Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

1178

TOTAL LOSS

TONSURE

of the head shaven; tonsure. One of the pe culiar badges of a clerk or clergyman. TONSURE. In old English law. A be ing shaven; the having the head shaven; a shaven head. 4 Bl. Comm. 367. TONTINE. In French law. A species of association or partnership formed among persons who are in receipt of perpetual or life annuities, with the agreement that the shares or annuities of those who die shall ac crue to the survivors. This plan is said to be thus named from Tonti, an Italian, who invented it in the seventeenth century. The principle is used in some forms of life insur ance. Merl. Eepert. TOOK AND CARRIED AWAY. In criminal pleading. Technical words neces sary in an indictment for simple larceny. TOOL. The usual meaning of the word "tool" is "an instrument of manual opera tion;" that is, an instrument to be used and managed by the hand instead of being moved and controlled by machinery. 124 Mass. 420. TOP ANNUAL. In Scotch law. An annual rent out of a house built in a burgh. Whishaw. A duty which, from the act 1551, c. 10, appears to have been due from eertain lands in Edinburgh, the nature of which is not now known. Bell. TORT. Wrong; injury; the opposite of right. So called, according to Lord Coke, be cause it is wrested, or crooked, being contra ry to that which is right and straight. Co. Litt. 1586. In modern practice, tort is constantly used as an English word to denote a wiong or wrongful act, for which an action will lie, as distinguished from a contract. 3 Bl. Comm. 117. A tort is a legal wrong committed upon the person or property independent of con tract. ]ft may be either (1) a direct invasion of some legal right of the individual; (2) the infraction of some public duty by which spe cial damage accrues to the individual; (3) the violation of some private obligation by which like damage accrues to the individual. In the former case, no special damage is neces sary to entitle the party to recover. In the two latter cases, such damage is necessary. Code Ga. 1882, § 2951. TORT-FEASOR. A wrong-doer; one who commits or is guilty of a tort. TORTIOUS. Wrongful; of the nature of a tort. Formerly certain modes of con

veyance (e. g., feoffments, fines, etc.) had the effect of passing not merely the estate of the person making the conveyance, but the whole fee-simple, to the injury of the person really entitled to the fee; and they were hence called "tortious conveyances." Litt. § 611; Co. Litt. 2716, n. 1; 8306, n. 1. But this opera tion has been taken away. Sweet. Tortura legum pessima. The torture or wresting of laws is the worst [kind of torture.] 4 Bacon's Works, 434. TORTURE. In old criminal law. The question; the infliction of violent bodily pain upon a person, by means of the rack, wheel, or other engine, under judicial sanction and superintendence, in connection with the in terrogation or examination of the peison, as a means of extorting a confession of guilt, or of compelling him to disclose his accom plices. TORY. Originally a nickname for the wild Irish in Ulster. Afterwards given to, and adopted by, one of the two great par liamentary parties which have alternately governed Great Britain since the Revolution in 1688. Wharton. The name was also given, in America, dur ing the struggle of the colonies for inde pendence, to the party of those residents who favored the side of the king and opposed the war. TOT. In old English practice. A word written by the foreign opposer or other offi cer opposite to a debt due the king, to de note that it was a good debt; which was hence said to be totted. TOTA CURIA. L. Lat. In the old re ports. The whole court. TOTAL LOSS. In marine insurance, a total loss is the entire destruction or loss, to the insured, of the subject-matter of the pol icy, by the risks insured against. An actual total loss is the absolute destruction or per ishing of the subject, so that nothing re mains of it. A constructive total loss occurs where the damage to the property is such that, although it may still subsist in specie* or there may be salvage from it or claims or equities growing out of the circumstances ot its loss, the assured has the right, either by express stipulation or implication of law, to abandon and surrender to the underwriters the surviving poition of the property, or his rights and claims in regard to it, and there upon recover the same amount of insurance as under an actual total loss.

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