Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

DERIVATIVA POTESTAS, ETC. 359

DESORIPTIO PERSONS

Derivativa potestas non potest esse major primitiva. Hoy, Max.; Wing. Max. €6. The derivative power cannot be greater than the primitive. DERIVATIVE. Coming from another; taken from something preceding; secondary; that which has not its origin in itself, but owes its existence to something foregoing. DERIVATIVE CONVEYANCES. Conveyances which presuppose some other conveyance precedent, and only serve to en large, confirm, alter, restrain, restore, or transfer the interest granted by such origi nal conveyance. They are releases, confir mations, surrenders, assignments, and defea sances. 2 Bl. Comm. 324. DEROGATION. The partial repeal or abolishing of a law, as by a subsequent act which limits its scope or impairs its utility and force. Distinguished from abrogation, which means the entire repeal and annul ment of a law. Dig. 50, 17, 102. DEROGATORY CLAUSE. In a will, this is a sentence or secret character insert ed by the testator, of which he reserves the knowledge to himself, with a condition that no will he may make thereafter should be valid, unless this clause be inserted word for word. This is done as a precaution to guard against later wills being extorted by violence, or otherwise improperly obtained. By the law of England such a clause would be void, as tending to make the will irrevocable. Wharton. Derogatur legi, cum pars detrahitur; abrogatur legi, cum prorsus tollitur. To derogate from a law is to take away part of it; to abiogate a law is to abolish it en tirely. Dig. 50, 17, 102. DESAPUERO. In Spanish law. An irregular action committed with violence against law, custom, or reason. DESAMORTIZACION. In Mexican law. The desamortizacion of property is to take it out of mortmain, (dead hands;) that is, to unloose it from the grasp, as it were, of ecclesiastical or civil corporations. The term has no equivalent in English. Hall, Mex. Law. § 749. DESCENDANT. One who is descended from another; a person who proceeds from the body of another, such as a child, grand child, etc., to the remotest degree. The term is the opposite of "ascendant," {q. v.) Descendants is a good term of description

in a will, and includes all who proceed from the body of the person named; as grandchil dren and great-grandchildren. Amb. 397; 2 Hil. Real. Prop. 242. DESCENDER. Descent; in the descent See FOBMEDON. DESCENT. Hereditary succession. Succession to the ownership of an estate by inheritance, or by any act of law, as distin guished from "purchase." Title by descent is the title by which one person, upon the death of another, acquires the real estate of the latter as his heir at law. 2 Bl. Comm. 201; Com. Dig. "Descent," A. Descents are of two sorts,—lineal, as from father or grandfather to son or grandson; or collateral, as from brother to brother, or cousin to cousin. They are also distinguished into mediate and im mediate descents. But these terms are used in different senses. A descent may be said to be a mediate or immediate descent of the estate or right; or it may be said to be mediate or immediate, in regard to the mediateness or immediateness of the pedigree or consanguinity. Thus, a descent from the grandfather, who dies in possession, to the grandchild, the father being then dead, or from the uncle to the nephew, the brother being dead, is, in the former sense, in law, immediate descent, al though the one is collateral and the other lineal; for the heir is in the per, and not in the per and cut On the other hand, with reference to the line of pedigree or consanguinity, a descent is often said to be immediate, when the ancestor from whom the party derives his blood is immediate, and without any intervening link or degrees; and mediate, when the kindred is derived from him mediante altero, another ancestor intervening between them. Thus a descent in lineals from father to son is in this sense immediate; but a descent from grandfather to grandson, the father being dead, or from uncle to nephew, the brother being dead, is deemed mediate; the father and the brother be ing, in these latter cases, the medium defevens, as it is called, of the descent or consanguinity. 6 Pet. 102. Descent was denoted, in the Roman law, by the term "successio," which is also used by Bractou, and from which has been derived the succession of the Scotch and French j u risprudence. DESCENT CAST. The devolving of realty upon the heir on the death of his an cestor intestate. DESCRIPTIO PERSON2E. Lat. De scription of the person. By this is meant a word or phrase used merely for the purpose of identifying or pointing out the person in tended, and not as an intimation that the language in connection with which it occurs is to apply to him only in the official or'tech nical character which might appear to be in dicated by the word.

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