Bouviers Law Dictionary 1856 Edition

EMPALEMENT - EPISTLES

EMPALEMENT. A punishment in which a sharp polo was forced up the fundament. Encyc. Lond. h. t.

TO ENPANEL, practice. To make a list or roll, by the sheriff or other authorized officer, of the names of jurors who are summoned to appear for the performance of such service as jurors are required to perform.

EMPEROR, an officer. This word is synonymous with the Latin imperator; they are both derived from the. verb imperare. Literally, it signifies he who commands.

2. Under the Roman republic, the title emperor was the generic name given to the commanders-in-chief in the armies. But even then the application of the word was restrained to the successful commander, who was declared emperor by the acclamations of the army, and was afterwards honored with the title by a decree of the senate. 3. It, is now used to designate some sovereign prince who bears this title. Ayl. Pand. tit. 23.

EMPHYTEOSIS, civil law. The name of a contract by which the owner of an uncultivated piece of land granted it to another either in perpetuity, or for a long time, on condition that he should: improve it, by building, planting or cultivating it, and should pay for it an annual rent; with a right to the grantee to alienate it, or transmit it by descent to his heirs, and under a condition that the grantor should never re-enter as long as the rent should be paid to him by the grantee or his assigns. Inst. 3, 25, 3. 18 Toull. n. 144.

2. This has a striking resemblance to a ground-tent. (q. v.). See Nouveau Denisart, mot, Emphyteose; Merl. Reper. mot Emphyteose; Faber, De jure emphyt. Definit. 36; Code, 4, 66, 1.

EMPIRE. This word signifies, first, authority or command; it is the power to command or govern those actions of men which would otherwise be free; secondly, the country under the government of an emperor but sometimes it is used to designate a country subject to kingly power, as the British empire. Wolff, Inst. 833.

EMPLOYED. One who is in the service of another. Such a person is entitled to rights and liable to. perform certain duties.

2. He is entitled to a just compensation for his services; when there has been a special contract, to what has been agreed upon; when not, to such just recompense as he deserves.

3. He is bound to perform the services for which he has engaged himself; and for a violation of his engagement he may be sued, but he is not liable to corporal correction. An exception to this rule may be mentioned; on the ground of necessity, a sailor may be punished by reasonable correction, when it is necessary for the safety of the vessel, and to maintain discipline. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 1001: 2 Id. n. 2296.

EMPLOYEE. One who is authorized to act for another; a mandatory.

EMPLOYMENT. An employment is an office; as, the secretary of the treasury has a laborious and responsible employment; an agency, as, the employment of an auctioneer; it signifies also the act by which one is engaged to do something. 2 Mart. N. S. 672; 2 Harr. Cond. Lo. R. 778.

2. The employment of a printer to publish the laws of the United States, is not an office. 17 S. & R. 219, 223. See Appointment.

EMPLOYER. One who has engaged or hired the services of another. He is entitled to rights and bound to perform duties.

2. - 1. His rights are, to be served according to the terms of the contract. 2. He has a right against third persons for an injury to the person employed, or for harboring him, so as to deprive the employer of his services. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 2295.

3. His duties are to pay the workman the compensation agreed upon, or if there be no special agreement, such just recompense as he deserves. Vide Hire; Hirer.

EMPTION. The act of buying.

EMPTOR. A buyer; a purchaser.

EN DEMEURE. In default. This term is used in Louisiana. 3 N. S. 574. See Moral in.

ENABLING POWERS. A term used in equity. When the donor of a power, who is the owner of the estate, confers upon persons not seised of the fee, the right of creating interests to take effect out of it, which could not be done by the donee of the power, unless by such authority; this is called an enabling power. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1928.

TO ENACT. To establish by law; to perform or effect; to decree. The usual formula in making laws is, Be it enacted.

ENCEINTE, med. jur. A French word, which signifies pregnant.

2. When a woman is pregnant, and is convicted of a capital crime, she cannot lawfully be punished till after her delivery.

3. in the English law, where a widow is suspected to feign herself with child, in order to produce a supposititious heir to the estate, the presumptive heir may have a writ de ventre inspiciendo, to examine whether she be with child or not. Cro. Eliz. 566; 4 Bro. C. C. 90. As to the signs of pregnancy, see 1 Beck's Med. Jur. 157. See, generally, 4 Bl. Com. 894; 2 P. Wms. 591; 1 Cox, C. C. 297 and Pregnancy; Privement enceinte.

ENCLOSURE. An artificial fence put around one's estate. Vide Close.

ENCROACHMENT. An unlawful gaining upon the right or possession of another; as, when a man sets his fence beyond his line; in this case the proper remedy for the party injured is an action of ejectment, or an action of trespass.

ENCUMBRANCE. A burden or charge upon an estate or property, so that it cannot be disposed of without being subject to it. A mortgage, a lien for taxes, are examples of encumbrances.

2. These do not affect the possession of the grantee, and may be removed or extinguished by a definite pecuniary value. See 2 Greenl. R. 22; 5 Greenl. R. 94.

3. There are encumbrances of another kind which cannot be so removed, such as easements for example, a highway, or a preexisting right to take water from, the land. Strictly speaking, however, these are not encumbrances, but appurtenances to estates in other lands, or in the language of the civil law, servitudes. (q. v.) 5 Conn. R. 497; 10 Conn. R. 422 15 John. R. 483; and see 8 Pick. R. 349; 2 Wheat. R. 45. See 15 Verm. R. 683; l Metc. 480; 9 Metc. 462; 1 App. R. 313; 4 Ala. 21; 4 Humph. 99; 18 Pick. 403; 1 Ala. 645; 22 Pick. 447; 11 Gill & John. 472.

ENDEAVOR, crim. law. An attempt. (q. v.) Vide Revolt.

ENDORSEMENT. Vide Indorsement.

ENDOWMENT. The bestowing or assuring of a dower to a woman. It is sometimes used: metaphorically, for the setting a provision for a charitable institution, as the endowment of a hospital.

ENEMY, international law. By this term is understood the whole body of a nation at war with another. It also signifies a citizen or subject of such a nation, as when we say an alien enemy. In a still more extended sense, the word includes any of the subjects or citizens of a state in amity with the United States, who, have commenced, or have made preparations for commencing hostilities against the United States; and also the citizens or subjects of a state in amity with the United States, who are in the service of a state at war with them. Salk. 635; Bac. Ab. Treason, G.

2. An enemy cannot, as a general rule, enter into any contract which can be enforeed in the courts of law; but the rule is not without exceptions; as, for example, when a state permits expressly its own citizens to trade with the enemy; and perhaps a contract for necessaries, or for money to enable the individual to get home, might be enforced. 7 Pet. R . 586.

3. An alien enemy cannot, in general, sue during the war, a citizen of the United States, either in the courts of, the United States, or those of the several states. 1 Kent, Com. 68; 15 John. R. 57 S. C. 16 John. R. 438. Vide Marsh. Ins. c. 2, s. 1; Park. Ins. Index. h. t.; Wesk. Ins. 197; Phil. Ins. Index. h. t.; Chit. Comm. Law, Index, h. t.; Chit. Law of Nations, Index, h. t.

4. By the term enemy is also understood, a person who is desirous of doing injury to another. The Latins had two terms to signify these two classes of persons; the first , or the public enemy, they called hostis, and the latter, or the private enemy, inimicus.

TO ENFEOFF. To make a gift of any corporeal hereditaments to another. Vide Feoffment.

TO ENFRANCHISE. To make free to incorporate a man in a society or body politic. Cunn. L. D. h. t. Vide Disfranchise.

ENGAGEMENT. This word is frequently used in the French law to signify not only a contract, but the obligations arising from a quasi contract. The terms obligations (q. v.) and engagements, are said to be synonymous 17 Toull. n. 1; but the Code seems specially to apply the term engagement to those obligations which the law, imposes on a man without the intervention of any contract, either on the part of the obligor or the obligee. Art. 1370.

ENGLESHIRE. A law was made by Canutus, for the preservation of his Danes, that when a man was killed, the hundred or town should be liable to be amerced, unless it could be proved that the person killed was an Englishman. This proof was called Engleshire. It consisted, generally, of the testimony of two males on the part of the father of him that had been killed, and two females on the part of his mother. Hal. Hist. P . C. 447; 4 Bl. Com. 195; Spelman, Gloss. See Francigena .

TO ENGROSS, practice, conveyancing. To copy the rude draught of an instrument in a fair and large hand. See 3 Bouv. Inst. n, 2421, note.

ENGROSSER. One who purchases large quantities of any commodities in order to have the command of the market, and to sell them again at high prices.

TO ENJOIN. To command; to require; as, private individuals are not only permitted, but enjoined by law to arrest an offender when present at the time a felony is committed or dangerous wound given, on pain of fine and imprisonment if the wrong doer escape through their negligence. 1 Hale, 587; 1 East, P. C. 298,304; Hawk. B. 2, c. 12, s. 13; R. & M. C. C. 93. 2. In a more technical sense, to enjoin, is to command or order a defendant in equity to do or not to do a particular thing by writ of injunction. Vide Injunction.

TO ENLARGE. To extend; as, to enlarge a rule to plead, is to extend the time during which a defendant may plead. To enlarge, means also to set at liberty; as, the prisoner was enlarged on giving bail.

ENLARGING. Extending or making more comprehensive; as an enlarging statute, which is one extending the common law.

ENTIA PARS. The part of the eldest. Co. Litt. 166; Bac. Ab. Coparceners, C.

2. When partition is voluntarily made among coparceners in England, the eldest has the first choice, or primer election, (q. v.) and the part which she takes is called enitia pars. This right is purely personal, and descends; it is also said that even her as signee shall enjoy it; but this has also been doubted. The word enitia is said to be derived from the old French, eisne the eldest. Bac. Ab. Coparceners, C; Keilw. 1 a, 49 a; 2 And. 21; Cro. Eliz. 18.

ENJOYMENT. The right which a man possesses of receiving all the product of a thing for his necessity, his use, or his pleasure.

ENLISTMENT. Thc act of making a contract to serve the government in a subordinate capacity, either in the army or navy. The contract so made, is also called an enlistment. See, as to the power of infants to enlist, 4 Binn. 487; .5 Binn. 423; Binn. 255; 1 S. & R. 87; 11 S. & R. 93.

ENORMIA. Wrongful acts. See Alia Enormia.

TO ENROLL. To register; to enter on the rolls of chancery, or other court's; to make a record.

ENROLLMENT, Eng. law. The registering, or entering in the rolls of chancery, king's bench, common pleas, or exchequer, or by the clerk of the peace in the records of the quarter sessions, of any lawful act; as a recognizance, a deed of bargain and sale, and the like. Jacob, L. D.

TO ENTAIL. To create an estate tail. Vide Tail.

ENTIRE. That which is not divided; that which is whole.

2. When a contract is entire, it must in general be fully performed, before the party can claim the compensation which was to have been paid to him; for example, when a man hires to serve another for one year, he will not be entitled to leave him at any time before the end of the year, and claim compensation for the time, unless it be done by the consent or default of the party hiring. 6 Verm. R. 35; 2 Pick. R. 267; 4 Pick. R. 103 10 Pick. R. 209; 4 McCord's R. 26, 246; 4 Greenl. R. 454; 2 Penna. R. 454; 15 John. R. 224; 4 Pick. R. 114; 9 Pick. R. 298 19 John. R. 337; 4 McCord, 249; 6 Harr. & John. 38. See Divisible.

ENTIRETY, or, ENTIERTIE. This word denotes the whole, in contradistinction to moiety, which denotes the half part. A hushand and wife, when jointly seized of land, are seized by entierties and not "pur mie" as joint tenants are. Jacob's Law Dict.; 4 Kent, 362; 2 Kent, 132; Hartv. Johnson, 3 Penna. Law Journ. 350, 357.

ENTREPOT. A warehouse; a magazine where goods are deposited, and which are again to be removed.

ENTRY. criminal law. The unlawful breaking into a house, in order to commit a crime. In cases of burglary, the least entry with the whole or any part of the body, hand, or foot, or with any instrument or weapon, introduced for the purpose of committing a felony, is sufficient to complete the offence. 3 Inst. 64.

ENTRY, estates, rights. The taking possession of lands by the legal owner.

2. A person having a right of possession may assert it by a peaceable entry, and being in possession may retain it, and plead that it is his soil and freehold; and this will not break in upon any rule of law respecting the mode of obtaining the possession of lands.

3 Term Rep. B. R. 295. When another person has taken possession of lands or tenements, and the owner peaceably makes an entry thereon, and declares that be thereby takes possession of the same, he shall, by this notorious act of ownership, which is equal to a feodal investiture, be restored to his original right. 3 Bl. Com. 174. 3. A right of entry is not assignable at common law. Co. Litt. 214 a. As to the law on this subject in the United States, vide Buying of titles; 4 Kent, Com. 439 2 Hill. Ab. c. 33, 42 to 52; also,artic le ReEntry; Bac. Ab. Descent, G; 8 Vin. Ab. 441.

4. In another sense, entry signifies the going upon another man's lands or his tenements. An entry in this sense may be justifiably made on another's land or house, first, when the law confers an authority; and secondly, when the party has authority in fact.

5. First, 1. An officer may enter the close of one against whose person or property he is charged with the execution of a writ. In a civil case, the officer cannot open (even by unlatching) the outer inlet to a house, as a door or window opening into the street 18 Edw. IV., Easter, 19, pl. 4; Moore, pl. 917, p. 668 Cooke's case, Wm. Jones, 429; although it has been closed for the purpose of excluding him. Cowp. 1. But in a criminal case, a constable may break open an outer door to arrest one within suspected of felony. 13 Edw. IV., Easter, 4, p. 9. If the outer door or window be open, he may enter through it to execute a civil writ; Palin. 52; 5 Rep. 91; and, having entered, he may, in every case, if necessary, break open an inner door. 1 Brownl. 50.

6. - 2. The lord may enter to distrain, and go into the house for that purpose, the outer door being open. 5 Rep. 91.

7. - 3. The proprietors of goods or chattels may enter the land of another upon which they are placed, and remove them, provided they are there without his default; as where his tree has blown down into the adjoining close by the wind, or his fruit has fallen from a branch which overhung it. 20 Vin. Abr. 418.

8. - 4. If one man is bound to repair bridge, he has a right of entry given him by law for that purpose. Moore, 889.

9. - 5. A creditor has a right to enter the close of his debtor to demand the duty owing, though it is not to be rendered there. Cro. Eliz. 876.

10. - 6. If trees are excepted out of a demise, the lessor has the right of entering, to prune or fell them. Cro. Eliz. 17; 11. Rep. 53.

11. - 7. Every traveller has, by law, the privilege of entering a common inn, at all seasonable times, provided the host has sufficient accommodation, which, if he has not, it is for him to declare.

12.- 8. Ever man may throw down a public nuisance, and a private one may be thrown down by the party grieved, and this before an prejudice happens, but only from the probability that it may happen. 5 Rep, 102 and see 1 Brownl. 212; 12 Mod. 510 Wm. Jones, 221; 1 Str. 683. To this end, the abator has authority to enter the close in which it stands. See Nuisance.

13. - 9. An entry may be made on the land of another, to exercise or enjoy therein an incorporeal right or hereditament to which he is entitled. Hamm. N. P. 172. See general Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.; 2 Greenl. Ev. 627; License.

ENTRY, commercial law. The act of setting down the particulars of a sale, or other transaction, in a merchant's or tradesman's accouut books; such entries are, in general, prima facie evidence of the sale and delivery, and of work, done; but unless the entry be the original one, it is not evidence. Vide Original entry.

ENTRY AD COMMUNE LEGEM, Eng. law. The name of a writ which lies in favor of the reversioner, when the tenant for term of life, tenant for term of another's life, tenant by the curtesy, or tenant in dower, aliens and dies. T. L.

ENTRY OF GOODS, commercial law. An entry of goods at the custom-house is the submitting to the officers appointed by law, who have the collection of the customs, goods imported. into the United States, together with a statement or description of such goods, and the original invoices of the same. The act of March 2, 1799, s. 36, 1 Story, L. U. S. 606, and the act of March 1, 1823, 3 Story, L. U. S. 1881, regulate the manner of making entries of goods.

ENTRY, WRIT OF. The name of a writ issued for the purpose of obtaining possession of land from one who has entered unlawfully, and continues in possession. This is a mere possessor action, and does not decide the right of property.

2. The writs of entry were commonly brought, where the tenant or possessor of the land entered lawfully; that is, without fraud or force; 13 Edw. I. c. 25; although sometimes they wer6 founded upon an entry made by wrong. The forms of these writs are very various, and are adapted to the, title and estate of the demandant. Booth enumerates and particularly discusses twelve varieties. Real Actions, pp. 175-200. In general they contain an averment of the manner in which the defendant entered. At the common law these actions could be brought only in the degrees, but the Statute of Marlbridge, c. 30; Rob. Dig. 147, cited as c. 29; gave a writ adapted to cases beyond the degrees, called a writ of entry in the post. Booth, 172, 173. The denomination of these writs by degrees, is derived from the circumstance that estates are supposed by the law to pass by degrees from one person to another, either by descent or purchase. Similar to this idea, or rather corresponding with it, are the gradations of consanguinity, indicated by the very common term pedigree. But in reference to the writs of entry, the degrees recognized were only two, and the writs were quaintly termed writs in the per, and writs in the per and cui. Examples of these writs are given in Booth on R. A. pp. 173, 174. The writ in the, per runs thus: " Command A, that be render unto B, one messuage, &c., into which he has not entry except (per) by &c. The writ in the per and cui contains another gradation in the transmission of the estate, and read thus: Command A, that he render, &c., one messuage, into which he hath not entry but (per) by C, (cui) to whom the aforesaid B demised it for a term of years, now expired," &c. 2 Institute, 153; Co. Litt. b, 239, a. Booth, however, makes three degrees, by accounting the estate in the per, the second degree. The difference is not substantial. If the estate had passed further, either by descent or conveyance, it was said to be out of the degrees, and to such cases the writ of entry on the. statute of Marlbridge, only, was applicable. 3 Bl. Com. 181, 182; Report of Com. to Revise Civil Code of Penna. January 15, 1835, p. 85. Vide Writ of entry.

TO ENURE. To take, or have effect or serve to the use, benefit, or advantage of a person. The word is often written inure. A release to the tenant for life, enures to him in reversion; that is, it has the same effect for him as for the tenant for life. A discharge of the principal enures to the benefit of the surety.

ENVOY, international law. In diplomatic language, an envoy is a minister of the second rank, on whom his sovereign or government has conferred a degree of dignity and respectability, which, without being on a level with an ambassador, immediately follows, and among ministers, yields the preeminence to him alone.

2. Envoys are either ordinary or extraordinary; by custom the latter is held in greater consideration. Vattel, liv. 4, c. 6, 72.

EPILEPSY, med. jur. A discase of the brain, which occurs in paroxysms, with uncertain intervals between them.

2. These paroxysms are characterized by the loss of sensation, and convulsive motions of the muscles. When long continued and violent, this disease is very apt to end in dementia. (q. v.) It gradually destroys the memory, and impairs the intellect, and is one of the causes of an unsound mind. 8 Ves. 87. Vide Dig. 50, 16, 123; Id. 21, 1, 4, 5.

EPISCOPACY, eccl. law. A form of government by diocesan bishops; the office or condition of a bishop.

EPISTLES, civil law. The name given to a species of rescript. Epistles were the answers given by the prince, when magistrates submitted to him a question of law. Vicle Rescripts.


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