Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

491

FILACEB

FIEF-TENANT

of knight-service; a knight's fee. 2 Bl. -Comm. 62. FIEF-TENANT. In old English law. The holder of a fief or fee; a feeholder or freeholder. FIEL. In Spanish law. A sequestrator; a person in whose hands a thing in dispute is judicially deposited; a receiver. Las Par tidas, pt. S, tit. 9,1. 1. FIELD. This term might well be con sidered as definite and certain a description as "close," and might be used in law; but it is not a usual description in legal proceed ings. 1 Chit. Gen. Pr. 160. FIELD-ALE. An ancient custom in Eng land, by which officers of the forest and bailiffs of hundreds had the right to compel the hundred to furnish them with ale. Tom lins. FIELD REEVE. An officer elected, in England, by the owners of a regulated past ure to keep in order the fences, ditches, etc., on the land, to regulate the times during which animals are to be admitted to the pasture, and generally to maintain and man age the pasture subject to the instructions of the owners. (General Inclosure Act, 1845, §118.) Sweet. FIELDAD. In Spanish law. Seques tration. This is allowed in six cases by the Spanish law where the title to property is in dispute. Las Partidas, pt. 8, tit. 3,1. 1. FIERDING COURTS. Ancient Gothic courts of an inferior jurisdiction, so called because four were instituted within every inferior district or hundred. 3B1. Comm.34. FIERI. Lat. To be made; to be done. See IN FIERI. FIERI FACIAS. (That you cause to be made.) In practice. A writ of execution commanding the sheriff to levy and make the amount of a judgment from the goods *nd chattels of the judgment debtor. FIERI FACIAS DE BONIS ECCLE SIASTICIS. When a sheriff to a common JL fa. returns nulla bona, and that the de fendant is a beneflced clerk, not having any lay fee, a plaintiff may issue a fi. fa. de bonis •eoclesiasticis, addressed to the bishop of the -diocese or to the archbishop, (during the va cancy of the bishop's see,) commanding him to make of the ecclesiastical goods and chat tels belonging to the defendant within his

diocese the sum thereir mentioned. Archb. Pr. (12th Ed.) 1062.

2 Chit

FIERI FACIAS DE BONIS TESTA TORIS. The writ issued on an ordinary judgment against an executor when sued for a debt due by his testator. If the sheriff re turns to this writ nulla bona, and a devas tavit, (q. v.,) the plaintiff may sue out a fieri facias de bonis propriis, under which the goods of the executor himself are seized. Sweet. FIERI FECI. (I have caused to be made.) In practice. The name given to the return made by a sheriff or other officer to a writ of fieri facias, where he has collected the whole, or a part, of the sum directed to be levied. 2 Tidd, Pr. 1018. The return, as actually made, is expressed by the word "Satisfied" indorsed on the writ. Fieri non debet, (debuit,) sed factum valet. It ought not to be done, but [if] done, it is valid. Shep. Touch, 6; 5 Coke, 39; T. Raym. 58; 1 Strange, 526. A maxim frequently applied in practice. 19 Johns. 84, 92. FIFTEENTHS. In English law. This was originally a tax or tribute, levied at in tervals by act of parliament, consisting of one-fifteenth of all the movable property of the subject or personalty in every city, town ship, and borough. Under Edward III., the taxable property was assessed, and the value of its Qfteenth part (then about £29,000) was recorded in the exchequer, whence the tax, levied on that valuation, continued to be called a "fifteenth," although, as the wealth of the kingdom increased, the name ceased to be an accurate designation of the proportion of the tax to the value taxed. See 1 Bl. Comm. 309. FIGHT. An encounter, with blows or other personal violence, between two persons. See 73 N. C. 155. FIGHTWITE. Sax. A mulct or fine for making a quarrel to the disturbance of the peace. Called also by Cowell "forisfac turapugncB. " The amount was one hundred and twenty shillings. Cowell. FIGURES. The numerical characters by which numbers are expressed or written. FILACER. An officer of the superior courts at Westminster, whose duty it was to file the writs on which he made process. There were fourteen filacers, and it was their duty to make out all original process.

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