Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

834

DEAD LETTERS

DEATH

this the testator had the unqualified disposal* Bell. DEAF AND DUMB. A man that !» born deaf, dumb, and blind is looked upon by the law as in the same state with an idiot, he being supposed incapable of any understand ing. 1 Bl. Comm. 304. Nevertheless, » deaf and dumb person may be tried for felony if the prisoner can be made to understand by means of signs. 1 Leach, 0. L. 102. DEAFFOREST. In old English law* To discharge from being forest. To freer from forest laws. DEAFFORESTED. Discharged from being a forest, or freed and exempted from the forest laws. DEAL. To traffic; to transact business; to trade. Makers of an accommodation note are deemed dealers with whoever discounts it. 17 Wend. 524. DEALER. A dealer, in the popular, xudt therefore in the statutory, sense of the word,, is not one who buys to keep, or makes to sell, but one who buys to sell again. 27 Pa. St. 494; 33 Pa. St. 380. DEALINGS. Transactions in the course of trade or business. Held to include pay ments to a bankrupt. Moody & M. 137; 3 Car. & P. 85. DEAN. In English ecclesiastical law. An ecclesiastical dignitary who presides over the chapter of a cathedral, and is next in. rank to the bishop. So called from having been originally appointed to superintend ten canons or prebendaries. 1 Bl. Comm. 382; Co. Litt. 95; Spelman. There are several kinds of deans, namely: Deans of chapters; deans of peculiars; rural deans; deana in the colleges; honorary deans; deans of prov inces. DEAN AND CHAPTER. In ecclesi astical law. The council of a bishop, to as sist him with their advice in the" religious and also in tho temporal affairs of the see. 3 Coke, 75; 1 Bl. Comm. 382; Co. Litt. 103,. 300. DEAN OF THE ARCHES. The pre siding judge of the Court of Arches. He i» also an assistant judge in the court of ad miralty. 1 Kent, Comm. 371; 3 Steph. Comm. 727. DEATH. The extinction of life; the de parture of the soul from the body; denned by physicians as a total stoppage of the cir culation of the blood, and a cessation of the

freight thus due is called "dead freight." L. B. 6 Q. B. 528; 15 East, 547. DEAD LETTERS. Letters which the postal department has not been able to de liver to the persons for whom they were in tended. They are sent to the "dead-letter office," where they are opened, and returned to the writer if his address can be ascer tained. DEAD MAN'S PART. In English law. That portion of the effects of a deceased per son which, by the custom of London and York, is allowed to the administrator; being, where the deceased leaves a widow and chil dren, one-third; where he leaves only a widow or only children, one-half; and, where he leaves neither, the whole. This portion the administrator was wont to apply to his own use, till the statute 1 Jac. II. c. 17, declared that the same should be subject to the statute of distributions. 2 Bl. Comm. 518; 2Steph. Comm. 254; 4 Reeve, Eng. Law, 83. A similar portion in Scotch law is called "dead's part," (q. v.) DEAD-FLEDGE. A mortgage; mort uum vadium. DEAD RENT. In English law. A rent payable on a mining lease in addition to a roy alty, so called because it is payable although DEADHEAD. This term is applied to persons other than the officers, agents, or em ployes of a railroad company who are per mitted by the company to travel on the road without paying any fare therefor. Phil lips, 21. DEADLY FEUD. In old European law. A profession of irreconcilable hatred till a person is revenged even by the death of his enemy. DEADLY WEAPON. Such weapons or instruments as are made and designed for offensive or defensive purposes, or for the destruction of life or the infliction of in jury. 8 Bush, 387. A deadly weapon is one likely to produce death or great bodily harm. 58 Cal. 245. A deadly weapon is one which in the man ner used is capable of producing death, or of inflicting great bodily injury, or seriously wounding. 4 Tex. App. 327. DEAD'S PART. In Scotch law. The part remaining over beyond the shares se cured to the widow and children by law. Of the mine may not be worked. DEAD USE. A future use.

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