Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CHECK

198

CHATTEL

from movables, which are called "chattels per sonal. " Mozley & Wbitley. Chattels personal are movables only; chattels real are such as savor only of the realty. 19 Johns. 73. The term "chattels" is a more comprehensive one than "goods," as it includes animate as well as inanimate property. 2 Chit. Bl. Comm. 883, note. In a devise, however, they seem to be of the same Import. Shep. Touch. 447; 2 FonbL Eq. 835. CHATTEL INTEREST. An interest in corporeal hereditaments less than a free hold. 2 Kent, Comm. 342. CHATTEL MORTGAGE. An instru ment of sale of personalty conveying the title of the property to the mortgagee with terms of defeasance; and, if the terms of re demption are not complied with, then, at common law, the title becomes absolute in fche mortgagee. A transfer of personal property as security for a debt or obligation in such form that, upon failure of the mortgagor to comply with the terms of the contract, the title to the property will be in the mortgagee. Thomas, Mortg. 427. An absolute pledge, to become an absolute interest if not redeemed at a fixed time. 2 €aines Cas. 200, per Kent, Ch. A conditional sale of a chattel as security for the payment of a debt or the performance of some other obligation. Jones, Chat. Mortg. § 1. A chattel mortgage is a conditional transfer or conveyance of the property itself. The chief dis tinctions between it and a pledge are that in the latter the title, even after condition broken, does not pass to the pledgee, who has only a hen on the property, but remains in the pledgeor, who has the right to redeem the property at any time before its sale. Besides, the possession of the property must, in all cases, accompany the pledge, and, at a sale thereof by the pledgee to satisfy his demand, he cannot become the purchaser; while by a chattel mortgage the title of the mortgagee becomes ab solute at law, on the default of the mortgagor, and it is not essential to the validity of the instru ment that possession of the property should be delivered, and, on the foreclosure" of the mort gage, the mortgagee is at liberty to become the purchaser. 86 Cal. 414, 428, 441. The material distinction between a pledge and a mortgage of chattels is that a mortgage is a con veyance of the legal title upon condition, and it becomes absolute in law if not redeemed by a given time; a pledge is a deposit of goods, redeem able on certain terms, either with or without a fixed period for redemption. In pledge, the gen eral property does not pass, as in the case of mort gage, and the pawnee has only a special property in the thing deposited. The pawnee must choose between two remedies,—a bill in chancery for a judicial sale under a decree of foreclosure, or a sale without judicial process, on the refusal of

the debtor to redeem, after reasonable notioe t» do so. 5 Blackf. 320. See, also, 8 Blackf. 809. In a conditional sale the purchaser has merely a right to repurchase, and no debt or obligation exists on the part of the vendor; this distinguishes such a sale from a mortgage. 40 Miss. 462; 4 Daly, 77. CHAUD-MEDLET. A homicide com mitted in the heat of an affray and while un der the influence of passion; it is thus dis tinguished from chance-medley, which is the killing of a man in a casual affray in self defense. 4 Bl. Comm. 184. See 1 Russ. Crimes, 660. CHAUMPERT. A kind of tenure men tioned in a patent of 35 Edw. ILL Cowell; Blount. CHAUNTRY RENTS. Money paid to the crown by the servants or purchasers of chauntry-lands. See CHANTRY. CHEAT. Swindling; defrauding. "De ceitful practices in defrauding or endeavoring to defraud an&ther of his known right, by some willful device, contrary to the plain rules of common honesty." Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 23, § 1. "The fraudulent obtaining the property of another by any deceitful and ille gal practice or token (short of felony) which affects or may affect the public." Steph. Crim. Law, 93. Cheats, punishable at common law, are such cheats (not amounting to felony) as are ef fected by deceitful or illegal symbols or tokens which may affect the public at large, and against which common prudence could not have guarded. 2 Whart. Ciim. Law, § 1116; 2 East, P. C. 818. CHEATERS, or ESCHEATORS, were officers appointed to look after the king's es cheats, a duty which gave them great oppor tunities of fraud and oppression, and in con sequence many complaints were made of their misconduct. Hence it seems that a cheater came to signify a fraudulent person, and thence the verb to cheat was derived. Wharton. CHECK, v. To control or restrain; to hold within bounds. To verify or audit. Particularly used with reference to the con trol or supervision of one department, bu reau, or office over another. CHECK, n. A draft or order upon * bank or banking-house, purporting to be drawn upon a deposit of funds, for the pay ment at all events of a certain sum of money to a certain person therein named, or to him or his order, or to bearer, and payable in

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