Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CHANCELLOR

192

CHAMP ART

tel, fought either for the tenant or demand ant. 3 Bl. Comm. 339. CHAMPION OF THE KING OB QUEEN. An ancient officer, whose duty it was to ride armed cap-a-pie, into West minster Hall at the coronation, while the king was at dinner, and, by the proclama tion of a herald, make a challenge "that, if any man shall deny the king's title to the crown, he is there ready to defend it in sin gle combat." The king drank to him, and sent him a gilt cup covered, full of wine, which the champion drank, retaining the cup for his fee. This ceremony, long dis continued, was revived at the coronation of George IV., but not afterwards. Wharton. CHANCE. In criminal law. An acci dent; an unexpected, unforeseen, or unin tended consequence of an act; a fortuitous event. The opposite of intention, design, or contrivance. There is a wide difference between chance and accident. The one is the intervention of some unlooked-for circumstance to pre vent an expected result; the other is the un calculated effect of mere luck. The shot dis charged at random strikes its object by chance; that which is turned aside from its well-di rected aim by some unforeseen circumstance misses its mark by accident. Pure chance consists in the entire absence of all the means of calculating results; accident, in the un usual prevention of an effect naturally re sulting from the means employed. Morris, (Iowa,) 173. CHANCE-MEDLEY. In criminal law. A sudden affray. This word is sometimes applied to any kind of homicide by misad venture, but in strictness it is applicable to such killing only as happens in defending one's self. 4 Bl. Comm. 184. CHANCEL. In ecclesiastical law. The part of a church in which the communion table stands; it belongs to the rector or the impropriator. 2 Broom & H. Comm. 420. CHANCELLOR. In American law, this is the name given in some states to the judge (or the presiding judge) of a court of chancery. In England, besides being the designation of the chief judge of the court of chancery, the term is used as the title of several judicial officers attached to bishops or other high dignitaries and to the univer* sities. (See the following titles.) In Scotch practice, it denotes the foreman of an assise or jury.

The national assembly of the Franks, held in the month of March, in the open air. CHAMPABT. In French law. The grant of a piece of land by the owner to an other, on condition that the latter would de liver to him a portion of the crops. 18 Toul lier, n. 182. CHAMPERT. In old English law. A share or division of land; champerty. In old Scotch law. A gift or bribe, taken by any great man or judge from any person, for delay of just actions, or further ing of wrongous actions, whether it be lands or any goods movable. Skene. CHAMPERTOR. In criminal law. One who makes pleas or suits, or causes them to be moved, either directly or indirectly, and sues them at his proper costs, upon condition of having a part of the gain. One guilty of champerty. St. 33 Edw. I. c. 2. CHAMPERTOUS. Of the nature of champerty; affected with champerty. CHAMPERTY. A bargain made by a stranger with one of the parties to a suit, by which such third person undertakes to carry on the litigation at his own cost and risk, in consideration of receiving, if he wins the suit, a part of the land or other subject sought to be recovered by the action. The purchase of an interest in a thing in dispute, with the object of maintaining and taking part in the litigation. 7 Bing. 378. The act of assisting the plaintiff or defendant in 8 legal proceeding in which the person giving the assistance has no valuable interest, on an agree ment that, if the proceeding is successful, the pro ceeds shall be divided between the plaintiff or de fendant, as the case may be, and the assisting per son. Sweet. Champerty is the carrying on a suit in the name of another, but at one's own expense, with the view of receiving as compensation a certain share of the avails of the suit. 4 Duer, 275. The distinction between champerty and maintenance lies in the interest which the in terfering party is to have* in the issue of the suit. In the former case, he is to receive a share or portion of what may be recovered; in the latter case, he is in no way benefited by the success of the party aided, but simply intermeddles officiously. Thus every cham perty includes maintenance, but not every maintenance is champerty. Sea 2 Inst. 208. CHAMPION. A person who fights a combat in his own cause, or in place of an other. The person who* in the trial by bat

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