Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

755

MARITIME LAW

MARKET

or other navigable water, and hence falling within the jurisdiction of a court of admiral ty. The term is never applied to a tort com mitted upon land, though relating to mari time matters. See 3 Wall. 33; 17 Fed. Rep. 387. MARITUS. Lat. A husband; a mar ried man. Calvin. MARK. 1. A character, usually in th« form of a cross, made as a substitute for his signature by a person who cannot write, in executing a conveyance or other legal docu ment. It is commonly made as follows: A third person writes the name of the marks man, leaving a blank space between the Christian name and surname; in this space the latter traces the mark, or crossed lines, and above the mark is written "his," (or "her,") and below it, "mark." 2. The sign, writing, or ticket put upon manufactured goods to distinguish them from others, appearing thus in the compound, "trade-mark." 3. A token, evidence, or proof; as in the phrase "a mark of fraud." 4. A weight used in several parts of Eu rope, and for several commodities, especially gold and silver. When gold and silver are sold by the mark, it is divided into twenty four carats. 5. A money of accounts in England, and in some other countries a coin. The English mark is two-thirds of a pound sterling, or 13s. 4d.; and the Scotch oiaik is of equal value in Scotch money of account. Enc. Amer. 6. In early Teutonic and English law. A species of village community, being the lowest unit in the political system; one of the forms of the gens or clan, variously known as the "mark," "gemeinde," "commune," or "parish." Also the land held in common by such a community. The union of several such village communities and their marks, or common lands, forms the next higher po litical union, the hundred. Freem. Compar. Politics, 116, 117. 7. The word is sometimes used as another form of "margue," a license of reprisals. MARKEPENNY. A penny anciently paid at the town of Maldon by those who had gutters laid or made out of their houses into the streets. Wharton. MARKET. A public time and appointed place of buying and selling; also purchase and sale. It differs from the forum, or mar ket of antiquity, which was a public market

as belongs to a court of admiralty on the in stance side. MARITIME LAW. That system of law which particularly relates to commerce and navigation, to business transacted at sea or relating to navigation, to ships and shipping, to seamen, to the transportation of persons and property by sea, and to marine affairs generally. The law relating to harbors, ships, and seamen. An important branch of the com mercial law of maritime nations; divided into a variety of departments, such as those about harbors, property of ships, duties and rights of masters and seamen, contracts of affreight ment, average, salvage, etc. Wharton. MARITIME LIEN. A lien arising out of damage done by a ship in the course of navigation, as by collision, which attaches to the vessel and freight, and is to be enforced by an action in rem in the admiralty courts. MARITIME LOAN. A contract or agreement by which one, who is the lender, lends to another, who is the borrower, a cer tain sum of money, upon condition that if the thing upon which the loan has been made should be lost by any peril of the sea, or via major, the lender shall not be repaid unless what remains shall be equal to the sum bor rowed; and if the thing arrive in safety, or in case it shall not have been injured but by its own defects or the fault of the master or mariners, the borrower shall be bound to re turn the sum borrowed, together with a cer tain sum agreed upon as the price of the haz ard incurred. Emerig. Mar. Loans, c 1, s.2. MARITIME PROFIT. A term used by French writers to signify any profit de rived from a maritime loan. MARITIME SERVICE. In admiralty law. A service rendered upon the high seas or a navigable river, and which has some re lation to commerce or navigation,—some connection with a vessel employed in trade, with her equipment, her preservation, or the preservation of her cargo or crew. 4 Woods, 267, 16 Fed. Rep. 924. MARITIME STATE, in English law, consists of the officers and mariners of the British navy, who are governed by express and permanent laws, or the articles of the navy, established by act of parliament. MARITIME TORT. A tort committed apon the high seas, or upon a navigable river

Archive CD Books USA