Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

269

CONTRACTOR

CONTRAT

nate one who, for a fixed price, undertakes to procure the performance of works on a large scale, or the furnishing of goods in large quantities, whether for the public or a com pany or individual. The primary meaning of the word is one who contracts; one of the parties to a bargain. He who agrees to do anything for another is a con tractor. 12 N. Y. 628. CONTBACTXJS. Contract; a contract; contracts. CONTRACTUS BONJE PIDEI. In Roman law. Contracts of good faith. Those contracts which, when brought into litigation, were not determined by the rules of the strict law alone, but allowed the judge to examine into the bona fides of the trans action, and to hear equitable considerations against their enforcement. In this they were opposed to contiacts stricti juris, against which equitable defenses could not be enter tamed. CONTBACTUS CTVILES. In Roman law. Civil contracts. Those contracts which were recognized as actionable by the strict civil law of Rome, or as being founded upon a particular statute, as distinguished from those which could not be enforced iu the courts except by the aid of the praetor, who, through his equitable powers, gave an action upon them. The latter were called "contrac tui> prcetoiii." Contractus est quasi actus contra ftctum. 2 Coke, 15. A contract is, as it were, act against act. Contractus ex turpi causa, vel contra bonos mores, nullus est. A contract founded on a base consideration, or against good morals, is null. Hob. 167. Contractus legem ex conventione ac cipiunt. Contracts receive legal sanction from the agreement of the parties. Dig. 16, 3, 1. 6. CONTRADICT. In practice. To dis prove. To prove a fact contrary to what has been asserted by a witness. CONTRADICTION IN TERMS. A phrase of which the parts are expressly in consistent, as, e. g., "an innocent murder;" "a fee-simple for life." CONTRiESCRITURA. In Spanish law. • counter-writing; counter-letter. A docu ment executed at the same time with an act of sale or other instrument, and operating by way of defeasance or otherwise modifying

the apparent effect and purport of the original instrument. CONTRAFACTIO. Counterfeiting; as contrafactio sigilli regis, counterfeiting the king's seal. Cowell. CONTRAINTE PAR CORPS. In French law. The civil process of arrest of the person, which is imposed upon vendors falsely representing their property to be un incumbered, or upon peisons mortgaging property which they are aware does not be long to them, and in other cases of moral heinousness. Brown. CONTRALIGATIO. In old English law. Counter-obligation. Literally, coun ter-binding. Est enim obligatio quasi con traligatio. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 56, § 1. CONTRAMANDATIO. A counter manding. Contramandatio placiti, in old English law, was the respiting of a defend ant, or giving him further time to answer, by countermanding the day fixed for him to plead, and appointing a new day; a sort of imparlance. CONTRAMANDATUM. A lawful ex cuse, which a defendant in a suit by attorney alleges for himself to show that the plaintiff has no cause of complaint. Blount. CONTRAPLACITUM. In old English law. A counter-plea. Townsh. PL 61. CONTRAPOSITIO. In old English law. A plea or answer. Blount. A counter-po sition. CONTRARIENTS. This word was used in the time of Edw. II. to signify those who were opposed to the government, but were neither rebels nor traitors. Jacob. Contrariorum contraria est ratio. Hob. 344. The reason ot contrary things is contrary. CONTRAROTULATOR. A controller. One whose business it was to observe the money which the collectors had gathered for the use of the king or the people. Cowell. CONTRAROTULATOR VTBM. An officer of the exchequer that writeth out sum mons twice every year, to the sheriffs, to levy the rents and debts of the pipe. Blount. CONTRAT. In French law. Con tracts are of the following varieties: (1) Bi lateral, or synallagmatique, where each par ty is bound to the other to do what is just and proper; or (2) unilateral, where the one

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