A New Law Dictionary and Institute of the Whole Law

INDEMNITY, ACTS OF. Acts of Indemnity are such as are passed for the relief of those who have neglected to take the necessary oaths, or to perform other acts required to qualify them for their offices and employments. So Acts of Indemnity, after rebellions, have been passed for quieting the minds of the people, and throwing former offences into oblivion. Similarly, in 1766, when the Privy Council, being driven to do so by an urgent necessity, issued certain Orders in Council without having the authority of any Act of Parliament so to do, an Act of Indemnity was passed in the following year for the protection of all persons concerned in the issuing or execution of the orders.

INDENTURE. Deeds or writings which are cut or indented at the top or side are called indentures. They formerly

used to cut them in acute angles (instar dentium) like the teeth of a saw, but now they are usually cut, where cut at all, in a waving line on the top. Formerly, when deeds were more concise than at present, it was usual to write both parts on the same piece of parchment, with some word or letters of the alphabet written between them; through which the parchment was cut, either in a straight or indented line, in such a manner as to leave half the word on one part and half on the other; but at length indenting only came into use, without cutting through any letters at all; after which the process of indenting came to serve for little other purpose than to give name to the species of the deed, and accordingly, by the stat. 8 & 9 Vict. c. 106, the necessity for indenting was abolished altogether in the case of ordinary deeds, and by the stat. 24 Vict. c. 9, it was abolished as a requisite in deeds of gift of lands to charities.

INDICTMENT. An indictment is a written accusation brought, or (speaking technically) laid against one or more persons of a crime or misdemeanor preferred to and presented upon oath by the grand jury. Strictly speaking such a written accusation is not called an indictment until the grand jury has heard the evidence against the accused, and pronounced the accusation to be well grounded, or in other words has found" true bill": and in this case the indictment is said to be found, and the party is said to stand indicted. The person who indicts another man of an offence is sometimes termed the indictor, and he who is indicted the indictee. Hawk P. C.

See also title DECLARATION.

INDUCTION. The giving the clerk or parson corporal possession of the church; and it is generally done by holding the ring of the door, tolling the bell, or some such form. The intention of it is, that the parishioners may have due notice and sufficient certainty of their new minister, to whom their tithes are to be paid. This, therefore, is the investiture of the temporal part of the benefice, as institution is of the spiritual. Co. Litt. 300.

INDUSTRIAL AND PROVIDENT SOCIETIES: See title FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

IN ESSE. In being; in existence. Law writers frequently make a distinction between things which are in esse, and those which are in posse, or in potentia; the one signifying something in existence at the present instant, the other signifying something that may possibly be so at some future time. Co. Litt.

INFANTS, AGE OF. He who has not attained the age of legal capacity, which age is in general fixed at twenty-one years. For certain purposes, however, it arrives much earlier Thus, in criminal cases, a person of the age of fourteen years may be capitally punished, but under the age of seven he cannot. The intermediate period, between seven and fourteen, is subject to much uncertainty, for the infant between seven and fourteen shall be judged prima facie innocent; yet, if he was doli capax, and could discern between good and evil, he may be convicted and undergo execution of death, though he hath not attained the years of puberty or discretion. A male at twelve years of age may take the oath of allegiance; at fourteen is so far at the years of discretion that he may enter into a binding contract of marriage; and at twenty-one he is at his own disposal, may aliene his land, and generally perform all the duties and enjoy all the privileges attaching to a citizen. A female also is at maturity at twelve years of age, and may therefore at that age enter into a binding contract of marriage; and at twenty-one she may dispose of all her property.

The full age of twenty-one years is completed on the day preceding the anniversary of a person's birth; and as, in the computation of time, the law in general allows no fraction of a day, it follows that if an infant is born on the 1st of January, he is of an age to do any legal act on the morning of the last day of December, though he may have lived nearly fortyeight hours (or two days) short of the twenty-one years.

INFANTS, INCAPACITIES OF. An infant may be liable both for tort and in

INFANTS, INCAPACITIES OF-contd. crime; but with reference to his liability on contract, the law may be stated as follows:-(a.) In the case of contracts for necessaries, he is fully liable for these; and as to what are necessaries, see that title; (b.) In the case of contracts for nonnecessaries, the general rule of law is that infants bind others, but are not bound themselves (obligant, sed non obligantur). This general rule is, however, subject to another one, viz., that every contract is prima facie presumed to be for the infant's benefit, and until the contrary is shewn, and he chooses upon attaining his majority to disaffirm it, the law will hold him to it, the contract of an infant in such cases being voidable only, and not absolutely void. In case an infant, upon becoming an adult, chooses to promise to pay a debt incurred during his or her infancy, he or she must put the promise in writing, and personally sign the same, under Lord Tenterden's Act (9 Geo. 4, c. 14). There are, however, some contracts entered into by infants which are absolutely void, and therefore, ex vi termini, not confirmable by them upon their attaining full age, e.g., generally such contracts as cannot possibly be for their benefit, such as a bond in a penal sum. It is not competent for a plaintiff to treat a breach of contract as a tort, for the purpose of suing the infant on it. Jennings v. Randall, 8 T. R. 335. And now under the Infants Relief Act, 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c. 62), the contracts of infants which were heretofore voidable only, are rendered absolutely void, and as a consequence are not confirmable by them upon their becoming adults.

INFANTS, JURISDICTION OF CHANCERY OVER. The origin of this jurisdiction is in the Crown as parens patriæ, whereby the Crown is laid under certain duties towards children, and the discharge of which duties the Crown has committed to the Lord Chancellor sitting in Chancery. An appeal lies to the House of Lords and not to the Privy Council. But now all appeals are to be to the Court of Appeal (intermediate or final) of the High Court of Justice.

An infant is said to become a ward of Court so soon as a bill is filed relative to his estate, or an order for his maintenance is made on summons without suit (In re Graham, L. R. 10 Eq. 530). It is not necessary that the infant should have any property in order to found the jurisdiction, although without some property the jurisdiction cannot be either conveniently or profitably exercised. Wellesley v. Beaufort, 2 Russ. 21.

The control of the Court over infants extends to their maintenance, education,

INFANTS, JURISDICTION OF CHAN

CERY OVER-continued.

and marriage; and the Court visits any disregard of its authority in these matters with the punishment of imprisonment for contempt.

See also title INCORPOREAL HEREDITA

MENTS.

INHERITANCE (hæreditas). Such an estate in lands or tenements, or other things, as may be inherited by the heir, and it is divided into inheritance corporate and inheritance incorporate; the former consisting of messuages, lands, and other substantial or corporeal things; the latter consisting of advowsons, ways, commons, and such like, that are or may be appendant or appurtenant to inheritances corporate. Les Termes de la Ley.

INHIBITION. A writ to inhibit or forbid a judge from proceeding further in the cause depending before him. There is also another writ of this kind, being one which issues forth from a higher Ecclesiastical Court to an inferior one upon an appeal (Cowel). It is nearly the same thing with Prohibition at Common Law and Injunction in Equity. See those

several titles.

INJUNCTION. This is a writ remedial which formerly issued almost exclusively out of the Court of Chancery restraining the commission by the defendant of some act which he is threatening to commit, or restraining him in the continuance thereof. The writ of prohibition (see that title) was until recently the only writ of this nature which might issue out of a Court of Common Law; but under the C. L. P. Act, 1854, and now more completely under the Judicature Act, 1873, every Court may issue injunctions of all kinds.

Injunctions have hitherto been issued chiefly in restraint of two classes of acts, viz. :

(1.) The institution or continuance of legal proceedings; and (2.) The commission of acts in pais, of a wrongful nature.

The former of these two groups of cases will no longer be restrained by the Courts of Equity alone, but by all the Courts equally, and probably upon the like grounds with those upon which hitherto Courts of Equity have been induced to act, viz.,-cases where the plaintiff had a legal right, which it was inequitable that he should exercise at law, e.g., upon a bond

INJUNCTION-continued.

or other security obtained by fraud or undue influence (Tyler v. Yates, L. R. 11. Eq. 265); or against an executor whose assets have been lost without his act or default; or where a creditor vexatiously sues an executor at law, after a decree has been obtained upon a creditor's bill for administration of assets in Equity. Perry v. Phelips, 10 Ves. 38.

The latter group of cases in which Equity would restrain by injunction comprised such cases as the following:

(1.) Where the case was one for specific performance, and an injunction (which is the negative side of that remedy) was the only available means of enforcing it (Lumley v. Wagner, 1 De G. M. & G. 616);

(2.) In cases of waste, where either from the nature of the waste or from the titles of the parties, no writ of waste could be had at Law (Downshire (Marquis) v. Sandys, 6 Ves. 109; Garth v. Cotton, 1 Ves. Sen. 524);

(3.) Nuisances, whether of a public or of a private nature; and

(4.) Infringements of patent, copyright, and trade-marks.

And under the stat. 21 & 22 Vict. c. 27 (Lord Cairns' Act), the Court may award damages either in addition to or in lieu of an injunction in a proper case. Edge, Johns. 669.

Soames v.

INN. A house where the traveller is furnished with everything he has occasion for while on his way. Thomson v. Lacy, 3 B. & A. 283.

A mere coffee-house, or boarding or lodging-house, is not an inn. Upon the keeper of an inn the law throws a peculiar responsibility in guarding the goods of his guests; and if the goods are lost, unless it be through the gross negligence of the owner, the inn-keeper shall be liable; but his liability is limited to goods in the house (infra hospitium) and to the goods of regular guests (a resident boarder or lodger not being such a guest). 1 Smith, L. C. 50; Calye's Case, 8 Coke, 32; 2 Stephens' Bl. 133; Cro. Jac. 224.

INNS OF COURT (hospitia curia). The societies of the Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, are so called because the students therein do study the law to fit them for practising in

INNS OF COURT-continued.

the Courts at Westminster or elsewhere. These, together with the Inns of Chancery and the two Serjeants' Inns, are said to have formed one of the most famous universities in the world for the study of law; and here exercises were performed, lectures read, and degrees conferred in the Common Law, as they are at other universities in the present day in the Canon and Civil Laws. The degrees were those of barristers (first styled apprentices, from apprendre, to learn) who answered to our bachelors; as the state and degree of a serjeant, servientis ad legem, did to that of doctor. These studies are now under the control of the Council of Legal Education, who have endeavoured to re-invigorate them by holding out rewards for excellence in the various branches of legal study, and particularly in Roman Law and Jurispru dence, and by making a certain standard of excellence compulsory upon all students seeking admission to the degree of barrister.

The Inns of Chancery, being Clifford's Inn, Symond's Inn, Clement's Inn, and others, are subordinate to the Inns of Court properly so called.

INNUENDO (from innuo, to beck or nod with the head.) That part of the declaration in actions of libel and slander which explains the meaning or points the application of the libellous or slanderous matter complained of. An innuendo is frequently necessary where the language of the defendant is apparently innocent and inoffensive, but where, nevertheless, by virtue of its connection with known collateral circumstances, it conveys a latent and injurious imputation. So where, from the ambiguity of the defendant's expressions, it is doubtful who was meant, it is the proper office of the innuendo to render the allusion clear, by specifically pointing out the meaning, as e.g., where but one or two letters of the name are expressed, or the plaintiff is libelled under a fictitious or borrowed name, or where the libel is couched under a fable or allegory, whose tendency and meaning it is necessary to explain by reference.

See titles LIBEL; SLANDER.

IN PERSONAM. Against or upon a person, as distinguished from in rem, against or upon a thing. An illustration of the distinction existing between these two phrases is frequently furnished by the revenue cases, which are peculiarly within the jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer. Thus the condemnation of the smuggled goods to the use of the Crown is a proceeding in rem, whilst the conviction of the person committing the illegality, though by the same Court and concerning the

IN PERSONAM-continued. same transaction, is a proceeding in personam. A judgment in rem is an adjudication pronounced upon the status of some particular subject-matter, as for instance, the sentence of the Court of Admiralty condemning a vessel or prize, or of the Court of Probate and Divorce establishing or nullifying a marriage; which latter case, although clearly affecting the personal position of the parties, is yet included in the class of judgments in rem, for it decides the permanent status of those concerning whom it was instituted.

Besides being used to denote the diversity in the effect of a judgment according as it is in rem or in personam as distinguished above, the phrases in personam and in rem are also used to denote the compass or extent of rights; thus a jus in rem has been, and commonly is, defined as a right availing against the world at large (facultas persona competens sine respectu ad certam personam); and on the other hand, a jus in personam as a right availing against some one individual in particular (facultas persona competens cum respectu ad certam personam). But this distinction has reference only to the proximate diversities, for a jus in personam also avails remotely against all the world. Austin's Jurisprudence.

INQUEST (inquisitio, an inquiry). inquiry by a jury duly impanelled by the sheriff into any cause, civil or criminal. The term "inquest" is sometimes used to signify the jury itself before whom the question is brought.

INQUIRY, WRIT OF. A writ directed to the sheriff, commanding him to summon a jury, and to inquire into the amount of damages due from the defendant to the plaintiff in a given action. The necessity for this writ, and the inquiry under it, occurs in certain cases when the defendant has suffered judgment to pass against him by default or nil dicit, by confession, or cognovit actionem, &c., in an action, the damages in which are not ascertained or ascertainable by mere calculation.

In such cases it becomes absolutely necessary that the quantum of damages should be assessed by a jury, who, under the presidence of the under-sheriff, ascertain by the evidence of witnesses, as in a trial at Nisi Prius, what damages the plaintiff hath really sustained; and after their verdict the sheriff returns the inquisition, which is entered on the roll in the manner of a postea.

INQUISITION OF OFFICE. Is an official inquiry directed by the Crown in certain cases, as a preliminary step to the

INQUISITION OF OFFICE-continued. seizure of property, when that can only be done after " inquest of office," or after "office found."

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