Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

COMPILATION

238

COMPENSATION

tics, or the absence of those disabilities, which render a witness legally fit and quali fied to give testimony in a court of justice. The term is also applied, in the same sense, to documents or other written evidence. Competency differs from credibility. The former is a question which arises before con sidering the evidence given by the witness; the latter concerns the degree of credit to be given to his story. The former denotes the personal qualification of the witness; the latter his veracity. A witness may be com petent, and yet give incredible testimony; he may be incompetent, and yet his evidence, if received, be perfectly credible. Competency is for the court; credibility for the jury. Yet in some cases the term " ci edible" is used as an equivalent for "competent." Thus, in a statute relating to the execution of wills* the term "credible witness" is held to mean one who is entitled to be examined and to give evidence in a court of justice; not nec essarily one who is personally worthy of be lief, but one who is not disqualified by imbecility, interest, crime, or other cause. 1 Jarm. Wills, 124; 23 Pick. 18. In French law. Competency, as applied to a court, means its right to exercise juris diction in a particular case. COMPETENT AND OMITTED. In Scotch practice. A term applied to a pie* which might have been urged by a party during the dependence of a cause, but which had been omitted. Bell. COMPETENT EVIDENCE. That which the very nature of the thing to be proven requires, as the production of a writ* ing where its contents are the subject of in quiry. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 2; 1 Lea, 504. COMPETENT WITNESS. One who It legally qualified to be heard to testify in a cause. See COMPETENCY. COMPETITION. In Scotch practice. The contest among creditors claiming on their respective diligences, or creditors claim ing on their securities. Bell. COMPILE. To compile is to copy from various authors into one work. Between a compilation and an abridgment there is a clear distinction. A compilation consists of selected extracts from different authors; an abridgment is a condensation of the views of one author. 4 McLean, 306, 314. COMPILATION. A literary production, composed of the works of others and arranged in a methodical manner.

nified may receive equal value for his loss, or be made whole in respect of his injury. Also that equivalent in money which is paid to the owners and occupiers of lands taken or injuriously affected by the operations of com panies exercising the power of eminent do* main. In the constitutional provision for "just compensation" for property taken under the power of eminent domain, this term means a payment in money. Any benefit to the re maining property of the owner, arising from public works for which a part has been taken* cannot be considered as compensation. 42 Ala. 83. As compared with consideration and damages, compensation, in its most careful use, seems to be between them. Consideration is amends for some thing given by consent, or by the owner's choice. Damages is amends exacted from a wrong-doer for a tort. Compensation is amends for something which was taken without the owner's choice, yet without commission of a tort. Thus, one should say, consideration for land sold; compensation for land taken for a railway; damages for a trespass. But such distinctions are not uniform. Land dam ages is a common expression for compensation for lands taken for public use. Abbott. The word also signifies the remuneration or wages given to an employe or officer. But it is not exactly synonymous with "salary." See 76 111. 648. In the civil, Scotch, and French law. Recoupment; set-off. The meeting of two debts due by two parties, where the debtor in the one debt is the creditor in the other; that is to say, where one person is both debtor and creditor to another, and there fore, to the extent of what is due to him, claims allowance out of the sum that he is due. Bell; 1 Kames, Eq. 395, 396. Compensation is of three kinds,—legal, or by operation of law; compensation by way of excep tion ; and by reconvention. 16 La. Ann. 181. COMPERENDINATIO. In the Eoman law. The adjournment of a cause, in order to hear the parties or their advocates a sec ond time; a second hearing of the parties to a cause. Calvin. COMPERTOBIUM. In the civil law. A judicial inquest made by delegates or com missioners to find out and relate the truth of a cause. COMPERUIT AD DIEM. In practice. A plea in an action of debt on a bail bond that the defendant appeared at the day re quired. COMPETENCY. In the law of evi dence. The presence of those characteria- t

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