Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

INNOMINATE CONTRACTS

INOFFICIOUS TESTAMENT

626

term applied to those contracts for which no certain or precise remedy was appointed, but a general action on the case only. Dig. 2,1, 4,7,2; Id. 19,4,5. INNOMINATE CONTRACTS, literal ly, are the "unclassified" contracts of Ro man law. They are contracts which are neither re, verbis, literis, nor consensu simply, but some mixture of or variation upon two or more of such contracts. They are principally the contracts of permutatio, de cestimato, precarium, and transactio. Brown. INNONIA. In old English law. A close or inclosure, (clausum, inclausura.) Spel man. INNOTESCIMUS. Lat. Wemake known. A term formerly applied to letters patent, derived from the emphatic word at the conclusion of the Latin forms. It was a species of exemplification of charters of feoffment or other instruments not of record. 5 Coke, 54a. INNOVATION. In Scotch law. The exchange of one obligation for another, so as to make the second obligation come in the place of the first, and be the only subsisting obligation against the debtor. Bell. The same with "novation," (q. v.) INNOXIARE. In old English law. To purge one of a fault and make him innocent. INNS OF CHANCERY. So called be cause anciently inhabited by such clerks as chiefly studied the framing of writs, which regularly belonged to the cursitors, who were officers of the court of chancery. There are nine of them,—Clement's, Clifford's, and Lyon's Inn; Furnival's, Thavies, and Sy mond's Inn; New Inn; and Barnard's and Staples' Inn. These were formerly prepara tory colleges for students, and many entered them before they were admitted into the inns of court. They consist chiefly of solicitors, and possess corporate property, hall, cham bers, etc., but perform no public functions like the inns of court. Wharton. INNS OF COURT. These are certain private unincorporated associations, in the nature of collegiate houses, located in Lon don, and invested with the exclusive privi lege of calling men to the bar; that is, con ferring the rank or degree of a barrister. They were founded probably about the be ginning of the fourteenth century. The principal inns of court are the Inner Temple,

Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray'i Inn. (The two former originally belonged to the Knights Templar; the two latter to the earls of Lincoln and Gray respectively.) These bodies now have a "common council of legal education," for giving lectures and hold ing examinations. The inns of chancery, distinguishable from the foregoing, but gen erally classed with them under the general name, are the buildings known as "Clifford's Inn," "Clement's Inn," "New Inn," "Star pies' Inn," and "Barnard's Inn." They were formerly a sort of collegiate houses in which law students learned the elements of law be fore being admitted into the inns of court, but they have long ceased to occupy that po sition. INNUENDO. This Latin word (com monly translated "meaning") was the tech nical beginning of that clause in a declaration or indictment for slander or libel in which the application of the language charged to the plaintiff was pointed out. Hence it gave its name to the whole clause; and this usage is still retained, although an equivalent En glish word is now substituted. Thus, it may be charged that the defendant said " he (mean ing the said plaintiff) is a perjurer." The word is also used, (though more rarely,) in other species of pleadings, to introduce an explanation of a preceding word, charge, or averment. It is said to mean no more than the words "idest," "scilicet," or "meaning," or "afore said," as explanatory of a subject-matter sufficiently expressed before; as "sucha one, meaning the defendant," or "such a subject, meaning the subject in question." Cowp. 683. It is only explanatory of some matter already expressed. It serves to point out where theie is precedent matter, but never for a new charge. It may apply what is already expressed, but cannot add to or en large or change the sense of the previous words. 1 Chit. PI. 422. INOFFICIOSUM. In the civil law. Inofficious; contrary to natural duty or affec tion. Used of a will of a parent which dis inherited a child without just cause, or that of a child which disinherited a parent, and which could be contested by querela inofficv on testamenti. Dig. 2, 5, 3, 13; Paulus, lib. 4, tit. 5, § 1. INOFFICIOUS TESTAMENT. A will not in accordance with the testator's natural affection and moral duties. Williams, Ex'rs, (7th Ed.) 38.

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