Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

IMPEACHMENT OF WITNESS

594

IMPERTINENT

rait for compensation for waste committed upon lands or tenements by a tenant thereof who, having only a leasehold or particular estate, had no right to commit waste. See 2 Bl. Comm. 283. IMPEACHMENT OF WITNESS. Proof that a witness who has testified in a cause is unworthy of credit. IMPECHIARE. To impeach, to accuse, ^r prosecute for felony or treason. IMPEDIENS. In old practice. One who hinders; an impedient. The defendant or i*eforciant in a fine was sometimes so called. •Jowell; Blount, IMPEDIMENTO. In Spanish law. A prohibition to contract marriage, established * y law between certain persona. IMPEDIMENTS. Disabilities, or hin Irances to the making of contracts, such as coverture, infancy, want of reason, etc. In the civil law. Bars to marriage. Absolute impediments are those which prevent the person subject to them from marrying at all, without either the nullity of marriage or its being punishable. Diri nant impediments are those which render a marriage void; as where one of the contract ing parties is unable to marry by reason of a prior undissolved marriage. Prohibitive impediments are those which do not render the marriage null, but subject the parties to a punishment. Relative impediments are those which regard only certain persons with respect to each other; as between two par ticular persons who are related within the prohibited degrees. Bowyer, Mod. Civil Law, 44,45. IMPEDITOR. In old English law. A disturber in the action of quare impedit. St. Marlb. c. 12. IMPENSJE. Lat. In the civil law. Ex penses; outlays. Mackeld. Bom. Law, § 168; Calvin. Divided into necessary, (necessa rice f ) useful, (utiles,) and tasteful or orna mental, (voluptuaricE.) Dig. 50, 16, 79. See Id. 25, 1. IMPERATIVE. See DIRECTORY. IMPERATOR. Emperor. The title of the Boman emperors, and also of the kings of England before the Norman conquest. Cod. 1, 14, 12; 1 Bl. Comm. 242. See EMPEROR. IMPERFECT OBLIGATIONS. Moral duties, such as charity, gratitude, etc, which eannot be enforced by law.

IMPERFECT RIGHTS. Bf RIGHTS. IMPERFECT TRUST. An executory trust, (which see;) and see EXECUTED TRUST. Imperii majestas est tutelce sains. Co. Litt. 64. The majesty of the empire is the safety of its protection. IMPERITIA. Unskillfulness; want of skill. Imperitia culpse adnumeratur. Want of skill is reckoned as culpa; that is, as blamable conduct or neglect. Dig. 50, 17, 132. Imperitia est maxima mechanicorum poena. Unskillfulness is the greatest pun ishment of mechanics; [that is, from its ef fect in making them liable to those by whom they are employed.] 11 Coke, 54a. The word "poena" in some translations is er roneously rendered "fault." IMPERIUM. The right to command, which includes the right to employ the force of the state to enforce the laws. This is one of the principal attributes of the power of the executive. 1 Toullier, no. 58. IMPERSONALITAS. Impersonality. A mode of expression where no reference is made to any person, such as the expression "ut dicitur," (as is said.) Co. Litt. 3526. Impersonalitas non concludit nee ligat. Co. Litt. 3526. Impersonality nei ther concludes nor binds. IMPERTINENCE. Irrelevancy; the fault of not properly pertaining to the issue or proceeding. The introduction of any mat ters into a bill, answer, or other pleading or proceeding in a suit, which are not properly before the court for decision, at any particular stage of the suit. Story, Eq. PI. § 266. In practice. A question propounded to a witness, or evidence offered or sought to be elicited, is called "impertinent" when it has no logical bearing upon the issue, is not necessarily connected with it, or does not be long to the matter in hand. On the distinc tion between pertinency and relevancy, we may quote the following remark of Dr. Wharton: "Relevancy is that which con duces to the proof of a. pertinent hypothesis; a pertinent hypothesis being one which, if sustained, would logically influence the issue." 1 Whart. Ev. § 20. IMPERTINENT. In equity pleading. That which does not belong to a pleading, in

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