Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

402

DURANTE VIDUITATE

DUTY

& 7 Wm. IV. c. 19, vested it as a separate franchise and royalty in the crown. The ju risdiction of the Durham court of pleas was transferred to the supreme court of judica ture by the judicature act of 1873. DURSLEY. In old English law. Blows without wounding or bloodshed; dry blows. Blount. DUSTUCK. A term used in Hindostan for a passport, permit, or order from the En glish East Indian Company. It generally meant a permit under their seal, exempting goods from the payment of duties. Enc. Lond. DUTCH AUCTION. A method of sale by auction which consists in the public offer of the property at a price beyond its value, and then gradually lowering the price until some one becomes the purchaser. 28 Ohio St. 482. DUTIES. In its most usual signification this word is the synonym of imposts or cus toms; but it is sometimes used in a broader sense, as including all manner of taxes, charges, or governmental impositions. DUTY. In its use in jurisprudence, this word is the correlative of right. Thus, wherever there exists a right in any person, there also rests a corresponding duty upon some other person or upon all persons gener ally. But it is also used, in a wider sense, to designate that class of moral obligations which lie outside the jural sphere; such, namely, as rest upon an imperative ethical basis, but have not been recognized by the law as within its proper province for pur poses of enforcement or redress. Thus, gratitude towards a benefactor is a duty, but its refusal will not ground an action. In this meaning "duty" is the equivalent of "moral obligation," as distinguished from a "legal obligation." As a technical term of the law, "duty" signifies a thing due; that which is due from a person; that which a person owes to anoth er. An obligation to do a thing. A word of more extensive signification than "debt," although both are expressed by the same Latin word "debitum." 26 Vt 725, 733. But in practice it is commonly reserved as the designation of those obligations of per formance, care, or observance which rest up on a person in an official or fiduciary capac ity; as the duty of an executor, trustee, man ager, etc. It also denotes a tax or impost due to the

DURANTB VIDUITATE. During widowhood. 2 Bl. Gomm. 124. Durante casta viduitate, during chaste widowhood. 10 East, 520. DURBAR. In India. A court, audience, or levee. Mozley & Whitley. DURESS, t>. To subject to duress. A word used by Lord Bacon. "If the party duressed do make any motion," etc. Bac. Max. 89, reg. 22. DURESS, n. Unlawful constraint exer cised upon a man whereby he is forced to do some act against his will. It may be either "duress of imprisonment," where the person is deprived of his liberty in order to force him to compliance, or by violence, beating, or other actual injury, or duress per minas, consisting in threats of imprisonment or great physical injury or death. Duress may also include the same injuries, threats, or restraint exercised upon the man's wife, child, or parent. Duress consists in any illegal imprison ment, or legal imprisonment used for an ille gal purpose, or threats of bodily or other harm, or other means amounting to or tend ing to coerce the will of another, and actu ally inducing him to do an act contrary to his free will. Code Ga. 1882, § 2637. By duress, in its more extended sense, is meant that degree of severity, either threatened or im pending or actually inflicted, which is sufficient to overcome the mind and will of a person of ordina ry firmness. Duress per minas is restricted to fear of loss of life, or of mayhem, or loss of limb, or other remediless harm to the person. 89 Me. 659. DURESS OF IMPRISONMENT. The wrongful imprisonment of a person, or the illegal restraint of his liberty, in order to compel him to do some act. 1 Bl. Comm. 130, 181, 136, 137; 1 Steph. Comm. 137; 2 Kent, Comm. 453. DURESS PER MINAS. Duress by threats. The use of threats and menaces to compel a person, by the fear of death, or grievous bodily harm, as mayhem or loss of limb, to do some lawful act, or to commit a misdemeanor. 1 Bl. Comm. 130; 4 Bl. Comm. 30; 4 Steph. Comm. 83. See METUS. DURESSOR. One who subjects another to duress; one who compels another to do a thing, as by menace. Bac. Max. 90, reg. 22. DURHAM. A county palatine in Eng land, the jurisdiction of which was vested In the Bishop of Durham until the statute 6

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