Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

DIVINE SERVICE

381

DISTURBER

DISTURBER. If a bishop refuse or n eg lect to examine or admit a patron's clerk, without reason assigned or notice given, he is styled a "disturber" by the law, and shall not have any title to present by lapse; for no man shall take advantage of his own wrong. 2 Bl. Comm. 278. DITCH. The words "ditch" and "drain" have no technical or exact meaning. They both may mean a hollow space in the ground, natural or artificial, where water is collected or passes off. 5 Gray, 64. DITES OUSTER. L. Fr. Say over. The form of awarding a respondeas ouster, in the Year Books. M. 6 Edw. III. 49. DITTAY. In Scotch law. A technical ierm in civil law, signifying the matter of charge or ground of indictment against a per son accused of crime. Taking up dittay is obtaining informations and presentments of crime in order to trial. Skene, de Verb. Sign.; Bell. DIVERSION. A turning aside or alter ing the natural course of a tiling. The term is chiefly applied to the unauthorized chang ing the course of a water-course to the prej udice of a lower proprietor. DIVERSITE DES COURTS. A trea tise on courts and their jurisdiction, written in French in the reign of Edward III. as is supposed, and by some attributed to Fitzher bert. It was first printed in 1525, and again in 1534. Crabb, Eng. Law, 330, 483. DIVERSITY. In criminal pleading. A plea by the prisoner in bar of execution, al leging that he is not the same who was at tainted, upon which a jury is immediately impaneled to try the collateral issue thus raised, viz., the identity of the person, and not whether he is guilty or innocent, for that has been alieady decided. 4 Bl. Comm, 396. DIVERSO INTUITU. Lat. With a different view, purpose, or design; in a dif ferent view or point of view; by a different course or process. 1 W. Bl. 89; 4 Kent, Comm. 211, note. DIVERSORIUM. In old English law. A lodging or inn. Townsh. PL 38. DIVERT. To turn aside; to turn out of the way; to alter the course of things. Usu ally applied to water-courses. Ang. Water Courses, § 97, et seq. Sometimes to roads. 8 East, 394.

DIVES. In the practice of the English chancery division, "dives costs" are costs on the ordinary scale, as opposed to the costs formerly allowed to a successful pauper suing or defending in forma pauperis, and which consisted only of his costs out of pocket. Daniell, Ch. Pr. 43. DIVEST. Equivalent to devest, {g. v.) DIVESTITIVE FACT. A fact by means of which a right is divested, terminat ed, or extinguished; as the right of a tenant terminates with the expiration of his lease, and the right of a creditor is at an end when his debt has been paid. Holl. Jur. 132. Divide et impera, cum radix et vertex imperii in obedientium consensu rata sunt. 4Inst. 35. Divide and govern, since the foundation and crown of empire are es tablished in the consent of the obedient. DIVIDEND. A fund to be divided. The share allotted to each of several persons entitled to share in a division of profits or property. Thus, dividend may denote a fund set apart by a corporation out of its profits, to be apportioned among the share holders, or the proportional amount falling to each. In bankruptcy or insolvency prac tice, a dividend is a proportional payment to the creditors out of the insolvent estate. In old English law. The term denotes one part of an indenture, (q. ©.) DIVIDENDA. In old records. An in denture; one counterpart of an indenture. DIVINARE. Lat. To divine; to con jecture or guess; to foretell. Divinatio, a conjecturing or guessing. Divinatio, non interpretatio est, quse omnino recedit a litera. That is guess ing, not interpretation, which altogether de parts from the letter. Bac. Max. 18, (in reg. 3,) citing Yearb. 3 Hen. VI. 20. DIVINE SERVICE. Divine service was the name of a feudal tenure, by which the tenants were obliged to do some special divine services in certain; as to sing so many masses, to distribute such a sum in alms, and the like. (2 Bl. Comm. 102; 1 Steph. Comm. 227.) It differed from tenure in frarikalmoign, in this: that, in case of the tenure by divine service, the lord of whom the lands were holden might distrain for its non-performance, whereas, in case olfrank almoign, the lord has no remedy by distraint for neglect of the service, but merely a right

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