Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

204

CIRCUIT

CIRCUMSTANCES

ased by Europeans in Bengal to denote the Hindu writer and accountant employed by themselves, or in the public offices. Whar ton. CIBCUIT. A division of the country, appointed for a particular judge to visit for the trial of causes or for the administration of justice. Bouvier. Circuits, as the term is used in England, may be otherwise defined to be the periodical progresses of thejudges of the superior courts of common law, ttuough the several counties of England and Wales, for the purpose of ad ministering civil and criminal justice. CIBCUIT COURTS. The name of a system of courts of the United States, invest ed with general original jurisdiction of such matters and causes as are of Federal cogni zance, except the matters specially delegated to the district courts. The United States circuit courts are held by one of the justices of the supreme court appointed for the circuit, (and bearing the name, in that capac ity, of circuit justice,) together with the circuit judge and the district judge of the district in which they are held. Their business is not only the super vision of trials of issues in fact, but the hearing of causes as a court in bane; and they have equity as well as common-law jurisdiction, together with appellate jurisdiction from the decrees and judg ments of the district courts. 1 Kent, Comm. 301 303. In several of the states, circuit court is the name given to a tribunal, the territorial jurisdiction of which comprises several coun ties or districts, and whose sessions are held in such counties or districts alternately. These courts usually have general original jurisdiction. CIRCUIT COUBTS OF APPEALS. A system of courts of the United States (one in each circuit) created by act of congress of March 3, 1891, composed of the circuit jus tice, the circuit judge, and an additional cir cuit judge appointed for each such court, and having appellate jurisdiction from the circuit and district courts except in certain specified classes of cases. CIRCUIT PAPER. In English practice. A paper containing a statement of the time and place at which the several assises will be held, and other statistical information con nected with the assises. Holthouse. Circuitus est evitandus; et boni judi cis est lites dirimere, ne lis ex lite oria tur. 5 Coke, 31. Circuity is to be avoided; and it is the duty of a good judge to deter

mine litigations, lest one lawsuit arise out of another. CIRCUITY OP ACTION. This oc curs where a litigant, by a complex, indirect, or roundabout course of legal proceeding, makes two or more actions necessary, in or der to effect that adjustment of rights be tween all the paities concerned in the trans action which, by a more direct course, might have been accomplished in a single suit. CIRCULAR NOTES. Similar instru ments to " letters of credit." They are drawn by resident bankers upon their foreign cor respondents, in favor of persons traveling abroad. The correspondents must be satis fied of the identity of the applicant, be fore payment; and the requisite proof of such identity is usually furnished, upon the ap plicant's producing a letter with his signa ture, by a comparison of the signatures. Brown. CIRCULATING MEDIUM. Thisterm is more comprehensive than the term "mon« ey," as it is the medium of exchanges, ox purchases and sales, whether it be gold OK silver coin or any other article. CIRCUMDUCTION. In Scotch law. A closing of the period for lodging papers, or doing any other act required in a cause. Paters. Comp. CIRCUMDUCTION OP THE TERM. In Scotch practice. The sentence of a judge, declaring the time elapsed within which a proof ought to have been led, and precluding the party from bringing forward any further evidence. Bell. CIRCUMSPECTE AGATIS. The title of a statute passed 13 Edw. I., A. D. 1285* and so called from the initial words of it, the object of which was to ascertain the bounda ries of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in some par ticulars, or, in other words, to regulate the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical and tempo ral courts. 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 215, 216. CIRCUMSTANCES. A principal fact or event being the object of investigation, the circumstances are the related or accessory facts or occurrences which attend upon it* which closely precede or follow it, which sur round and accompany it, which depend upon it, or which support or qualify it. The terms "circumstance" and "fact* are, in many applications, synonymous; but the true dis tinction of a circumstance is its relative oharacter. M Any fact may b« a circumstance with xeferenct

Archive CD Books USA