Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

338

DECANUS

DECIDE

Also the name of a judicial writ which formerly lay to recover lands which had been lost by default by the tenant in a real action, in consequence of his not having been sum moned by the sheriff, or by the collusion of his attorney. Rose. Heal Act. 136; 3 Bl. Comm. 166. DECEM TALES. (Ten such; or ten tales, jurors.) In practice. The name of a writ which issues in England, where, on a trial at bar, ten jurors are necessary to makt up a full pane!, commanding the sheriff U summon the requisite number. 3 BI. Comm. 364; Beg. Jud. 306/ 3 Steph. Comm. 602. DECEMVIRI LITIBUS JUDICAN DIS. Lat. In the Roman law. Ten per sons (five senators and five equites) who acted as the council or assistants of the prae tor, when he decided on matters of law. Hallifax, Civil Law, b. 3, c. 8. According to others, they were themselves judges. Cal vin. DECENNA. In old English law. A tithing or decennary; the precinct of a frank pledge; consisting of ten freeholders with their families. Spelman. DECENNABIUS. Lat. One who held one-half a virgate of land. Du Cange. One of the ten freeholders in a decennary. Id.; Calvin. Decennier. One of the decennarii, or ten freeholders making up a tithing. Spel man. DECENNARY. A tithing, composed of ten neighboring families. 1 lleeve, Eng. Law, 13; 1 Bl. Comm. 114. Deceptis non decipientibus, jura aub veniunt. The laws help persons who are deceived, not those deceiving. Tray. Lat. Max. 149. DECERN. In Scotch law. To decree. "Decernit and ordainit." 1 How. State Tr. 927. "Decerns." Shaw, 16. DECESSUS. In the civil and old En glish law. Death; departure. Decet tamen principem servare leges quibus ipse servatus est. It behoves, in deed, the prince to keep the laws by whicfe he himself is preserved. DECIDE. To decide includes the power and right to deliberate, to weigh the reasons for and against, to see which preponderate, and to be governed by that preponderance. 5 Gray, 253.

ing over ten prebendaries. Decanus episcopi; a bishop's or rural dean, presiding over ten clerks or parishes. Decanus friborgi; dean of a friborg. An officer among the Saxons who presided over a fnborg, tithing, decen nary, or association of ten inhabitants; other wise called a "tithing man," or "borsholder." Decanus militaris; a military officer, having command of ten soldiers. Spelman. In Roman law. An officer having the command of a company or "mess" of ten soldiers. Also an officer at Constantinople having charge of the burial of the dead. DECAPITATION. The act of behead ing. A mode of capital punishment by cat ting off the head. DECEASE, n. Death; departure from life. DECEASE, v. To die; to depart life, or from life. This has always been a common term in Scotch law. " Gif ane man deceasis." Skene. DECEDENT. A deceased person; one who has lately died. Etymologically the word denotes a person who is dying, but it has come to be used in law as signifying any de funct person, (testate or intestate,) but al ways with reference to the settlement of his estate or the execution of his will. DECEIT. A fraudulent and cheating misrepresentation, artifice, or device, used by one or more persons to deceive and trick another, who is ignorant of the true facts, to the piejudice and damage of the party im posed upon. A subtle trick or device, whereunto may be referred all manner of craft and collusion used to deceive and defraud another by any means whatsoever, which hath no other or more proper name than deceit to distinguish the offense. [West Symb. § 68;] Jacob. The word "deceit," as well as "fraud," excludes the idea of mistake, and imports knowledge that the artifice or device used to deceive or defraud is untrue. 61 EL 378. In old English law. The name of an original writ, and the action founded on it, which lay to recover damages for any injury committed deceitfully, either in the name of another, (as by bringing an action in anoth er's name, and then suffering a nonsuit, whereby the plaintiff became liable to costs,) or by a fraudulent warranty of goods, or other personal injury committed contrary to good faith and honesty. Eeg. Orig. 112-116; Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 95, E, 98.

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