Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CONSOLIDATION

257

CONSTABLE

Consortio malorum me quoque ma lum facit. Moore, 817. The company of wicked men makes me also wicked. CONSORTIUM. In the civil law. A union of fortunes; a lawful Roman marriage. Also, the joining of several persons as par ties to one action. In old English law,the term signified company or society. In the language of pleading, (as in the phrase per quod consortium amisit) it means the com panionship or society of a wife. CONSPIRACY. In criminal law. A combination or confederacy between two or more persons formed for the purpose of com mitting, by their joint efforts, some unlaw ful or criminal act, or some act which is in nocent in itself, but becomes unlawful when done by the concerted action of the conspira tors, or for the purpose of using criminal or unlawful means to the commission of an act not in itself unlawful. The agreement or engagement of persons to co-operate in accomplishing some unlaw ful purpose, or some purpose which may not be unlawful, by unlawful means. 48 Me. 218. Conspiracy is a consultation or agreement be tween two or more persons, either falsely to ac cuse another of a crime punishable by law; or wrongfully to injure or prejudice a third person, or any body of men, in any manner; or to commit any offense punishable by law; or to do any act with intent to prevent the course of justice; or to effect a legal purpose with a corrupt intent, or by improper means Hawk. P. C. c. 72, § 2; Archb. Crim. PI. 390, adding also combinations by jour neymen to raise wages. 6 Ala. 765. CONSPIRATIONE. An ancient writ that lay against conspirators. Beg. Orig. 134; Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 114. CONSPIRATORS. Persons guilty of a conspiracy. Those who bind themselves by oath, cov enant, or other alliance that each of them shall aid the other falsely and maliciously to indict persons; or falsely to move and main tain pleas, etc. 33 Edw. I. St. 2. Besides these, there are conspirators in treasonable purposes; as for plotting against the govern ment. "Wharton. CONSTABLE. In medieval law. The name given to a very high ,fnnctionary under the French and English kings, the dignity and importance of whose office was only sec ond to that of the monarch. He was in gen eral the leader of the royal armies, and had cognizance of all matters pertaining to war and arms, exercising both civil and military

CONSOLIDATION. In the civil law. The union of the usufruct with the estate out of which it issues, in the same person; which happens when the usufructuary ac quires the estate, or vice versa. In either case the usufruct is extinct. Lee. El. Dr. Bom. 424. In Scotch law. The junction of the property and superiority of an estate, where they have been disjoined. Bell. CONSOLIDATION OF ACTIONS. The act or process of uniting several actions into one trial and judgment, by order of a court, where all the actions are between the same parties, pending in the same court, and turning upon the same or similar issues; or the court may order that one of the actions be tried, and the others decided without trial according to the judgment in the one se lected. CONSOLIDATION OF BENEFICES. The act or process of uniting two or more of them into one. CONSOLIDATION OF CORPORA TIONS. The union or merger into one cor porate body of two or more corporations which had been separately created for simi lar or connected purposes. In England this is termed "amalgamation." "When the rights, franchises, and effects of two or more corporations are, by legal au thority and agreement of the parties, com bined and united into one whole, and com mitted to a single corporation, the stockhold ers of which are composed of those (so far as they choose to become such) of the compa nies thus agreeing, this is in law, and ac cording to common understanding, a consol idation of such companies, whether such sin gle corporation, called the consolidated com pany, be a new one then created, or one of the original companies, continuing in exist ence with only larger rights, capacity, and property. 64 Ala. 656. CONSOLIDATION RULE. In prac tice. A rule or order of court requiring a plaintiff who has instituted separate suits upon several claims against the same defend ant, to consolidate them in one action, where that can be done consistently with the rules of pleading. CONSOLS. An abbreviation of theex pression "consolidated annuities," and used ia modern times as a name of various funds united in one for the payment of the British optional debt. AM. D1CT. LAW—17

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