Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

721

LIGHTERAGE

LIFE-INTEREST

LIGEA. In old English law. A liege woman; a female subject. Keg. Orig. 3126. LIGEANCE. Allegiance; the faithful obedience of a subject to his sovereign, of a citizen to his government. Also, derivative ly, the territory of a state or sovereignty. LIGEANTIA. Lat. Ligeance; alle giance. Ligeantia est quasi legis essentia; est vinculum fidei. Co. Iitt. 129. Allegiance is, as it were, the essence of law; it is the chain of faith. Ligeantia naturalis nullis claustris coercetur, nullis metis refreenatur, nullis flnibus premitur. 7 Coke, 10. Natural allegiance is restrained by no barriers, reined by no bounds, compressed by no limits. LIGEAS. In old records. A liege. LIGHT. A window, or opening in the wall for the admission of light. Also a priv ilege or easement to have light admitted into one's building by the openings made for that purpose, without obstruction or obscuration by the walls of adjacent or neighboring struct* ures. LIGHT-HOUSE. A structure, usually in the form of a tower, containing signal* lights for the guidance of vessels at night, at dangerous points of a coast, shoals, etc. They are usually erected by government, and subject to governmental regulation. LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD. A commis sion authorized by congress, consisting of two officers of the navy, two officers of the corps of engineers of the army, and two civil ians, together with an officer of the navy and an officer of engineers of the army as secre taries, attached to the office of the secretary of the treasury, at Washington, and charged with superintending the construction and management of light-houses, light-ships, and other maritime signals for protection of com merce. Abbott. LIGHT-SHIP, LIGHT-VESSEL. A vessel serving the purpose of a light-house, usually at a place where the latter could not well be built. LIGHTER. A small vessel used in load ing and unloading ships and steamers. LIGHTERAGE. The business of trans ferring merchandise to and from vessels by means of lighters; also the compensation o> price demanded for such service.

curs) the insurer engages to pay a stipulated sum to the legal representatives of such per son, or to a third person having an insurable interest in the life of such person. LIFE-INTEREST. A claim or interest, not amounting to ownership, and limited by a term of life, either that of the person in whom the right is vested or that of another. LIFE-LAND, or LIFE-HOLD. Land held on a lease for lives. LIFE PEERAGE. Letters patent, con ferring the dignity of baron for life only, do not enable the grantee to sit and vote in the house of lords, not even with the usual writ of summons to the house. Wharton. LIFE POLICY. A policy of life insur ance; a policy of insurance upon the life of an individual. LIFE-RENT. In Scotch law. An es tate for life; a right to the use and enjoy ment of an estate or thing for one's life, but without destruction of its substance. They are either legal, such as terce and curtesy, (q. ©.,) or conventional, i. «., created by act of the parties. Conventional life-rents are either simple, where the owner of an estate grants a life-interest to another, or by reser vation, where the owner, in conveying away the fee, reserves a life-estate to himself. LIFE-RENTER. In Scotch law. A tenant for life without waste. Bell. LIFT. To raise; to take up. To "lift" a promissory note is to discharge its obliga tion by paying its amount or substituting an other evidence of debt. To "lift the bar" of the statute of limitations, or of an estoppel, is to remove the obstruction which it inter poses, by some sufficient act or acknowledg ment. LIGA. In old European law. A league or confederation. Spelman. LIGAN, LAGAN. Goods cast into the sea tied to a buoy, so that they may be found again by the owners, are so denominated. When goods are cast into the sea in storms or shipwrecks, and remain there, without coming to land, they are distinguished by the barbarous names of "jetsam," "flotsam," and "ligan." 5 Coke, 108; Harg. State Tr. 48; 1 Bl. Comm. 292. LIGARE. To tie or bind. Bract, fol. 8696. To enter into a league or treaty. Spelman. •X.DIGT.LAW—16

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