and continues until final adjournment, either before or at the expiration of the term. The "term" of the court is the In the strictest sense, an entry on antime prescribed by law during which it may be in "session." The "session" of other's ground, without a lawful authorthe court is the time of its actual sit-ity, and doing some damage, however inconsiderable, to his real property. 3 ting. Bl. Comm. 209. TESTATOR. One who makes or has made a testament or will; one who dies leaving a will. An injury or misfeasance to the person, property, or rights of another person, done with force and violence, either actual or implied by law. In practice. A form of action, at the common law, which lies for redress in the shape of money damages for any TITLE. The means whereby the owner of lands or of personalty has the unlawful injury done to the plaintiff, in just possession of his property. See Co. Litt. 345; 2 Bl. Comm. 195. TORT. Wrong; injury; the opposite of right. So called, according to Lord Coke, because it is "wrested," or crooked, being contrary to that which is right and straight. Co. Litt. 158b. In modern practice, "tort" is constantly used as an English word to denote a wrong or wrongful act, for which an action will lie, as distinguished from a "contract." 3 Bl. Comm. 117. A tort is a legal wrong committed upon the person or property independent of contract. It may be either (1) a direct invasion of some legal right of the individual; (2) the infraction of some public duty by which special damage accrues to the individual; (3) the violation of some private obligation by which like damage accrues to the individual. In the former case, no special damage is necessary to entitle the party to recover. In the two latter cases, such damage is necessary. Code Ga. 1882, § 2951. respect either to his person, property, or rights, by the immediate force and violence of the defendant. Trespass de bonis asportatis. (Trespass for goods carried away.) In practice. The technical name of that species of trespass for injuries to personal property which lies where the injury consists in carrying away the goods or property. Trespass on the case. The form of action, at common law, adapted to the recovery of damages for some injury resulting to a party from the wrongful act of another, unaccompanied by direct or immediate force, or which is the indirect or secondary consequence of such act. Commonly called "case," or "action on the case." Trespass quare clausum fregit. (Trespass wherefore he broke the close, or trespass for breaking the close.) The common-law action for damages for an unlawful entry or trespass upon the plaintiff's land. TROVER. In common-law practice, TORT-FEASOR. One who commits the action of trover (or trover and or is guilty of a tort. TORTIOUS. Wrongful; of the nature of a tort. Formerly certain modes of conveyance (e. g., feoffments, fines, conversion) is a species of action on the case, and originally lay for the recovery of damages against a person who had "found" another's goods and wrong fully converted them to his own use. Subsequently the allegation of the loss of the goods by the plaintiff and the finding of them by the defendant was merely fictitious, and the action became the remedy for any wrongful interference with or detention of the goods of another. TRUST. An equitable or beneficial right or title to land or other property, held for the beneficiary by another person, in whom resides the legal title or ownership, recognized and enforced by courts of chancery. TRUST DEED. An instrument in use in many states, taking the place and serving the uses of a common-law mortgage, by which the legal title to real property is placed in one or more trustees, to secure the repayment of a important of such statutes are the Negotiable Instruments Act, the Sales Act, and the Partnership Act, which have all been enacted in many of the states. UNILATERAL. One-sided; ex parte; having relation to only one of two or more persons or things. USURY. Unlawful interest; a premium or compensation paid or stipulated to be paid for the use of money borrowed or returned, beyond the rate of interest established by law. Webster. V A deed, VALID. Of binding force. will, or other instrument, which has received all the formalities required by law, is said to be valid. VALIDITY. This term is used to sum of money or the performance of signify legal sufficiency, in contradis other conditions. TRUSTEE. The person appointed, or required by law, to execute a trust; one in whom an estate, interest, or power is vested, under an express or implied agreement to administer or tinction to mere regularity. VENDEE. A purchaser or buyer; one to whom anything is sold. Generally used of the transferee of real propex-being called a "buyer." erty, one who acquires chattels by sale ercise it for the benefit or to the use of another. TRUSTEE PROCESS. The name given in the New England states, to the process of garnishment or foreign attachment. UNDERTAKING. A promise, engagement, or stipulation. Each of the promises made by the parties to a contract, considered independently and not as mutual, may, in this sense, be denominated an "undertaking." UNDERWRITER. The person who insures another in a fire or life policy; the insurer. A person who joins with others in entering into a marine policy of insurance as insurer. UNIFORM STATUTES. In general, statutes of substantially uniform substance, passed by various states, with the purpose of making the law of the subject uniform throughout the country. Such statutes have been drafted by the Commission on Uniform State Laws of the American Bar Association, and recommended for passage by the Legislatures of the various states. The most VENDITIONI EXPONAS. Latin. You may expose to sale. This is the name of a writ of execution, requiring a sale to be made, directed to a sheriff when he has levied upon goods under a fieri facias, but returned that they remained unsold for want of buyers; and in some jurisdictions it is issued to cause a sale to be made of lands, seized under a former writ, after they have been condemned or passed upon by an inquisition. Frequently abbreviated to "vend. ex." VENDOR. The person who transfers property by sale, particularly real estate, "seller" being more commonly used for one who sells personalty. VENIRE. Lat. To come; to appear in court. This word is sometimes used as the name of the writ for summoning a jury, more commonly called a "venire facias." VENIRE FACIAS DE NOVO. Latin. A fresh or new venire, which the court grants when there has been some impropriety or irregularity in returning the jury, or where the verdict is so imperfect or ambiguous that no judgment can be given upon it, or where a judgment is reversed on error, and a new trial awarded. VERDICT. The formal and unanimous decision or finding of a jury, impaneled and sworn for the trial of a cause, upon the matters or questions duly submitted to them upon the trial. VESTED. Accrued; fixed; settled; | opportunity to take advantage of some absolute; having the character or giv- defect, irregularity, or wrong. ing the rights of absolute ownership; not contingent; not subject to be defeated by a condition precedent. VINDICTIVE DAMAGES. Exemplary damages are damages on an increased scale, awarded to the plaintiff over and above what will barely compensate him for his property loss, where the wrong done to him was aggravated by circumstances of violence, oppression, malice, fraud, or wanton and wicked conduct on the part of the defendant, and are intended to solace the plaintiff for mental anguish, laceration of his feelings, shame, degradation, or other aggravations of the original wrong, or else to punish the defendant for his evil behavior or to make an example of him, for which reason they are also called "punitive" or "punitory" damages or "vindictive" damages, and (vulgarly) "smart money." VOID. Null; ineffectual, nugatory; having no legal force or binding effect; unable, in law, to support the purpose for which it was intended. VOIDABLE. That may be avoided, or declared void; not absolutely void, or void in itself. Most of the acts of infants are "voidable" only, and not absolutely void. VOLUNTARY. Free; without com pulsion or solicitation. WARD. An infant or insane person placed by authority of law under the care of a guardian. WARRANT, v. In contracts. To engage or promise that a certain fact or state of facts, in relation to the subject-matter, is, or shall be, as it is represented to be. WARRANT, n. A writ or precept from a competent authority in pursuance of law, directing the doing of an act, and addressed to an officer or person competent to do the act, and affording him protection from damage, if he does it. WARRANTY. In real property law. A real covenant by the grantor of lands, for himself and his heirs, to warrant and defend the title and possession of the estate granted, to the grantee and his heirs, whereby either upon voucher, or judgment in the writ of warrantia chartæ, and the eviction of the grantee by paramount title, the grantor was bound to recompense him with other lands of equal value. In sales of personal property. A warranty is a statement or representation made by the seller of goods, contempocontract of sale, though collateral to raneously with and as a part of the valu-ence to the character, quality, or title the express object of it, having referof the goods, and by which he promises or undertakes to insure that certain facts are or shall be as he then represents them. VOLUNTEER. In conveyancing, one who holds a title under a voluntary conveyance; i. e., one made without consideration, good or valuable, to support it. A warranty is an engagement by which a seller assures to a buyer the existence of some fact affecting the transaction, whether past, present, or future. A person who gives his services without any express or implied promise of remuneration in return is called a "volunteer," and is entitled to no remuner-ulation, in writing, or verbally, that a In contracts. An undertaking or stipation for his services, nor to any com pensation for injuries sustained by him in performing what he has undertaken. Sweet. Also one who officiously pays the debt of another. W WAGER. A wager is a contract by which two or more parties agree that a certain sum of money or other thing shall be paid or delivered to one of them on the happening of an uncertain event or upon the ascertainment of a fact which is in dispute between them. WAIVER. The renunciation, repudiation, abandonment, or surrender of some claim, right, privilege, or of the of a contract is or shall be as it is certain fact in relation to the subject stated or promised to be. A warranty differs from a representation in that a warranty must always be given contemporaneously with, and as part of, the contract; whereas, a rep resentation precedes and induces to the contract. ference in nature, their difference in And, while that is their difconsequence or effect is this: That, upranty), the contract remains binding, on breach of warranty (or false warand damages only are recoverable for the breach; whereas, upon a false representation, the defrauded party may elect to avoid the contract, and recover the entire price paid. Brown. WILL. A will is the legal expression that examination may be made of cerof a man's wishes as to the disposition tain errors alleged to have been comof his property after his death. mitted, and that the judgment may be reversed, corrected, or affirmed, as the case may require. An instrument in writing. executed in form of law, by which a person makes a disposition of his property, to take effect after his death. WRIT OF ENTRY. A real action to recover the possession of land where the tenant (or owner) has been disseised or otherwise wrongfully dispossessed. WRIT OF ERROR. A writ issued from a court of appellate jurisdiction, directed to the judge or judges of a court of record, requiring them to remit to the appellate court the record of an action before them, in which a final judgment has been entered, in order A writ of error is defined to be a commission by which the judges of one court are authorized to examine a record upon which a judgment was given in another court, and, on such examination, to affirm or reverse the same, according to law. Y YEAR BOOKS. Books made up of reports of English cases from Edward II, 1292, to Henry VIII, early in the sixteenth century. They constitute an important source of information on the early English common law. INDEX [The figures refer to pages] ACCIDENT INSURANCE, 767–770. ACCRETION, 666. ACQUISITION OF PERSONALTY, 442-456. Original acquisition, 442-445. Rights of finder of lost property, 445–456. ACQUISITION OF REALTY BY MEANS OTHER THAN CONVEYANCE, 654-666. Introduction, 654. Descent, 654. Adverse possession, 654-666. Accretion, 666. ADMINISTRATORS AND EXECUTORS, 676–687. ADVERSE POSSESSION UNDER STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS, 654–666. "Tacking" of periods of adverse possession, 661-663. "Tacking" of periods of disability of persons holding paper title, 663–666. BAGGAGE, 139–141. BAILEE, Bailments for exclusive benefit of, 52-58. Bailments for mutual benefit of bailor and, 58. Delivery to and acceptance by, 33-43. Special property of, 46. Duty of, to keep within terms of bailment, 58-59. Estoppel of, to deny bailor's title, 60–66. Larceny by, 2-4. BAILMENTS AND CARRIERS, part I, 1-141. See Bailments in General; Carriers. BAILMENTS IN GENERAL, 1–66. Introduction, 1–33. Beginning of the relation-Delivery and acceptance, 33-43. Special property of bailee, 46. Bailments for exclusive benefit of bailor, 47-52. Bailments for exclusive benefit of bailee, 52–58. Bailments for mutual benefit of bailor and bailee, 58. Duty of bailee to keep within terms of bailment, 58-59. |