Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

1053

RULE-DAT

RUMOR

a course of decisions, regulating the owner ship or devolution of property. RULE OF THE ROAD. The popular English name for the regulations governing the navigation of vessels in public waters, with a view to preventing collisions. Sweet. RULE TO PLEAD. A rule of court, taken by a plaintiff as of course, requiring the defendant to plead within a given time, on pain of having judgment taken against him by default. RULE TO SHOW CAUSE. A rule commanding the party to appear and show cause why he should not be compelled to do the act required, or why the object of the rule should not be enforced; arulemsi, (q.v.) RULES. In American practice. This term is sometimes used, by metonymy, to denote a time or season in the judicial year when motions may be made and rules taken as special terms or argument-days, or ever the vacations, as distinguished from the regular terms of the courts for the trial of causes, and, by a further extension of its meaning, it may denote proceedings in an action taken out of court. Thus, "an ir regularity committed at rules may be cor rected at the next term of the court." 12 Grat. 312. RULES OF A PRISON. Certain limits without the walls, within which ail prison ers in custody in civil actions were allowed to live, upon giving sufficient security to the marshal not to escape. RULES OF COURT. The rules for regulating the practice of the different courts, which the judges are empowered to frame and put in force as occasion may require, are termed "rules of court." Brown. RULES OF PRACTICE. Certain or ders made by the courts for the purpose of regulating the practice in actions and other pioceedings before them. RULES OF THE KING'S BENCH PRISON. In English practice. Certain limits beyond the walls of the prison, within which all prisoners in custody in civil actions were allowed to live, up

forthwith enforced. It is usual, when the paity has failed to show sufficient cause against a rule nisi, to "make the rule abso lute," i. e., imperative and final. RULE-DAY. In practice. The day on which a rule is returnable, or on which the act or duty enjoined by a rule is to be per formed. RULE IN SHELLEY'S CASE. A celebrated rule in English law, propounded in Lord Coke's reports in the following form: That whenever a man, by any gift or con veyance, takes an estate of freehold, and in the same gift or conveyance an estate is lim ited, either mediately or immediately, to his heirs in fee or in tail, the word "heirs" is a word of limitation and not of purchase. In other words, it is to be understood as ex pressing the quantity of estate which the party is to take, and not as conferring any distinct estate on the persons who may be come his representatives. 1 Coke, 104a,* 1 Steph. Coinm. 308. RULE NISI A rule which will become imperative and final unless cause be shown against it. This rule commands the party to show cause why he should not be compelled to do the act required, or why the object of the rule should not be enforced. RULE OF 1756. A rule of international law first practically established in 1756, by which neutrals, in time of wai, are prohibited from carrying on with a belh n erent power a trade which is not open to them in time of peace. 1 Kent, Coinm. 82. RULE OF COURSE. There are some rules which the courts authorize their officers to grant as a matter of course, without form al application being made to a judge in open couit, and these are technically termed, in English practice, "side-bar rules," be cause formerly they .were moved for by the the attorneys at the side bar in court. They are now generally termed "rules of course." Brown. RULE OF LAW. A legal principle, of geneial application, sanctioned by the recog nition of authorities, and usually expressed in the form of a maxim or logical proposition. Called a "rule," because in doubtful or un foreseen cases it is a guide or norm for their decision. Toullier, tit. prel. no. 17. RULE OF PROPERTY. A settled rule or principle, resting usually on precedents or

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