Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

288 COURT OF ANCIENT DEMESNE

COURT-BARON

Freeholders' court-baron is one held before the freeholders who owe suit and service to the manor. It is the court-baron proper. COURT CHRISTIAN. The ecclesias tical courts in England are often so called, as distinguished from the civil courts. 1 Bl. Comm. 83; 3 Bl. Comin. 64; 3 Steph. Comm. 430. COURT, CONSISTORY. See CONSIS TORY COURT. COURT FOR CONSIDERATION OF CEOWN CASES RESERVED. A court •established by St. 11 & 12 Viet. c. 78, composed of such of the judges of the superior courts of Westminster as were able to attend, for the consideration of questions of law reserved by any judge in a court of oyer and terminer, gaol delivery, or quarter sessions, before which a prisoner had been found guilty by verdict. Such question is stated in the form of a special case. Mozley & Whiteley; 4 Steph. Comm. 442. COURT FOR DIVORCE AND MAT RIMONIAL CAUSES. This court was established by St. 20 & 21 Viet. c. 85, which transferred to it all jurisdiction then exercis able by any ecclesiastical court in England, in matters matrimonial, and also gave it new powers. The court consisted of the lord •chancellor, the three chiefs, and three senior puisne judges of the common-law courts, and the judge ordinary, who together consti tuted, and still constitute, the "full court." The judge ordinary heard almost all matters in the first instance. By the judicature act, 1873, § 3, the jurisdiction of the court was transferred to the supreme court of judicature. Sweet. COURT FOR THE CORRECTION OF ERRORS. The style of a court having jurisdiction for review, by appeal or writ of -error. The name was formerly used in New York and South Carolina. COURT FOR THE RELIEF OF IN SOLVENT DEBTORS. In English law. A local court which has its sittings in Lon don only, which receives the petitions of in solvent debtors, and decides upon the ques tion of granting a discharge. COURT FOR THE TRIAL OF IM PEACHMENTS. A tribunal empowered to try any officer of government or other per son brought to its bar by the process of im peachment. In England, the house of lords constitutes such a court; in the United States,

the senate; and in the several states, usually, the upper house of the legislative assembly. COURT-HAND. In old English prac tice. The peculiar hand in which the rec ords of courts were written from the earliest period down to the reign of George II. Its characteristics were great strength, compact ness, and undeviating uniformity; and its use undoubtedly gave to the ancient record its acknowledged superiority over the mod ern, in the important quality of durability. The writing of this hand, with its peculiar abbreviations and contractions, constituted, while it was in use, an art of no little im portance, being an indispensable part of the profession of "clerkship," as it was called. Two sizes of it were employed, a large and a small hand; the former, called "great court hand, " being used for initial words or clauses, the placita of records, etc. Burrill. COURT-HOUSE. The building occupied for the public sessions of a court, with its va rious offices. The term may be used of a place temporarily occupied for the sessions of a court, though not the regular court-house. 55 Mo. 181; 71111. 350. COURT-LANDS. Domains or lands kept in the lord's hands to serve his family. COURT-LEET. The name of an English court of record held once in the year, and not oftener, within a particular hundred, lordship, or manor, before the steward of the leet; being the king's court granted by char ter to the lords of those hundreds or manors. Its office was to view the frankpledges,—that is, the freemen within the liberty; to present by jury crimes happening within the juris diction; and to punish trivial misdemeanors. It has now, however, for the most part, fall en into total desuetude; though in some manors a court-leet is still periodically held for the transaction of the administrative business of the manor. Mozley & Whitley. COURT-MARTIAL. A military court, convened under authority of government and the articles of war, for trying and punishing military offenses committed by soldiers or sailors in the army or navy. COURT OF ADMIRALTY. A court having jurisdiction of causes arising under the rules of admiralty law. See ADMIRALTY. COURT OF ANCIENT DEMESNE. In English law. A court of peculiar consti* tution, held by a bailiff appointed by the king, in which alone the tenants of the king's de

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