Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

362

DETENTION

DETUN1CARI

pleasure, to the exclusion of all others. It forms the substance of possession in all its varieties. Mackeld. Bom. Law, § 238. DETENTION. The act of keeping back or withholding, either accidentally or by de sign, a person or thing. See DETAINER. DETENTION IN A REFORMA TORY, as a punishment or measure of pre vention, is where a juvenile offender is sen tenced to be sent to a reformatory school, to be there detained for a certain period of time. 1 Buss. Crimes, 82. DETEBMINABLE. That which may cease or determine upon the happening of a certain contingency. 2 Bl. Comm. 121. DETERMINABLE PEE. (Also called a "qualified" or "base" fee.) One which has a qualification subjoined to it, and which must be determined whenever the qualifica tion annexed to it is at an end. 2 Bl. Comm. 109. An estate in fee which is liable to be de termined by some act or event expressed on its limitation to circumscribe its continuance, or inferred by law as bounding its extent. 1 Washb. Beal Prop. 62; 35 Wis. 36. DETERMINABLE FREEHOLDS. Es tates for life, which may determine upon future contingencies betore the life for which they are created expires. As if an estate be granted to a woman during her widowhood, or to a man until he be promoted to a bene fice; in these and similar cases, whenever the contingency happens,—when the widow mar ries, or when the giantee obtains the benefice, —the respective estates are absolutely deter mined and gone. Yet, while they subsist, they are reckoned estates for life; because they may by possibility last for life, if the contingencies upon which they are to deter mine do not sooner happen. 2 Bl. Comm. 121. DETERMINATE. That which is ascer tained; what is particularly designated. DETERMINATION. The decision of a court of justice. The ending or expiration of an estate or interest in property, or of a right, power, or authority. DETERMINE. To come to an end. To bring to an end. 2 Bl. Comm. 121; 1 Washb. Real Prop. 380. DETESTATIO. Lat. In the civil law. A summoning made, or notice given, in the

presence of witnesses, (denuntiatio facta cum testatione.) Dig. 50, 16, 40. DETINET. Lat. He detains. In old English law. A species of action of debt, which lay for the specific recovery of goods, under a contract to deliver them. 1 Beeves, Eng. Law, 159. In pleading. An action of debt is said to be in the detinet when it is alleged merely that the defendant withholds or unjustly de tains from the plaintiff the thing or amount demanded. An action of replevin is said to be in the detinet when the defendant retains posses sion of the property until after judgment in the action. Bull. 2J. P. 52; Chit. PI. 145. DETINUE. In practice. A form of ac tion which lies for the recovery, in specie, of personal chattels from one who acquired possession of them lawfully, but retains it without right, together with damages for the detention. 3 Bl. Comm. 152. The action of detinue is defined in the old books as a remedy founded upon the delivery of goods by the owner to another to keep, who afterwards refuses to redeliver them to the bailor; and it is said that, to authorize the maintenance of the ac tion, it is necessary that the defendant should have come lawfully into the possession of the chattel, either by delivery to him or by finding it. In fact, it was once understood to be the law that detinue does not lie where the property had been tortiously taken. But it is, upon principle, very unimpor tant in what manner the defendant's possession commenced, since the gist of the action is the wrongful detainer, and not the original taking. It is only incumbent upon the plaintiff to prove property in himself, and possession in the defend ant. At present, the action of detinue is proper in every case where the owner prefers recovering the specific property to damages for it9 conversion, and no regard is had to the manner in which the defendant acquired the possession. 9 Port. (Ala.) 151. DETINUE OP GOODS IN FRANK MARRIAGE. A writ formerly available to a wife after a divorce, for the recovery of the goods given with her in marriage. Moz ley & Whitley. DETINUIT. In pleading. An action of replevin is said to be in the detinuit when the plaintiff acquires possession of the prop erty claimed by means of the writ. The right to retain is, of course, subject in such case to the judgment of the court upon his title to the property claimed. Bull. N. P. 521. DETRACTARI. To be torn in pieces by horses. Fleta, I. 1, c. 37. DETUNICARI. To discover or lay open to the world. Matt. Westm. 1240.

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