Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

CAPITATION

170

CAPITALIS CUSTOS. Chief warden or magistrate; mayor. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 64, §2 CAPITALIS DEBITOR. The chief or principal debtor, as distinguished from a surety, (plegius.) CAPITALIS DOMINUS. Chief lord. Fleta, lib. 1, c. 12, § 4; Id. c. 28, § 5. CAPITALIS JUSTICIARIUS. The chief justiciary; the principal minister of state, and guardian of the realm in the king's absence. This office originated under William the Conqueror; but its power was greatly dimin ished by Magna Charta, and finally distrib uted among several courts by Edward I. Spelman; 3 Bl. Comm. 38. CAPITALIS JUSTICIARIUS AD PLACITA CORAM REGE TENENDA. Chief justice for holding pleas before the king. The title of the chief justice of the king's bench, first assumed in the latter part of the reign of Henry III. 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 91, 285. CAPITALIS JUSTICIARIUS BAN CI. Chief justice of the bench. The title of the chief justice of the (now) court of com mon pleas, first mentioned in the first year of Edward I. 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 48. CAPITALIS JUSTICIARIUS TOTI US ANGLIiE. Chief justice of all Eng land. The title of the presiding justice in the court of aula regis. S Bl. Comm. 38; 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 48. CAPITALIS PLEGIUS. A chief pledge; a head borough. Townsh. PI. 35. CAPITALIS REDITUS. A chief rent. CAPITALIS TERRA. Ahead-land. A piece of land lying at the head of other land. CAPITANEUS. A tenant in capiU. He who held his land or title directly from the king himself. A captain; a navai com mander. CAPITARE. In old law and surreys. To head, front, or abut; to touch at the head, or end. CAPITATIM. Lat. By the head; by the poll; severally to each individual. CAPITATION. (Lat. caput, head.) A poll-tax. An imposition periodically laid upon each person. A tax or imposition raised on each per son in consideration of his labor, industry.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. The pun ishment of death. CAPITAL STOCK. The common stock or fund of a corporation. The sum of money raised by the subscriptions of the stockhold ers, and divided into shares. It is said to be the sum upon which calls may be made upon the stockholders, and dividends are to be paid. 1 Sandf. Ch. 280; Ang. & A. Corp. §§ 151,556. Originally "the capital stock of the bank" was all the property of every kind, everything, which the bank possessed. And this "capital stock," all of it, in reality belonged to the contributors, it be ing intrusted to the bank to be used and traded with for their exclusive benefit; and thus the bank became the agent of the contributors, so that the transmutation of the money originally advanced by the subscribers into property of other kinds, though it altered the form of the investment, left its beneficial ownership unaffected; and every new acquisition of property, by exchange or other wise, was an acquisition for the original subscrib ers or their representatives, their respective in terests in it all always continuing in the same proportion as in the aggregate capital originally advanced. So that, whether in the form of money, bills of exchange, or any other property in posses sion or in action into which the money originally contributed has been changed, or which it has pro duced, all is, as the original contribution was, the capital stock of the bank, held, as the original con tribution was, for the exclusive benefit of the original contributors and those who represent them. The original contributors and those who represent them are the stockholders. 31 Conn. 109. Capital stock, as employed in acts of incorpora tion, is never used to indicate the value of the property of the company. It is very generally, if not universally, used to designate the amount of capital prescribed to be contributed at the outset by the stockholders, for the purposes of the corpo ration. The value of the corporate assets may be greatly increased by surplus profits, or be dimin ished by losses, but the amount of the capital stock remains the same. The funds of the company may fluctuate; its capital stock remains invariable, un less changed by legislative authority. 23 N. J. Law, 195. CAPITALE. A thing which is stolen, or the value of it. Blount. CAPITALE VIVENS. Blount. Live cattle. CAPITALIS. In old English law. Chief, principal; at the head. A term applied to persons, places, judicial proceedings, and some kinds of property. CAPITALIS BARO. In old English law. Chief baron. Capitalis baro scaccarii domini regis, chief baron of the exchequer. Townsh. PI. 211.

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