Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

489

FICTITIOUS ACTION

FEW

FIAT UT PETITUE. Let it be done a» it is asked. A form of granting a petition. FICTIO. In Roman law. A fiction; an assumption or supposition of the law. u Fictio n in the old Roman law was properly a term of pleading, and signified a false averment on the part of the plaintiff which the defendant was not allowed to traverse; as that the plaintiff was a Roman citizen, when in truth he was a for eigner. The object of the fiction was to give the court jurisdiction. Maine, Ano. Law, 25. Fictio cedit veritati. Fictio juris non est ubi veritas. Fiction yields to truth. Where there is truth, fiction of law exists not. Fictio est contra veritatem, sed pro veritate habetur. Fiction is against the truth, but it is to be esteemed truth. Fictio juris non est ubi veritas. Where truth is, fiction of law does not exist. Fictio legis inique operatur alioui damnum vel injuriam. A legal fiction does not properly work loss or injury. 3 Coke, 36; Broom, Max. 129. Fictio legis neminem lsedit. A fiction of law injures no one. 2 Rolle, 502; 3 Bl. Comm. 43; 17 Johns. 348. FICTION. An assumption or supposition of law that something which is or may be false is true, or that a state of facts exists which has never really taken place. A fiction is a rule of law which assumes as true, and will not allow to be disproved, something which is false, but not impossible. Best, Ev. 419. These assumptions are of an innocent or even beneficial character, and are made for the advance ment of the ends of justice. They secure this end chiefly by the extension of procedure from cases to which it is applicable to other cases to which it is not strictly applicable, the ground of inapplica bility being some difference of an immaterial char acter. Brown. Fictions are to be distinguished from pre sumptions of law. By the former, something known to be false or unreal is assumed as true; by the latter, an inference is set up, which may be and probably is true, but which, at any rate, the law will not permit to be controverted. Mr. Best distinguishes legal fictions from pre sumptions juris et de jure, and divides them into three kinds,—affirmative or positivefictions,nega tive fictions, andfictionsby relation. Best, Pres. p. 27, § 24. FICTITIOUS ACTION. Anaction brought for the sole purpose of obtaining the

of heirs. 2 Bl. Comm. 112, note; 1 Washb. Real Prop. 66. FEW. An indefinite expression for a small or limited number. In cases where ex act description is required, the use of this word will not answer. 53 Vt. 600; 2 Car. & P. 300. PI. FA An abbreviation tor fieri facias, (which sec.) FIANCEE,. L. Fr. To pledge one's faitb. Kelham. FIANZA. In Spanish law. A surety or guarantor; the contract or engagement of a surety. FIAR. In Scotch law. He that has the fee or feu. The proprietor is termed "fiar," in contradistinction to the life-renter. 1 Kames, Eq. Pref. One whose property is charged with a Jife-rent. FIARS PRICES. The value of grain in the different counties of Scotland,fixedyearly by the respective sheriffs, in the month of February, with the assistance of juries. These regulate the prices of grain stipulated to be sold at the fiar prices, or when no price has been stipulated. Ersk. 1, 4, 6. FIAT. In English practice. A short or der or warrant of a judge or magistrate di recting some act to be done; an authority is suing from some competent source for the doing of some legal act. One of the proceedings in the English bank rapt practice, being a power, signed by the lord chancellor, addressed to the couit of bankruptcy, authorizing the petitioning cred itor to prosecute his complaint before it. 2 Steph. Comm. 199. By the statute 12 & 13 Viet. c. 116, fiats were abolished. Fiat jus, ruat justitia. Let law prevail, though justice fail. FIAT JUSTITIA. Let justice be done. On a petition to the king for his warrant to bring a writ of error in parliament, he writes on the top of the petition, "Fiat justitia," and then the wiit of error is made out, etc. Jacob. Fiat justitia, ruat coelum. Let right be done, though the heavens should fall. Fiat prout fieri consuevit, (nil temere novandum.) Let it be done-as it hath used to be done, (nothing must be rashly innovat ed.) Jenk. Cent. 116, case 39; Branch, Fine

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