Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

DOUBLE "WASTE

392

DOUBLE COMPLAINT

DOUBLE COMPLAINT, or DOUBLE QUARREL. A grievance made known by a clerk or other person, to the archbishop of the province, against the ordinary, for delay ing or refusing to do justice in some cause ecclesiastical, as to give sentence, institute a clerk, etc. It is termed a "double com plaint, " because it is most commonly made against both the judge and him at whose suit justice is denied or delayed; the effect whereof is that the archbishop, taking notice of the delay, directs his letters, under his au thentical seal, to all clerks of his province, commanding them to admonish the ordinary, within a certain number of days, to do the justice required, or otherwise to appear be fore him or his official, and there allege the cause of his delay; and to signify to the ordi nary that if he neither perform the thing en joined, nor appear nor show cause against it, he himself, in his court of audience, will forthwith proceed to do the justice that is due. Cowell. DOUBLE COSTS. In practice. The ordinary single costs of suit, and one-half of that amount in addition. 2 Tidd, Pr. 987. "Double" is not used here in its ordinary sense of "twice" the amount. These costs are now abolished in England by St. 5 & 6 Viet. c. 97. Wharton. DOUBLE DAMAGES. Twice the amount of actual damages as found by the verdict of a jury. DOUBLE EAGLE. A gold coin of the United States of the value of twenty dollars. DOUBLE ENTRY. A system of mer cantile book-keeping, in which the entries in the day-book, etc., are posted twice into the ledger. First, to a personal account, that is, to the account of the person with whom the dealing to which any given entry refers has taken place; secondly, to an impersonal account, as "goods." Mozley & Whitley. DOUBLE PINE. In old English law. A fine sur done grant et render was called a "double fine," because it comprehended the fine sur cognizance de droit come ceo, etc., and the fine sur concessit. 2 Bl. Comm. 353. DOUBLE INSURANCE is where divers Insurances are made upon the same interest in the same subject against the same risks in favor of the same assured, in proportions ex ceeding the value. 1 Phill. Ins. §§ 359, 366. A double insurance exists where the same person is insured by several insurers sepa

rately in respect to the same subject and in terest. Civil Code Cal. § 2641. DOUBLE PLEADING. This is not al lowed either in the declaration or subsequent pleadings. Its meaning with respect to the former is that the declaration must not, is support of a single demand, allege several distinct matters, by any one of which that demand is sufficiently supposed. With re spect to the subsequent —leadings, the mean ing is that none of them is to contain sev eral distinct answers to that which preceded it; and the reason of the rule in each case is that such pleading tends to several issues in respect of a single claim. Wharton. DOUBLE POSSIBILITY. A possi bility upon a possibility. 2 Bl. Comm. 170. DOUBLE RENT. In English law. Bent payable by a tenant who continues in possession after the time for which he has given notice to quit, until the time of his quitting possession. St. 11 Geo. II. c. 19. DOUBLE VALUE. This is a penalty on a tenant holding over after his landlord's notice to quit. By 4 Geo. II. c. 28, § 1, it is enacted that if any tenant for life or years hold over any lands, etc., after the determi nation of his estate, after demand made, and notice in writing given, for delivering the possession thereof, by the landlord, or the person having the reversion or remainder therein, or his agent thereunto lawfully au thorized, such tenant so holding over shall pay to the person so kept out of possession at the rate of double the yearly value of the lands, etc., so detained, for so long a time as the same are detained. See Woodf. Landl. & Ten. (12th Ed.) 717, et seq. DOUBLE VOUCHER. This was when a common recovery was had, and an estate ot freehold was first conveyed to any indif« ferent person against whom the praecipe was biought, and then he vouched the tenant in tail, who vouched over the common vouchee. For, if a recovery were had immediately against a tenant in tail, it barred only the estate in the premises of which he was then actually seised, whereas, if the recovery were had against another person, and the tenant in tail were vouchee, it barred every latent right and interest which he might have in the lands recovered. 2 Bl. Comm. 359. DOUBLE WASTE. When a tenant bound to repair suffers a house to be wasted, and then unlawfully fells timber to repair it,

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