Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

808

NEGOTIABLE WORDS

NEGLIGENCE

une for a companion. Co. Litt. 2466; Shep. Touch. 470. NEGOCE. Fr. Business; trade; man agement of affairs. NEGOTIABILITY. In mercantile law. Transferable quality. That quality of bills of exchange and promissory notes which renders them transferable from one person to another, and from possessing which they are emphatically termed "negotiable paper." 3 Kent, Comrn. 74, 77, 89, et seq. See Story, Bills, § 60. NEGOTIABLE. The word "negotia tion," as used by writers upon mercantile law, means the act by which a bill of ex change or promissory note is put into circu lation, by being passed by one of the oi lginal parties to another person. "Negotiable" means that which is capable of being trans ferred by assignment; a thing which may be transferred by a sale and indorsement or de livery. This negotiable quality transfers the debt from the party to whom it was original ly owing, to the holder, when the instrument is properly indorsed, so as to enable the lat ter to sue, in his own name, either the mak er of a promissory note or the acceptor of a bill of exchange, and the other parties to such instruments, such as the drawer of a bill, or the indorser of a bill or note, unless the holder has been guilty of laches in giving the required notice. It must, however, he pay able to order or bearer, and, at all events, in money only, and not out of any particular fund. 60 Ind. 250. NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS. A general name for bills, notes, checks, trans ferable bonds or coupons, letters of credit, and other negotiable written securities. Any written securities which may be trans ferred by indorsement and delivery or by de livery merely, so as to vest in the indorsee the legal title, and thus enable him to sue thereon in his own name. Or, more technic ally, those instruments which not only carry the legal title with them by indorsement or delivery, but carry as well, when transferred before maturity, the right of the transferee to demand the full amounts which their faces call for. Daniel, Neg. Inst. § la. A negotiable instrument is a written prom ise or request for the payment of a certain sum of money to order or bearer. Civil Code Cal. § 3087. NEGOTIABLE WORDS. Words and phrases which impart the character of nego

conduct of the prudent or careful or diligent man. Bigelow, Torts, 261. The failure to observe, for the protection of the interests of another person, that degree of care, precaution, and vigilance which the circumstances justly demand, whereby such other person suffers injury. Cooley, Torts, 680. The failure to do what a reasonable and prudent person would ordinarily have done under the cir cumstances of the situation, or the doing what such a person under the existing circumstances would not have done. 95 U. S. 441. The opposite of care and prudence; the omission to use the means reasonably necessary to avoid in jury to others. 39 111. 353. Negligence or carelessness signifies want of care, caution, attention, diligence, or discretion in one having no positive intention to injure the per son complaining thereof. The words "reckless," "indifferent," "careless," and "wanton" are never understood to signify positive will or intention, unless when joined with other words which show that they are to receive an artificial or unusual, if not an unnatural, interpretation. 10 Bush, 677. Negligence is any culpable omission of a posi tive duty. It differs from heedlessness, in that heedlessness is the doing of an act in violation of a negative duty, without adverting to its possible consequences. In both cases there is inadvert ence, and there is breach of duty. Aust. Jur. § 630. Negligence is commonly classed under three degrees,—slight, ordinary, and gross. Slight negligence consists in the want of great care and diligence; ordinary negli gence, in the want of ordinary care and dili gence; and gross negligence, in the want of slight care and diligence. Civil Code Dak. § 2102. See, further, CARE; GROSS NEGLI GENCE; SLIGHT NEGLIGENCE. Negligence cannot be considered "gross" unless evidenced by an entire failure to exercise care, or by the exercise of so slight a degree of care as to justify the belief that the person on whom care was incumbent was indifferent to the interest and welfare of others. 64 Tex. 156. NEGLIGENT ESCAPE. An escape from confinement effected by the prisoner without the knowledge or connivance of the keeper of the prison, but which was made possible or practicable by the latter's negli gence, or by his omission of such care and vigilance as he was legally bound to exercise in the safe-keeping of the prisoner. NEGLIGENTLY. Lat. In the civil law. Carelessness; inattention; the omission of proper care or forethought. The term is not exactly equivalent to our "negligence," in asmuch as it was not any negligentia, but only a high or gross degree of it, that amounted to culpa, (actionable or punisha ble fault.) Negligentia semper habet infortunium comitem. Negligence always has misfort

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