Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

769

MERCHANTS, STATUTE OP

MERGES

ity by the plaintiff or defendant in the suit. 3 Chit. Gen. Pr. 430. MERE RIGHT. The mere right of property in land; the jus proprietatis, with out either possession or even the right of possession. 2 Bl. Comm. 197. The abstract right of property. MERE-STONE. In old English law. A stone for bounding or dividing lands. Yearb. P. 18 Hen. VI. 5. MERENNIUM. In old records. Tim ber. Cowell. MERETRICIOUS. Of the nature of unlawful sexual connection. The term is descriptive of the relation sustained by per sons who contract a marriage that is void by reason of legal incapacity. 1 Bl. Comm. 436. MERGER. The fusion or absorption of one thing or right into another; generally spoken of a case where one of the subjects is of less dignity or importance than the other. Here the less important ceases to have an independent existence. In real-property law. It is a general principle of law that where a greater estate and a less coincide and meet in one and the same person, without any intei mediate estate, the less is immediately annihilated, or, in the law phrase, is said to be merged, that is, sunk or drowned, in the greater. Thus, if there be tenant for years, and the reversion in fee-simple descends to or is purchased by him, the term of yeais is merged in the in heritance, and shall never exist any more. 2 Bl. Comm. 177; 1 Steph. Comm. 293; 4 Kent, Comm. 99. Of rights. This term, as applied to rights, is equivalent to "confusio" in the Human law, and indicates that where the qualities of debtor and creditor become unit ed in the same individual, there arises a con fusion of rights which extinguishes both qualities; whence, also, merger is often called "extinguishment." Brown. Rights of action. In the law relating to rights of action, when a person takes or ac quires a remedy or security of a higher nat ure, in legal estimation, than the one which he already possesses for the same right, then his remedies in respect of the minor right or security merge in those attaching to the higher one. Leake, Cont. 506; 10 C. B. 561. As where a claim is merged in the judgment recovered upon it. In criminal law. When a man commits a great crime which includes a lesser, or com

MERCHANTS, STATUTE OF. The English statute 13 Edw. I. St. 3, repealed by 26 & 27 Viet. c. 125. MERCHET. In feudal law. A fine or composition paid by inferior tenants to the lord for liberty to dispose of their daughters in marriage. Cowell. The same as mar cheta (q. v.) MERCIAMENT. An amerciament, pen alty, or fine, (q. «.) MERCIMONIA. In old writs. Wares. Mercimonia et merchandizas, wares and mer chandises. Reg. Brev. Append. 10. MERCIMONIATUS ANGLIiE. In old records. The impost of England upon merchandise. Cowell. Mercis appellatio ad res mobiles tan tum pertinet. The term "merchandise" belongs to movable things only. Pig. 50, 16, 66. Mercis appellatione homines non con tineri. Men are not included under the de nomination of "merchandise." Dig. 50, 16, 207. MERCY. In practice. The arbitra ment of the king or judge in punishing of fenses not directly censured by law. Jacob. So, "to be in mercy" signifies to be amerced or fined for bringing or defending an un just suit, or to be liable to punishment in the discretion of the court. In criminal law. The discretion of a judge, within the limits prescribed by posi tive law, to remit altogether the punishment to which a convicted person is liable, or to mitigate the severity of his sentence; as when a jury recommends the prisoner to the me icy of the court. MERE. Sax. A marsh. Spelman. MERE. L. Fr. Mother. 2Ele, mere, /Me, grandmother, mother, daughter. Britt. c. 89. En ventre sa mere, in its mother's womb. MURE MOTION. The free and volun tary act of a party himself, done without the suggestion or influence of another person, is said to be done of his mere motion, ex mero motu, (q. v.) Brown. The phrase is used of an interference of the courts of law, who will, under some cir cumstances, of their own motion, object to an irregularity in the proceedings, though no objection has been taken to the informal AM. DICT. LAW—49

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