Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

770

MESNE PROCESS

MEMDIES

and usury. It was passed in 1235, (20 Hen. III.,) and was named from Merton, in Surrey, where parliament sat that year. See Bar ring. St. 41, 46. MERUM. In old English law. Mere; naked or abstract. Merum jus, mere right. Bract, fol. 31. MERX. Lat. Merchandise; movable ar ticles that are bought and sold; articles of trade. Merz est quicquid vendi potest. Mer chandise is whatever can be sold. Com. 355; 8 Wood. Lect. 263. MESCREAUNTES. L. Pr. Apostates; unbelievers. MESCROYANT. A term used in the ancient books to designate an infidel or un believer. MESE. A house and its appurtenance. Cowell. MESNE. Intermediate; intervening; the middle between two extremes, especially of rank or time. An intermediate lord; a lord who stood be tween a tenant and the chief lord; a lord who was also a tenant. "Lord, mesne, and ten ant; the tenant holdeth by four pence, and the mesne by twelve pence." Co. Litt. 23a. MESNE ASSIGNMENT. If A. grant a lease of land to B., and B. assign his inter est to C, and C. in his turn assign his inter est therein to D., in this case the assignments so made by B. and C. would be termed "mesne assignments;" that is, they would be as signments intervening between A.'s orig inal grant and the vesting of D.'s interest in the land under the last assignment. Brown. MESNE INCUMBRANCE. An inter mediate charge, burden, or liability; an in cumbrance which has been created or has at tached to property between two given periods. MESNE LORD. In old English law. A middle or intermediate lord; a lord who held of a superior lord. 2 Bl. Comm. 59. More commonly termed a "mesne," (q. v.) MESNE PROCESS. As distinguished from final process, this signifies any writ or process issued between the commencement of the action and the suing out of execution. It includes the writ of summons, (although that is now the usual commencement of actions,) because anciently that was preceded by the original writ.

/nits a felony which includes a tort against a private person, the latter is merged in the former. 1 East, P. C. 411. MERIDIES. In old English law. Noon. Fleta, lib. 5, c 5, § 31. MERITORIOUS CAUSE OP AC TION. This description is sometimes ap plied to a person with whom the ground of action, or the consideration, originated or from whom it moved. For example, where A cause of action accrues to a woman while aole, and i3 sued for, after her marriage, by her husband and herself jointly, she is called the "meritorious cause of action." MERITORIOUS CONSIDERATION. One founded upon some moral obligation; a valuable consideration in the second degree. MERITS. In practice. Matter of sub stance in law, as distinguished from matter of mere form; a substantial ground of defense in law. A defendant is said "to swear to merits" or "to make affidavit of merits" when he makes affidavit that he has a good and sufficient or substantial defense to the action on the merits. 3 Chit. Gen. Pr. 543, 544. "Merits," in this application of it, has the technical sense of merits in law, and is not confined to a strictly moral and conscien tious defense. Id. 545; 1 Burrill, Pr. 214. As used in the New York Code of Procedure, § 349, it has been held to mean "the strict legal rights of the parties, as contradistinguished from those mere questions of practice which every court regulates for itself, and from all matters which depend upon the discretion or favor of the court." 4 How. Pr. 832. A "defense upon the merits" is one which depends upon the inherent justice of the de fendant's contention, as shown by the sub stantial facts of the case, as distinguished from one which rests upon technical objec tions or some collateral matter. Thus there may be a good defense growing out of an error in the plaintiff's pleadings, but there is not a defense upon the merits unless the real nature of the transaction in controversy shows the defendant to be in the right. MERO MOTU. See Ex MEBO MOTTJ; MERE MOTION. MERSCUM. A lake; also a marsh or fen-land. MERTLAG-E. A church calendar or ru bric. Cowell. MERTON, STATUTE OP. An old En glish statute, relating to dower, legitimacy, wardships, procedure, inclosure of common,

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