Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

PRIMITIVE

PRINCIPAL

937

PRIMITIVE. In English law. First fruits; the first year's whole profits of a spiritual preferment. 1 Bl. Comm. 284. FRIMO BENEFICIO. Lat. A writ directing a grant of the first benefice in the sovereign's gift. Cowell. Primo excutienda est verbi vis, ne ser monis vitio obstruatur oratio, sive lex sine argumentis. Co. Litt. 68. The full meaning of a word should be ascertained at the outset, in order that the sense may not be lost by defect of expression, and that the law be not without reasons. PRIMO VENIENTI. Lat. Tothe one first coming. An executor anciently paid debts as they were presented, whether the assets were sufficient to meet all debts or not. Stim. Law Gloss. PRIMOGENITURE. 1. The state of being the first-born among several children of the same parents; seniority by birth in the same family. 2. The superior or exclusive right pos sessed by the eldest son, and particularly, his right to succeed to the estate of his ancestor, in right of his seniority by birth, to the ex clusion of younger sons. PRIMOGENITUS. Lat. In old English law. A first-born or eldest son. Bract, fol. 33. PRIMUM DECRETUM. Lat. In the canon law. The first decree; a preliminary deciee granted on the non-appearance of a defendant, by which the plaintiff was put in possession of his goods, or of the thing itself which was demanded. Gilb. Forum Bom. 82, 33. PRINCE. In a general sense, a sover eign; the ruler of a nation or state. More particularly, the son of a king or empeior, or the issue of a royal family; as princes of the blood. The chief of auy body of men. Web ster. PRINCE OF WALES. The eldest son of the English sovereign. He is the heir-ap parent to the crown. PRINCEPS. In the civil law. The prince; the emperor. Princeps et respublica ex justa causa possunt rem meam auferre. 12 Coke, 13. The prince and the republic, fora just cause, can take away my property.

Princeps legibus solutus est. The em peror is released from the laws; is not bound by the laws. Dig. 1, 3, 31. Princeps mavult domesticos milites quam stipendiaries bellicis opponere casibus. Co. Litt. 69. A prince, in the chances of war, had better employ domestic than stipendiary troops. PRINCES OF THE ROYAL BLOOD. In English law. The younger sons and daughters of the sovereign, and other branch es of the royal family who are not in the im mediate line of succession. PRINCESS ROYAL. In English law. The eldest daughter of the sovereign. 3 Steph. Comm. 450. PRINCIPAL. Chief; leading; highest in rank or degree; most impoitant or consider able; primary; original; the source of author ity or right. In the law relating to real and personal property, "principal" is used as the correla tive of "accessory," and denotes the more im portant or valuable subject, with which others are connected in a relation of dependence or subservience, or to which they are incident or appurtenant. In criminal law. A chief actor or per petrator, as distinguished from an "acces sary." A principal in the first degree is he that is the actor or absolute perpetrator of the crime; and, in the second degree, he who is present, aiding and abetting the fact to be done. 4 Bl. Comm. 34. All persons concerned in the commission of crime, whether it be felony or misdemeanor, and whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid and abet in its commission, though not present, are principals. Pen. Code Dak. § 27. A criminal offender is either a principal or an accessary. A principal is either the actor (i. e., the actual perpetrator of the crime) or else is pres ent, aiding and abetting the fact to be done; an accessary is he who is not the chief actor in the offense, nor yet present at its performance, but is some way concerned therein, either before or after the fact committed. 1 Hale, P. C. 613, 618. In the law of guaranty and surety ship. The principal is the person primarily liable, and for whose performance of his obligation the guarantor or surety has be come bound. In the law of agency. The employer or constitutor of an agent; the person who gives authority to an agent or attorney to do some act for him. One who, being competent sui juris to do any act for his own benefit or on his own account, con

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