Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

PREROGATIVE COURT

PRESCRIPTION. TIME OP

930

the continuance of his possession for a period of time fixed by the laws. Code Ga. 1882, § 2678. In Louisiana, prescription is defined as a manner of acquiring the ownership of prop erty, or discharging debts, by the effect of time, and under the conditions regulated by law. Each of these prescriptions has its special and particular definition. The pre scription by which the ownership of property is acquired, is a right by which a mere pos sessor acquires the ownership of a thing which he possesses by the continuance of his possession during the time fixed by law. The prescription by which debts are released, is a peremptory and perpetual bar to every species of action, real or personal, when the creditor has been silent for a certain time without urging his claim. Civil Code La. arts. 3457-3459. " Prescription " and t t custom " are frequently con founded in common parlance, arising perhaps from the fact that immemorial usage was essential to both of them; but, strictly, they materially differ from one another, in that custom is properly a local impersonal usage, such as borough-English, or postremogeniture, which is annexed to a given estate, while prescription is simply personal, as that a certain man and his ancestors, or those whose estate he enjoys, have immemorially exer cised a right of pasture-common in a certain parish. Again, prescription has its origin in a grant, evidenced by usage, and is allowed on ac count of its loss, either actual or supposed, and therefore only those things can be prescribed for which could be raised by a grant previously to 8 & 9 Viet. c. 106, § 2; but this principle does not nec essarily hold in the case of a custom. Wharton. The difference between "prescription," "cus tom, " and "usage" is also thus stated: "Prescrip tion hath respect to a certain person who, by in tendment, may have continuance forever, as, for instance, he and all they whose estate he hath in such a thing, —this is a prescription; while custom is local, and always applied to a certain place, and is common to all; while usage differs from both, for it may be either to persons or places." Jacob. PRESCRIPTION ACT. The statute 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 71, passed to limit the pe riod of prescription in certain cases. PRESCRIPTION, CORPORATIONS BY. In English law. Those which have existed beyond the memory of man, and therefore are looked upon in law to be well created, such as the city of London. PRESCRIPTION, TIME OP. The length of time necessary to establish a right claimed by prescription or a title by prescrip tion. Before the act of 2 & 3 Wm. IV. a. 71, the possession required to constitute a prescription must have existed "time out of mind" or "beyond the memory of man," that

to the wills, administrations, or legacies of such persons were originally cognizable here in, before a judge appointed by the arch bishop, called the "judge of the prerogative court," from whom an appeal lay to the privy council. 3 Bl. Comm. 66; 3 Steph. Comm. 432. In New Jersey the prerogative court is the court of appeal from decrees of the orphans' courts in the several counties of the state. The court is held before the chancellor, un der the title of the "ordinary." PREROGATIVE LAW. That part of the common law of England which is more particularly applicable to the king. Com. Dig. tit. "Ley," A. PREROGATIVE WRITS. Process is sued by an exercise of the extraordinary power of the crown on proper cause shown. They are the writs of procedendo, mandamus t prohibition, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and certiorari. 3 Steph. Comm. 629. PRES. L. Fr. Near. Cypres, so near; as near. See CY PBES. PRESBYTER. Lat. In civil and ec clesiastical law. An elder; a presbyter; a priest. Cod. 1, 3, 6, 20; Nov. 6. PRESBYTERITJM. That part of the church where divine offices are performed; formerly applied to the choir or chancel, be cause it was the place appropriated to the bishop, priest, and other clergy, while the laity were confined to the body of the church. Jacob. PRESCRIBABLE. That to which a right may be acquired by prescription. PRESCRIBE. To assert a right or title to the enjoyment of a thing, on the ground of having hitherto had the uninterrupted and immemorial enjoyment of it. To direct; define; mark out. In modern statutes relating to matters of an administra tive nature, such as procedure, registration, etc., it is usual to indicate in general terms the nature of the proceedings to be adopted, and to leave the details to be prescribed or regulated by rules or orders to be made for that purpose in pursuance of an authority contained in the act. Sweet. PRESCRIPTION. A mode of acquiring title to incorporeal hereditaments grounded on the fact of immemorial or long-continued enjoyment. Title by prescription is the right which a possessor acquires to property by reason of

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