Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

BIGAMUS

132

BILL

in tbe ancient records it is used for any cart, wain, or wagon. Jacob. BIGAMUS. In the civii law. A man who was twice married; one who at differ ent times and successively has married two wives. 4 Inst. 88. One who has two wives living. One who marries a widow. Bigamus seu trigamus, etc., est qui di rersis temporibus et successive duas seu tres uxores habuit. 4 Inst. 88. A biga mus or trigamus, etc., is one who at differ ent times and successively has married two or three wives. BIGAMY. The criminal offense of will fully and knowingly contracting a second marriage (or going through the form of a second marriage) while the first marriage, to the knowledge of the offender, is still sub sisting and undissolved. The state of a man who has two wives, or of a woman who has two husbands, living at the same time. The offense of having a plurality of wives at the same time is commonly denominated "polygamy;" but the name "bigamy" has been more frequently given to it in legal proceedings. 1 Buss. Crimes, 185. The use of tbe word "bigamy" to describe this offense is well established by long usage, although often criticised as a corruption of the true mean ing of the word. Polygamy is suggested as the correct term, instead of bigamy, to designate the offense of having a plurality of wives or husbands at the same time, and has been adopted for that purpose in the Massachusetts statutes. But as the substance of the offense is marrying a second time, while having a lawful husband or wife liv ing, without regard to tbe number of marriages that may have taken place, bigamy seems not an inappropriate term. The obj ection to its use urged by Blackstone (4 Bl. Comm. 163) seems to be found ed not so much upon considerations of the etymol ogy of the word as upon the propriety of distin guishing the ecclesiastical offense termed "biga my" in the canon law, and which is defined below, from the offense known as "bigamy " in the modern criminal law. The same distinction is carefully made by Lord Coke, (4 Inst. 88.) But, the ecclesi astical offense being now obsolete, this reason for substituting polygamy to denote the crime here defined ceases to have weight. Abbott. In the canon law, the term denoted the offense committed by an ecclesiastic who married two wives successively. It might be committed either by marrying a second wife after the death of a first or by marrying a widow. BIGOT. An obstinate person, or one that is wedded to an opinion, in matters of re ligion, etc.

BILAGINES. By-laws of towns; mu nicipal laws. BILAN. A term used in Louisiana, de rived from the French. A book in which bankers, merchants, and traders write a statement of all they owe and all that is due them; a balance-sheet. See 3 Mart. (N. S.) 446. BILANCIIS DEFERENDIS. In En glish law. An obsolete writ addressed to a corporation for the carrying of weights to such a haven, there to weigh the wool an ciently licensed for transportation. Beg. Orig. 270. BILATERAL CONTRACT. A term, used originally in the civil law, but now generally adopted, denoting a contract in which both the contracting parties are bound to fulfill obligations reciprocally towards each other; as a contract of sale, where one be* comes bound to deliver the thing sold, and the other to pay the price of it. "Every convention properly so called consists of a promise or mutual promises proffered and ac cepted. Where one only of the agreeing parties gives a promise, the convention is said to be ' uni lateral.' Wherever mutual promises are proffered and accepted, there are, in strictness, two or more conventions. But where the performance of either of the promises is made to depend on the perform ance of the other, the several conventions are com monly deemed one convention, and the convention is then said to be ' bilateral.'" Aust, Jur. $ 808. BILGED. In admiralty law and marine insurance. That state or condition of a ves sel in which water is freely admitted through holes and breaches made in tbe planks of the bottom, occasioned by injuries, whether the ship's timbers are broken or not. 3 Mass. 39. BILINE. A word used by Britton in the sense of "collateral." En line biline, in the collateral line. Britt. c. 119. BILINGUIS. Of a double language or tongue; that can speak two languages. A term applied in the old books to a jury com posed partly of Englishmen and partly of for eigners, which, by the English law, an alien party to a suit is, in certain cases, entitled to; more commonly called a "jury de medi etate lingua." 3 Bl. Comm. 360; 4 Steph. Comm. 422. BILL. A formal declaration, complaint, or statement of particular things in writing. As a legal term, this word has many mean ings and applications, the more important of which are enumerated below.

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