Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

LEX WISIGOTHORUM

713

LIBELEE

LEX WISIGOTHORUM. The law of the "Visigoths, or Western Goths who settled in Spain; first reduced to writing A. D. 466. A revision of these laws was made by Egigas. Spelman. LET. In Spanish law. A law; the law; law in the abstract. LEY CIVILE. In old English law. The civil or Roman law. Yearb. H. 8 Edw. III. 42. Otherwise termed "ley escripte," the written law. Yearb. 10 Edw. III. 24. LEY GAGER. L. Fr. Law wager; wager of law; the giving of gage or security by a defendant that he would make or perfect his law at a certain day. Litt. § 514; Co. Litt. 2946, 295a. LEYES DE ESTILO. In Spanish law. A collection of laws, usually published as an appendix to the Fuero Real; treating of the mode of conducting suits, prosecuting them to judgment, and entering appeals. Schm. Civil Law, Introd. 74. LEZE-MAJESTY. An offense against sovereign power; treason; rebellion. LIABILITY. The state of being bound or obliged in law or justice to do, pay, or make good something; legal responsibility. 86 Iowa, 226; 36 K. J. Law, 145; 57 Cal. 209. LIABLE. 1. Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; chargeable; answerable; eompellable to make satisfaction* compensa tion, or restitution. 2. Exposed or subject to a given contin gency, risk, or casualty, which is more or less probable. LIARD. A farthing. LIBEL, v. In admiralty practice. To pro ceed against, by filing a libel; to seize under admiralty process, at the commencement of a auit. Also to defame or inj ure a person's reputation by a published writing. LIBEL, n. In practice. The initiatory pleading on the part of the plaintiff or com plainant in an admiralty or ecclesiastical cause, corresponding to the declaration, bill, or complaint. In the Scotch law it is the form of the complaint or ground of the charge on which either a civil action or criminal prosecution takes place. Bell. In torts. That which is written or printed, and published, calculated to injure the character of anothei by bunging him into

ridicule, hatred, or contempt. 15 Mees. & W. 344. Libel is a false and unprivileged publica tion by writing, printing, picture, effigy, or other fixed representation to the eye which exposes any person to hatred, contempt, ridi cule, or obloquy, or which causes him to be shunned or avoided, or which has a tendency to injure him in his occupation. Civil Code Cal. § 45. A libel is a false and malicious defamation of another, expressed in print or writing or pictures or signs, tending to injure the repu tation of an individual, and exposing him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. The publication of the libelous matter is essential to recovery. Code Ga. 1882, § 2974. A libel is a malicious defamation, expressed either by writing, printing, or by signs or pictures, or the like, tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation, or publish the natural or alleged defects, of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. Fen. Code Cal. § 248; Rev. Code Iowa 1880. § 4097; Bac. Abr. tit. M Libel;" 1 Hawk. P. C. 1, 73, § 1; 4 Mass. 163; 2 Pick. 113; 25 Wend. 198; 7 Cow. 613. A libel is a censorious or ridiculing writing, picture, or sign made with a mischievous intent. 4 McCord, 317; 3 Johns. Cas. 854; 9 Johns. 215; 5 Bin. 340; 63 Me. 295. Any publication the tendency of which is to de grade or injure another person, or to bring him in to contempt, ridicule, or hatred, or which accuses him of a crime punishable by law, or of an act odious and disgraceful in society, is a libel. 4 Mason, 115; 3 How. 266, 291. A libel is a publication, without justification or lawful excuse, of words calculated to injure the reputation of another, and expose him to hatred or contempt. 5 Biss. 330. Everything, written or printed, which re» fleets on the character of another, and is pub lished without lawful justification or excuse, is a libel, whatever the intention may have been. 15 Mees. & W. 435. LIBEL OF ACCUSATION. In Scotch law. The instrument which con tains the charge against a person accused of a crime. Libels are of two kinds, name ly, indictments and criminal letters. LIBELANT. The complainant or party who files a libel in an ecclesiastical or admi ralty case, corresponding to the plaintiff in actions at law. LIBELEE. A party against whom a libel has been filed in an ecclesiastical court or in admiralty.

Archive CD Books USA