Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CONTAGIOUS DISORDERS

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CONTENTIOUS JURISDICTION

CONTAGIOUS DISORDERS. Dis eases which are capable of being transmitted by mediate or immediate contact. CONTANGO. In English law. The commission received for carrying over or put ting off the time of execution of a contract to deliver stocks or pay for them at a certain time. Wharton. CONTEK. L. Fr. A contest, dispute, disturbance, opposition. Britt. c. 42; Kel ham. Conteckours; brawlers; disturbers of the peace. Britt. c. 29. CONTEMNER. One who has com mitted contempt of court. CONTEMPLATION. The act of the mind in considering with attention. Con tinued attention of the mind to a particular subject. Consideration of an act or series of acts with the intention of doing or adopting them. The consideration of an event or state of facts with the expectation that it will transpire. CONTEMPLATION OF BANK RUPTCY. Contemplation of a state of bankruptcy or a known insolvency and in ability to carry on business, and a stoppage of business. 5 Reporter, 295, 299. Something more is meant by the phrase than the expectation of insolvency; it in cludes the making provision against the re sults of it. 13 How. 150; 8 Bosw. 194. By contemplation of bankruptcy is meant a contemplation of the breaking up of one's business, or an inability to continue it. Crabbe, 529. CONTEMPORANEA EXPOSITIO. Lat. Contemporaneous exposition, or con struction; a construction drawn from the time when, and the circumstances under which, the subject-matter to be construed, as a statute or custom, originated. Contemporanea expositio est optima et fortissima in lege. Contemporaneous exposition is the best and strongest in the law. 2 Inst. 11. A statute is best explained by following the construction put upon it by Judges who lived at the time it was made, or soon after. 10 Coke, 70; Broom, Max. 682. CONTEMPT. Contumacy; a willful dis regard of the authority of a court of justice or legislative body or disobedience to its law ful orders. Contempt of court is committed by a per son who does any act in willful contraven tion of its authority or dignity, or tending to

impede or frustrate the administration of jus tice, or by one who, being under the court's authority as a party to a proceeding therein, willfully disobeys its lawful orders or fails to comply with an undertaking which he has given. The disobedience of the defendant to the decree of that court, in this instance, is palpable, willful, and utterly inexcusable; and therefore constitutes, beyond a doubt, what is termed a "contempt," which is well described by an eminent jurist as "a disobedience to the court, by acting in opposition to the authority, justice, and dignity thereof," adding that "it commonly consists in a party do ing otherwise than he is enjoined to do, or not do ing what he is commanded or required by the pro cess, order, or decree of the court; in all which cases the party disobeying is liable to be attached and committed for the contempt." 21 Conn. 199. Contempts are of two kinds,—criminal and con structive. Criminal contempts are those commit ted in the immediate view and presence of the court, such as insulting language or acts of vi olence, which interrupt the regular proceedings in courts. Constructive contempts are those which arise from matters not transpiring in court, but in reference to failures to comply with the orders and decrees issued by the court, and to be performed elsewhere. 49 Me. 392. Or they may be divided into such as are commit ted in the face of the court (in fade ciirice) which are punishable by commitment and fine, and such as are committed out of court, which are punish able by attachment. 1 Tidd, Pr. 479, 480. 4 BL Comm. 285, 286; 4 Steph. Comm. 348-853. CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS, LEG ISLATURE, or PARLIAMENT. What ever obstructs or tends to obstruct the due course of proceeding of either house, or grossly reflects on the character of a member of either house, or imputes to him what ifc would be a libel to impute to an ordinary per son, is a contempt of the house, and thereby a breach of privilege. Sweet. CONTEMPTIBILITER. Lat. Con temptuously. In old English law. Contempt, con tempts. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 60, § 35. CONTENTIOUS. Contested; adversary; litigated between adverse or contending parties; a judicial proceeding not merely ex parte in its character, but comprising attack and defense as between opposing parties, is so called. The litigious proceedings in ecclesi astical courts are sometimes said to belong to its "contentious"' jurisdiction, in contradis tinction to what is called its "voluntary" jurisdiction, which is exercised in the grant ing of licenses, probates of wills, dispensa tions, faculties, etc. CONTENTIOUS JURISDICTION. In English ecclesiastical law. That branch

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