Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

SEIZURE

1076

SEMINAUFRAGIUM

sold, by authority and due course of law, to satisfy the judgment. Or the act of taking possession of goods in consequence of a vio lation of public law. Seizure, even though hostile, is not necessarily capture, though such is its usual and probable re sult. The ultimate act or adjudication of the state, by which the seizure has been made, assigns the proper and conclusive quality and denomination to the original proceeding. A condemnation asserts a capture ab initio; an award of restitution pro nounces upon the act as having been not a valid act of capture, but an act of temporary seizure only. 3 Mass. 443. In the law of copyholds. Seizure is where the lord of copyhold lands takes pos session of them in default of a tenant. It is either seizure quousque or absolute seizure. SELDA. A shop, shed, or stall in a mar ket; a wood of sallows or willows; also a saw pit. Co. Litt. 4. SELECT COUNCIL. Th e name given, in some states, to the upper house or branch of the council of a city. SELECTI JUDICES. In Koman law. Judges who were selected very much like our juries. They were returned by the praetor, drawn by lot, subject to be challenged, and sworn. 3 Bl. Comm. 366. SELECTMEN. The name of certain municipal officers, in the New England states, elected by the towns to transact their general public business, and possessing certain ex ecutive powers. SELF-DEFENSE. In criminal law. The protection of one's person or property against some injury attempted by another. The right of such protection. An excuse for the use of force in resisting an attack on the person, and especially for killing an assailant. See Whart. Crim. Law, §§ 1019-1026. SELF-MURDER, or SELF-SLAUGH TER. See FELO DE SE; SUICIDE. SELF-REGARDING EVIDENCE. Evidence which either serves or disserves the party is so called. This species of evi dence is either self-serving (which is not in general receivable) or self-disserving, which is invariably receivable, as being an admis sion against the party offering it, and that either in court or out of court. Brown. SELION OF LAND. In old English law. A ridge of ground rising between two furrows, containing no certain quantity, but sometimes more and sometimes less. Termes de la Ley.

SELL. To dispose of by sale, (q. t>.) SELLER. One who sells anything; the party who transfers property in the contract of sale. The correlative is "buyer," or "pur chaser." Though these terms are not inap plicable to the persons concerned in a trans fer of real estate, it is more customary to use "vendor" and "vendee" in that case. SEMAYNE'S CASE. This case decided, in 2 Jac. I., that "every man's house [mean ing his dwelling-house only] is his castle, "and that the defendant may not break open outer doors in general, but only inner doors, but that (after request made) he may break open even outer doors to find goods of another wrongfully in the house. Brown. SEMBLE. L. Fr. It seems; it would appear. This expression is often used in the reports to preface a statement by the court upon a point of law which is not directly decided, when such statement is intended as an intimation of what the decision would be. if the point were necessary to be passed up on. It is also used to introduce a suggestion by the reporter, or his understanding of the point decided when it is not free from ob scurity. Semel civis semper civis. Once a citi zen always a citizen. Tray. Lat. Max. 555. Semel malus semper prsesumitur esse malus in eodem genere. Whoever is once bad is presumed to be so always in the same kind of affairs. Cro. Car. 317. SEMESTRIA. In the civil law. The collected decisions of the emperors in their councils. SEMI-MATRIMONIUM. Lat. In Bom an law. Half-marriage. Concubinage was so called. Tayl. Civil Law, 273. SEMI-PLENA PROBATIO. Lat. In the civil law. Half-full proof; half-proof. 3 Bl. Comm. 370. See HALF-PROOF. SEMINARIUM. Lat. In the civil law. A nursery of trees. Dig. 7, 1, 9, 6. SEMINARY. A place of education. Any school, academy, college, or university in which young persons are instructed in the several branches of learning which may qual ify them for their future employments. Webster. The word is said to have acquired no fixed and definite legal meaning. 12 N. Y. 229. SEMINAUFRAGIUM. In maritime law. Half-shipwreck, as where goods art

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