Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CIRCUMSTANCES

CITE

205

to any other fact." 1 Benth. Jud. Evid. 43, note; Id. 142. Thrift, integrity, good repute, business capaci ty, and stability of character, for example, are "circumstances" which may be very properly con sidered in determining the question of "adequate security. n 5 Bedf. Bur. 600. CIBCTJMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. Evidence directed to the attending circum stances; evidence whicli inferentially proves the principal fact by establishing a condition of surrounding and limiting circumstances, whose existence is a premise from which the existence of the principal fact may be con eluded by necessary laws of reasoning. When the existence of any fact is attested by witnesses, as having come under the cognizance of their senses, or is stated in documents, the gen uineness and veracity of which there seems no rea son to question, the evidence of that fact is said to be direct or positive. "When, on the contrary, the existence of the principal fact is only inferred from one or more circumstances which have been established directly, the evidence is said to be cir eumstantial. And when the existence of the prin cipal fact does not follow from the evidentiary facts as a necessary consequence of the law of nat ure, but is deduced from them by a process of proba ble reasoning, the evidence and proof are said to be presumptive. Best, Fres. 246; Id. 12. All presumptive evidence is circumstantial, be cause necessarily derived from or made up of cir cumstances, but all circumstantial evidence is not presumptive, that is, it does not operate in the way of presumption, being sometimes of a higher grade, and leading to necessary conclusions, in stead of probable ones. Burrill. CIRCUMSTANTIBUS, TALES DE. Bee TALES. CIRCUMVENTION. In Scotch law. Any act of fraud whereby a person is reduced to a deed by decreet. It has the same sense in the civil law. Dig. 50, 17, 49, 155. CIRIC-BRYCE. In old English law. Any violation of the privileges of a church. CIRIC SCEAT. In old English law. Church-scot, or shot; an ecclesiastical due, payable on the day of St. Martin, consisting ehiefly of corn. CIRLISCUS. A ceorl, (g. «.) CISTA. A box or chest for the deposit of charters, deeds, and things of value. CITACION. In Spanish law. Citation; summons; an order of a court requiring a person against whom a suit has been brought to appear and defend within a given time. CITATIO. court. A citation or summons to

CITATIO AD REASSUMENDAM CAUSAM. A summons to take up the cause. A process, in the civil law, which issued when one of the parties to a suit died before its determination, for the plaintiff against the defendant's heir, or for the plain tiff's heir against the defendant, as the case might be; analogous to a modern bill of re vivor. Citatio est de juri naturali. A summons is by natural right. Cases in Banco Regis Wm. III. 453. CITATION. In practice. A writ is sued out of a court of competent jurisdic tion, commanding a person therein named to appear on a day named and do something therein mentioned, or show cause why he should not. Proc. Prac. The act by which a person is so summoned or cited. It is used in this sense, in American law, in the practice upon writs of error from the United States supreme court, and in the pro ceedings of courts of probate in many of the states. This is also the name of the process used in the English ecclesiastical, probate, and divorce courts to call the defendant or re spondent before them. 3 Bl. Comm. 100; 3 Steph. Comm. 720. In Scotch practice. The calling of a party to an action done by an officer of the court under a proper warrant. The service of a writ or bill of summons. Paters. Comp. CITATION OF AUTHORITIES. The reading of, or reference to, legal authorities and precedents, (such as constitutions, stat utes, reported cases, and elementary trea tises,) in arguments to courts, or in legal text-books, to establish or fortify the propo sitions advanced. Citationes non concedantur priusquam exprimatur super qua re fieri debet oi tatio. Citations should not be granted be fore it is stated about what matter the cita tion is to be made. A maxim of ecclesiastical law. 12 Coke, 44. CITE. L. Fr. City; a city. Cite de Loundr\ city of London. CITE. To summon; to command the presence of a person; to notify a person of legal proceedings against him and require his appearance thereto. To read or refer to legal authorities, in an argument to a court or elsewhere, in support

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