Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

867

DILAPIDATION

DIETA

for the trial of a criminal cause. A criminal cause as prepared for trial. DIETA. A day's journey; a day's work; a day's expenses. DIETS OP COMPEARANCE. In Scotch law. The days within which parties in civil and criminal prosecutions are cited to appear. Bell. DIEU ET MON DROIT. Fr. God and my right. The motto of the royal arms of England, first assumed by Richard I. DIEU SON ACTE. L. Fr. In old law. God his act; God's act. An event beyond human foresight or control. Termes de la Ley. DIFFACERE. To destroy; to disfigure or deface. Difficile est ut unus homo vicem duorum sustineat. 4 Coke, 118. It is diffi cult that one man should sustain the place of two. DIFFORCIARE. In old English law. To deny, or keep from one. Difforciare rec tum, to deny justice to any one, after having been required to do it. DIGAMA, or DIGAMY. Second mar riage; marriage to a second wife after the death of the first, as "bigamy," in law, is having two wives at once. Originally, a man who married a widow, or married again after the death of his wife, was said to be guilty of bigamy. Co. Litt. 406, note. DIGEST. A collection or compilation, embodying the chief matter of numerous books in one, disposed under proper heads or titles, and usually by an alphabetical arrange ment, for facility in reference. As a legal term, "digest" is to be distinguished from "abridgment." The latter is a summary or epitome of the contents of a single work, in which, as a rule, the original order or sequence of parts is preserved, and in which the principal labor of the compiler is in the matter of consolidation. A di gest is wider in its scope; is made up of quota tions or paraphrased passages; and has its own system of classification and arrangement. An "in dex" merely points out the places where particu lar matters may be found, without purporting to give such matters in extenso. A "treatise" or "commentary" is not a compilation, but an orig inal composition, though it may include quotations and excerpts. A reference to the "Digest," or "Dig.," is always understood to designate the Digest (or Pandects) of the Justinian collection; that being the digest par eminence, and the authoritative compilation of the Roman law.

DIGESTA. Digests. One of the titles of the Pandects of Justinan. Inst. procem* § 4. Bracton uses the singular, "Dige$- tum." Bract, fol. 19. DIGESTS. The ordinary name of the Pandects of Justinian, which are now usual ly cited by the abbreviation "Dig." instead of "Ff.," as formerly. Sometimes called "Digest," in the singular. DIGGING. Has been held as synony mous with "excavating," and not confined to the removal of earth. 1 N. Y. 316. DIGNITARY. In canon law. A per son holding an ecclesiastical benefice or dig nity, which gave him some pre-eminence above mere priests and canons. To this class exclusively belonged all bishops, deans, arch deacons, etc.; but it now includes all the prebendaries and canons of the church. Brande. DIGNITY. In English law. An honor; a title, station, or distinction of honor. Dig nities are a species of incorporeal heredita ments, in which a person may have a prop erty or estate. 2 Bl. Comm. 37; 1 Bl. Comm. 396; 1 Crabb, Real Prop. 468, et seq. DIJUDICATION. Judicial decision or determination. DILACION. In Spanish law. A space of time granted to a party to a suit in which to answer a demand or produce evidence of a disputed fact. DILAPIDATION. A species of ecclesi astical waste which occurs whenever the in cumbent suffers any edifices of his ecclesias tical living to go to ruin or decay. It is either voluntary, by pulling down, or per missive, by suffering the church, parsonage houses, and other buildings thereunto be longing, to decay. And the remedy for either lies either in the spiritual court, where the canon law prevails, or in the courts of common law. It is also held to be good cause of deprivation if the bishop, parson, or other ecclesiastical person dilapidates build ings or cuts down timber growing on the patrimony of the church, unless for necessa ry repairs; and that a writ of prohibition will also lie against him in the common-law courts. 3 Bl. Comm. 91. The term is also used, in the law of land lord and tenant, to signify the neglect of necessary repairs to a building, or suffering it to fall into a state of decay, or the pulling down of the building or any part of it.

Archive CD Books USA