Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

68

AMOUNT OF LOSS

AMITINUS

gotten a crime or misdemeanor; the latter is an act of the same authority, which exempts the in dividual on whom it is bestowed from the punish ment the law inflicts for the crime he has com mitted. Bouvier. AMONG. Intermingled with. "A thing which is among others is intermingled with them. Commerce among the states cannot stop at the external boundary line of each state, but may be introduced into the in terior." 9 Wheat. 194. Where property is directed by will to be distributed among several persons, it cannot be all given to one, nor can any of the per sons be wholly excluded-from the distribu tion. 6 Munf. 352. AMORTIZATION. An alienation of lands or tenements in mortmain. The re duction of the property of lands or tenements to mortmain. In its modern sense, amortization is the operation of paying off bonds, stock, or other indebtedness of a state or corporation. Sweet. AMORTIZE. To alien lands in mort main. AMOTIO. In the civil law. A moving or taking away. "The slightest amotio is sufficient to constitute theft, if the animu* furandi be clearly established." 1 Swint. 205. AMOTION. A putting or turning out; dispossession of lands. Ouster is an amotion of possession. 3 Bl. Comm. 199, 208. A moving or carrying away; the wrongful taking of personal chattels. Archb. Civil PI. Introd. c. 2, § 3. In corporation law. The act of remov ing an officer, or official representative, of a corpoiation from his office or official station, before the end of the term for which he was elected or appointed, but without de priving him of membership in the body cor porate. In this last respect the term differs from "disfranchisement," (or expulsion,) which imports the removal of the party from the corporation itself, and his deprivation of all rights of membership. AMOUNT COVERED. In insurance. The amount that is insured, and for which underwriters are liable for loss under a policy of insurance. AMOUNT OP LOSS. In insurance. The diminution, destruction, or defeat of the value of, or of the charge upon, the insured subject to the assured, by the direct conse quence of the operation of the risk insured

major. A great-great aunt on the father's side. Amita maxima. A great-great-great aunt, or a great-great-grandfather's sister. Calvin. AMITINUS. The child of a brother or sister; a cousin; one who has the same grand father, but different father and mother. Cal vin. AMITTERE. Lat. In the civil law. To lose. Hence the old Scotch "amitt." AMITTERE CURIAM. To lose the court; to be deprived of the privilege of at tending the court. AMITTERE LEGEM TERRAS. To lose the protection afforded by the law of the land. AMITTERE LIBERAM LEGEM. To lose one's frank-law. A term having the same meaning as amittere legem terrce, (q. ©.) He who lost his law lost the protection ex tended by the law to a freeman, and became subject to the same law as thralls or serfs at tached to the land. AMNESTY. A sovereign act of pardon and oblivion for past acts, granted by a gov ernment to all persons (or to certain persons) who have been guilty of crime or delict, gen erally political offenses,—treason, sedition, rebellion,—and often conditioned upon their return to obedience and duty within a pre scribed time. A declaration of the person or persons who have newly acquired or recovered the sov ereign power in a state, by which they par don all persons who composed, supported, or obeyed the government which has been over thrown. The word "amnesty" properly belongs to international law, and is applied to treaties of peace following a state of war, and signi fies there the burial in oblivion of the par ticular cause of strife, so that that shall not be again a cause for war between the parties; and this signification of "amnesty" is fully and poetically expressed in the Indian custom of burying the hatchet. And so amnesty is applied to rebellions which by their magni tude are brought within the rules of interna tional law, and in which multitudes of men are the subjects of the clemency of the gov ernment. But in these cases, and in all oases, it means only "oblivion," and never expresses or implies a grant. 10 Ct. of Cl. 407. "Amnesty" and "pardon" are very different. The former is an act of the sovereign power, the object of which is to efface and to cause to be for

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