CURATE, eccl. Iaw. One who represents the incumbent of a church, person, or20 vicar, and tades care of the church, and performs divine service in his stead.
CURATOR, persons, contracts. One who has been legally appointed to take care of the interests of one who, on account of his youth, or defect of his understanding, or for some other cause, is unable to attend to them himself.
2. There are curators ad bona, of property, who administer the estate of a minor, take care of his person, and intervene in all his contracts; curators ad litem, of suits, who assist the minor in courts of justice, and act as curator ad bona in cases where the interests of the curator are opposed to the interests of the minor. Civ. Code of Louis. art. 357 to 366. There are also curators of insane persons Id. art. 31; and of vacant successions and absent heirs. Id. art. 1105 to 1125.
3. The term curator is usually employed in the civil law, for that of guardian.
CURATORSHIP, offices, contracts, in the civil law. The power given by authority of law, to one or more persons, to administer the property of an individual who is unable to take care of his owu estate and affairs, either on account of his absence without an authorized agent, or in consequence of his prodigality, or want of mind. Poth. Tr. des Personnes, t. 6, s. 5. As to the laws of Louisiana, which authorize a curatorship, vide Civ. Code, art. 31, 50, et seq. 357, et seq.; 382, 1105, et seq.
2. Curatorship differs from tutorship, (q. v.) in this, that the latter is instituted for the protection of property in the first place, and, secondly, of the person; while the former is intended to protect, first, the person, and, secondly, the property. 1 Lecons Elem. du Droit Civ. Rom. 241.
CURATRIX. A woman who has been appointed to the office of curator.
CURE. A restoration to health.
2. A person who had quitted the habit of drunkenness for the space of nine months, in consequece of medicines he had taken, and who had lost his appetite for ardent spirits, was held to have been cured. 7 Yerg. R. 146.
3. In a figurative sense, to cure is to remedy any defect; as, an informal statement of the plaintiff's cause of action in his declaration is cured by verdict, provided it be substantially stated.
CURFEW. The name of a law, established during the reign of the English king, William, the conquerer, by which the people were commanded to dispense with fire and candle at eight o'clock at night. It was abolished in the reign of Henry I., but afterwards it signified the time at which the curfew formerly took place. The word curfew is derived, probably, from couvre few, or cover fire. 4 Bl. Com. 419, 420.
CURIA. A court of justice.
CURIA CLAUDENDA, WRIT DE, Eng. law. The name of a writ, used to compel a party to enclose his land. F. N. B. 297.
CURIA ADVISARE VULT, practice. The court will consider the matter. This entry is made on the record when the court wish to take time to consider of a case before they give a final judgment, which is made by an abbreviation, cur. ad vult, for the purpose of marking the continuance. In the technical sense, it is a continuance of the cause to another term.
CURIA REGIS. An English court, which assumed this name, during the reign of Henry II. It was Curia or Aula Regis, because it was held in the g reat hall of the king's palace; and where the king, for some time, administered justice in person. But afterwards, the judicial power was more properly entrusted to the king's judges. The judges who sat in this court were distinguished by the name of justices, or justiciaries. Besides these, the chief justiciary, the stewart of all England, the chancellor, the chamberlain, and the treasurer, also took part in the judicial proceedings of this court.
CURIALITY, Scotch law. The same as courtesy. (q. v.) 1 Bell's Com. 61.
CURRENCY. The money which passes, at a fixed value, from hand to hand; money which is authorized by law.
2. By art. 1, s. 8, the Constitution of the United States authorizes congress "to coin money, and to regulate the value thereof." Changes in the currency ought not to be made but for the most urgent reason, as they unsettle commerce, both at home and abroad. Suppose Peter contracts to pay Paul one thousand dollars in six months - the dollar of a certain fineness of silver, weighing one hundred and twelve and a half grains - and afterwards, before the money becomes due, the value of the dollar is changed, and it weighs now but fifty-six and a quarter grains; will one thousand of the new dollars pay the old debt? Different opinion may be entertained, but it seems that such payment would be complete; because, 1. The creditor is bound to receive the public currency; and, 2. He is bound to receive it at its legal value. 6 Duverg. n. 174.
CURRENT, merc. law. A term used to express present time; the current month; i.e. the present month. Price current, is the ordinary price at the time spoken of. A printed paper, containing such prices, is also called a price current.
2. Current, in another sense, signifies that which is readily received; as, current money.
CURSITOR BARON, Eng. law. An officer of the court of the exchequer, who is appointed by patent under the great seal, to be one of the barons of the exchequer.
CURTESY, or COURTESY, Scotch law. A life-rent given by law to the surviving hushand, of all his wife's heritage of which she died infeft, if there was a child of the marriage born alive. The child born of the marriage must be the mother's heir. If she had a child by a former marriage, who is to succeed to her estate, the hushand has no right to the curtesy while such child is alive; so that the curtesy is due to the hushand rather as father to the heir, than as hushand to an heiress, conformable to the Roman law, which gives to the father the usufruct of what the child succeeds to by the mother. Ersk. Pr. L. Scot. B. 2, t. 9, s. 30. Vide Estate by the curtesy.
CURTILAGE, estates. The open space situated within a common enclosure belonging to a dwelling-house. Vide 2 Roll, Ab. 1, l. 30; Com. dig. Grant, E 7, E 9; Russ. & Ry. 360; Id. 334, 357; Ry & Mood. 13; 2 Leach, 913; 2 Bos. & Pull. 508; 2 East, P. C. 494; Russ. & Ry. 170, 289, 322; 22 Eng. Com. Law R. 330; 1 Ch. Pr. 175; Shep. Touchs. 94.
CUSTODY. The detainer of a person by virtue of a lawful authority. To be in custody, is to be lawfully detained under arrest. Vide 14 Vin. Ab. 359; 3 Chit. Pr. 355. In another sense, custody signifies having the care and possession of a thing; as, the chancellor is entitled to the custody as the keeper of the seal.
CUSTOM. A usage which had acquired the force of law. It is, in fact, a lex loci, which regulates all local or real property within its limits. A repugnancy which destroys it, must be such as to show it never did exist. 5 T. R. 414. In Pennsylvania no customs have the force of law but those which prevail throughout the state. 6 Binn. 419, 20.
2. A custom derives its force from the tacit consent of the legislature and the people, and supposes an original, actual deed or agreement. 2 Bl. Com. 30, 31; 1 Chit. Pr. 283. Therefore, custom is the best interpreter of laws: optima est legum interpres consuetudo. Dig. 1, 8, 37; 2 Inst. 18. It follows, therefore, there; can be no custom in relation to a matter regulated by law. 8 M. R. 309. Law cannot be established or abrogated except by the sovereign will, but this will may be express or implied and presumed and whether it manifests itself by word or by a series of facts, is of little importance. When a custom is public, peaceable, uniform, general, continued, reasonable and certain, and has lasted "time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary," it acquires the force of law. And when any doubts arise as to the meaning of a statute, the custom which has prevailed on the subject ought to have weight in its construction, for the manner in which a law has always been executed is one of its modes of interpretation. 4 Penn. St. Rep. 13.
3. Customs are general or, particular customs. 1. By general customs is meant the common law itself, by which proceedings and determinations in courts are guided.
2. Particular customs, are those which affect the inhabitants of some particular districts only. 1 Bl. Com. 68, 74. Vide 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 121 Bac. Ab. h. t.; 1 Bl. Com. 76; 2 Bl. Com. 31; 1 Lill. Reg. 516; 7 Vin. Ab. 164; Com. Dig. h. t.; Nelson's Ab. h. t. the various Amer. Digs. h. t. Ayl. Pand. 15, 16; Ayl. Pareg. 194; Doct. Pl. 201; 3 W. C. C. R. 150; 1 Gilp. 486; Pet. C. C. R. 220; I Edw. Ch. R. 146; 1 Gall. R. 443; 3 Watts, R. 178; 1 Rep. Const. Ct. 303, 308; 1 Caines, R. 45; 15 Mass. R. 433; 1 Hill, R. 270; Wright, R. 573; 1 N. & M. 176; 5 Binn. R. 287; 5 Ham. R. 436; 3 Conn. R. 9; 2 Pet. R. 148; 6 Pet. R. 715; 6 Porter R. 123; 2 N. H. Rep. 93; 1 Hall, R. 612; 1 Harr. & Gill, 239; 1 N. S. 192; 4 L. R. 160; 7 L. R. 529; Id. 215.
CUSTOM OF MERCHANTS, lex mercatoria. A system of customs acknowledged and taken notice of by all nations, and are, therefore, a part of the general law of the land. See Law merchant, and 1 Chit. Bl. 76, note 9.
CUSTOM-HOUSE. A place appointed by law, in ports of entry, where importers of goods, wares and merchandise are bound to enter the same, in order to pay or secure the duties or customs due to the government.
CUSTOMARY RIGHTS. Rights which are acquired by custom. They differ from prescriptive rights in this, that the former are local usages, belonging to all the inhabitants of a particular place or district - the latter are rights of individuals, independent of the place of their residence. Best on Pres. 79; Cruise, Dig. t. 31, c. 1, 7; 2 Greenl. Evi 542.
CUSTOMS. This term is usually applied to those taxes which are payable upon goods and merchandise imported or exported. Story, Const. 949; Bac. Ab. Smuggling.
CUSTOS ROTULORUM, Eng. law. The principal justice of the peace of a county, who is the keeper of the records of the county. 1 Bl. Com. 349.
TO CUT, crim. law. To wound with an instrument having a sharp edge. 1 Russ. on Cr. 577. Vide To Stab; Wound.
CY PRES, construction. These are old French words, which signify "as near as."
2. In cases where a perpetuity is attempted in a will, the courts do not, if they can avoid it, construe the devise to be utterly void, but expound the will in such a manner as to carry the testator's intentions into effect, as far as the rules respecting perpetuities will allow; this is called construction cy pres. When the perpetuity is attempted in a deed, all the Iimitations are totally void. Cruise, Dig. t. 38, c. 9, s. 34; and vide 1 Vern. 250; 2 Ves. Jr. 380, 336, 357, 364; 3 Ves. Jr. 141, 220; 4 Ves. 13; Com. Dig. Condition, L. 1; 1 Rop. Leg. 514; Swinb. pt. 4, s. 7, a. 4; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; Toull. Dr. Civ. Fr. liv. 3, t. 3, n. 586, 595, 611; Domat, Loix Civ. liv. 6. t. 2, s. 1; 1 Supp. to Ves. Jr. 134, 259, 317; 2 Id. 316,473; Boyle on Charities, Index, h. t.; Shelford on Mortmain, Index, h. t.; 3 Bro. C. C. 166; 2 Bro. C. C. 492; 4 Wheat. R. 1; S. C. 3 Peters, R. App. 481; 3 Peters, R. 99; 15 Ves., 232; 2 Sto. Eq. Jur. 1169.
CZAR. A title of honor which is assumed by the emperor of all the Russias. See Autocracy.
CZARINA. The title of the empress of Russia.
CZAROWITZ.. The title of the eldest son of the czar and czarina of Russia.