Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

COUNT

284

COUNTERFEITER

at first kept separate, and no person was per mitted to practice in both capacities, but the present practice is otherwise. Weeks, Attys. at Law, 54. It is the duty of the counsel to draft or review and correct the special plead ings, to manage the cause on trial, and, dur ing the whole course of the suit, to apply es tablished principles of law to the exigencies of the case. 1 Kent, Comm. 307. COUNT, t>. In pleading. To declare; to recite; to state a case; to narrate the facts constituting a plaintiff's cause of action. In a special sense, to set out the claim or count of the demandant in a real action. To plead orally; to plead or argue a case in court; to recite or read in court; to recite a count in court. COUNT, n. In pleading. The different parts of a declaration, each of which, if it stood alone, would constitute a ground for action, are the counts of the declaration. Used also to signify the several parts of an indictment, each charging a distinct offense. COUNT. (Fr. eomte; from the Latin comes.) An earl. COUNT AND COUNT-OUT. These words have a technical sense in a count of the house of commons by the speaker. COUNT-OUT. Forty members form a house of commons; and, though there be ever so many at the beginning of a debate, yet, if during the course of it the house should be deserted by the members, till reduced below the number of forty, any one member may have it adjourned upon its being counted; but a debate may be continued when only one member is left in the house, provided no one choose to move an adjournment. Wharton. COUNTEE. In old English law. The most eminent dignity of a subject before the Conquest. He was prcefectus or proepositus comitatus, and had the charge and custody of the county; but this authority is now vested in the sheriff. 9 Coke, 46. COUNTENANCE. In old English law. Credit; estimation. Wharton. COUNTER. The name of two prisons formerly standing in London, but now de molished. They were the Poultry Counter and Wood Street Counter. COUNTER-AFFIDAVIT. An affidavit made and presented in contradiction or oppo sition to an affidavit which is made the basis or suppoit of a motion or application.

COUNTER-BOND. In old practice. A bond of indemnity. 2 Leon. 90. COUNTER-CLAIM. A claim presented by a defendant in opposition to or deduction; from the claim of the plaintiff. A species of set-off or recoupment introduced by the codes of civil procedure in several of the states, of a broad and liberal character. A counter-claim must be one "existing in favor of a defendant and against a plaintiff, between whom a several judgment might b& had in the action, and arising out of one of the following causes of action: (1) A cause of action arising out of the contract or trans action set forth in the complaint as the foun dation of the plaintiff's claim, or connected with the subject of action; (2) in an action arising on contract, any other cause of ac tion arising also on contract, and existing at the commencement of the action." Code Proc. N. Y. § 150. The term "counter-claim,"of itself, imports a claim opposed to, or which qualifies, or at least ia some degree affects, the plaintiff's cause of action. 85 Wis. 626. A counter-claim is an opposition claim, or de mand of something due; a demand of something which of right belongs to the defendant, in oppo sition to the right of the plaintiff. 8 How. Pr. 122. A counter-claim is that which might have arisen oat of, or oould have had some conneotion with, the original transaction, in view of the parties, and which, at the time the contract was made, they could have intended might, in some event, give one party a claim against the other for compliance or non-compliance with its provisions. 7 Ind. 523, 524. COUNTER-DEED. A secret writing,, either before a notary or under a private seal, which destroys, invalidates, or alters a pub lic one. COUNTERFEIT. In criminal law. To* forge; to copy or imitate, without authority or right, and with a view to deceive or de fraud, by passing the copy or thing forged for that which is original or genuine. Most commonly applied to the fraudulent and crim inal imitation of money. COUNTERFEIT COIN. Coin not gen uine, but resembling or apparently intended to resemble or pass for genuine coin, includ ing genuine coin prepared or altered so as to resemble or pass for coin of a higher denomi nation.

COUNTERFEITER. In criminal law. One who unlawfully makes base coin in imitation of the true mefcai, or forges false currency, or any instrument of writing, bear ing a likeness and similitude to that which i»

Archive CD Books USA