Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

DIES AMORIS

865

DICE

In French law. The report of a Judg ment made by one of the judges who has given it. Poth. Proc. Civil, pt. 1, c. 5, art. 2. DICTUM DE KENILWORTH. The edict or declaration of Kenil worth. An edict or award between King Henry III. and all the barons and others who had been in arms against him; and so called because it was made at Kenilworth Castle, in Warwick shire, in the fifty-first year of his reign, con taining a composition of five years' ic~it for the lands and estates of those who had for feited them in that rebellion. Blount; 2 Eeeve, Eng.Law, 62. DIE WITHOUT ISSUE. See DYING WITHOUT ISSUE. DIEI DICTIO. Lat. In Roman law. This name was given to a notice promulgated by a magistrate of his intention to present an impeachment against a citizen before the peo ple, specifying the day appointed, the name of the accused, and the crime charged. DIEM CLAUSIT EXTREMUM. (Lat. He has closed his last day,—died.) A writ which formerly lay on the death of a tenant in capite, to ascertain the lands of which he died seised, and reclaim them into the king's hands. It was directed to the king's es cheators. Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 251, K; 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 327. A writ awarded out of the exchequer after the death of a crown debtor, the sheriff be ing commanded by it to inquire by a jury when and where the crown debtor died, and what chattels, debts, and lands he had at the time of his decease, and to take and seize them into the crown's hands. 4 Steph. Comm. 47, 48. DIES. Lat. A day; days. Days for ap pearance in court. Provisions or mainte nance for a day. The king's rents were an ciently reserved by so many days' provisions. Spelman; Cowell; Blount. DIES A QUO. (The day from which.) In the civil law. The day from which a transaction begins; the commencement of it; the conclusion being the dies ad quern. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 185. DIES AMORIS. A day of favor. The name given to the appearance day of the term on the fourth day, or quarto die post. It was the day given by the favor and indulgence of the court to the defendant for his appear ance, when all parties appeared in court, and

functions of both judge and jury. The di casts sat together in numbers varying, ac cording to the importance of the case, from one to five hundred. DICE. Small cubes of bone or ivory, marked with figures or devices on their sev eral sides, used in playing certain games of chance. See 55 Ala. 198. DICTATE. To order or instruct what is to be said or written. To pronounce, word by word, what is meant to be written by an other. 6 Mart. (N. S.) 143. DICTATION. In Louisiana, this term is used in a technical sense, and means to pronounce orally what is destined to be writ ten at the same time by another. It is used in reference to nuncupative wills. 16 La. Ann. 220. DICTATOR. A m agistrate i nvested with unlimited power, and created in times of na tional distress and peril. Among the Ro mans, he continued in office for six months only, and had unlimited power and authority over both the property and lives of the citi zens. DICTORES. Arbitrators. DICTUM. In general. A statement, remark, or observation. Gratis dictum; a gratuitous or voluntary representation; one which a party is not bound to make. 2 Kent, Cornm. 486. Simplex dictum; a mere as sertion; an assertion without proof. Bract, fol. 320. The word is generally used as an abbrevi ated form of obiter dictum, "a remark by the way;" that is, an observation or remark made by a judge in pronouncing an opinion upon a cause, concerning some rule, principle, or application of law, or the solution of a ques tion suggested by the case at bar, but not necessarily involved in the case or essential to its determination; any statement of the law enunciated by the court merely by way of illustration, argument, analogy, or sugges tion. Dicta are opinions of a judge which do not em body the resolution or determination of the court, and made without argument, or full consideration of the point, are not the professed deliberate de terminations of the judge himself. Obiter dicta are such opinions uttered by the way, not upon the point or question pending, as if turning aside for the time from the main topic of the case to collat eral subjects. 62 N. Y. 47, 58. In old English, law. Dictum meant an arbitrament, or the award of arbitrators.

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