Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

PEERS

888

PENALTY

Equals; those who are a man's equals in rank and station; this being the meaning in the phrase "trial by a Jury of his peers." PEERS OF FEES. Vassals or tenants of the same lord, who were obliged to serve and attend him in his courts, being equal in function. These were termed "peers of fees," because holding fees of the lord, or because their business in court was to sit and judge, under their lords, of disputes arising upon fees; but, if there were too many in one lord ship, the lord usually chose twelve, who had the title of peers, by way of distinction; whence, it if said, we derive our common juries and other peers. Cowell. PEINE FOBTE ET DURE. L.Fr. In old English law. A special form of punish ment for those who, being arraigned for fel ony, obstinately "stood mute;" that is, refused to plead or to put themselves upon trial. It is described as a combination of solitary con finement, slow starvation, and crushing the naked body with a great load of iron. This atrocious punishment was vulgarly called " pressing to death." See 4 Bl. Com m. 324 328; Britt. cc. 4, 22; 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 134; Cowell. PELA. A peal, pile, or fort. Cowell. PELES. Issues arising from or out of a thing. Jacob. PELFE, or PELFRE. Booty; also the personal effects of a felon convict. Cowell. PELLAGE. The custom or duty paid for skins of leather. PELLEX. Lat. In Roman law. A con cubine. Dig. 50, 16, 144. PELLICIA. A pilch or surplice. Spel man. PELLIPARIUS. A leather-seller or skin ner. Jacob. PELLOTA. The ball of a foot. 4 Inst. 308. PELLS, CLERK OF THE. An officer in the English exchequer, who entered every seller's bill on the parchment rolls, the roll of receipts, and the roll of disbursements. PELT-WOOL. The wool pulled off the skin or pelt of dead sheep. 8 Hen. YI. c. 22. PENAL. Punishable; inflicting a pun ishment; containing a penalty, or relating to a penalty. P E N A L ACTION. In practice. An action upon a penal statute; an action for

the recovery of a penalty given by statute. 8 Steph. Comm. 535, 536. Distinguished from a popular or qul tarn action, in which the action is brought by the informer, to whom part of the penalty goes. A penal action or information is brought by an officer, and the penalty goes to the king. 1 Chit. Gen. Fr. 35, note; 2 Archb. Pr. 188. PENAL BILL. An instrument former ly in use, by which a party bound himself to pay a certain sum or sums of money, or to do certain acts, or, in default thereof, to pay a certain specified sum by way of pen alty; thence termed a "penal sum." These instruments have been superseded by the use of a bond in a penal sum, with conditions. Brown. PENAL CLAUSE. A penal clause is a secondary obligation, entered into for the purpose of enforcing the performance of a primary obligation. Civil Code La. art. 2117. Also a clause in a statute declaring a pen alty for a violation of the preceding clauses. PENAL LAWS. Those laws which pro hibit an act and impose a penalty for the commission of it. They are of three kinds, —poena pecuniaria, pcena eorporalis, and poena exilii. 2 Cro. Jac. 415. PENAL SERVITUDE, in English crim inal law, is a punishment which consists in keeping an offender in confinement, and compelling him to labor. Steph. Crim. Dig. 2. PENAL STATUTES. Statutes impos ing certain penalties on the commission of certain offenses; and actions brought for the recovery of such penalties are denominated "penal actions." PENAL SUM. A sum agreed upon in a bond, to be forfeited if the condition of the bond is not fulfilled. PENALTY. 1. The sum of money which the obligor of a bond undertakes to pay by way of penalty, in the event of his omitting to perform or carry out the terms imposed upon him by the conditions of the bond. Brown. A penalty is an agreement to pay a greater sum, to secure the payment of a less sum. It is condi tional, and can be avoided by the payment of the less sum before the contingency agreed upon shall happen. By what name it is called is immaterial. Minor, (Ala.) 209, 227. 2. A punishment; a punishment imposed by statute as a consequence of the commis sion of a certain specified offense. The terms "fine," "forfeiture," and "penalty" are often used loosely, and even confusedly; but,

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