KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

224

COMMISSIONER

COMMITTITUR

execute a commission of bankruptcy, (q. v.)— Commissioners of circuit courts. Officers appointed by and attached to the circuit courts of the United States, performing functions part ly ministerial and partly judicial. To a cer tain extent they represent the judge in his ab sense. In the examination of persons arrested for violations of the laws of the United States they have the powers of committing magistrates. They also take bail, recognizances, affidavits, etc., and hear preliminary proceedings for for eign extradition. In re Com'rs of Circuit Court (C. O.) 65 Fed. 317.— Commissioners of deeds. • Officers empowered by the government of one state to reside in another state, and there take acknowledgments of deeds and other papers which are to be used as evidence or put on record in the former state.— Commission ers of highways. Officers appointed in each county or township, in many of the states, with power to take charge of the altering, opening, repair, and vacating of highways within such county or township.— Commissioners of sew ers. In English law. Commissioners appoint ed under the great seal, and constituting a court of special jurisdiction; which is to overlook the repairs of the banks and walls of the sea coast and navigable rivers, or, with consent of a certain proportion of the owners and occupiers, to make new ones, and to cleanse such rivers, and the streams communicating therewith, St. 3 & 4 Wm, IV. c. 22, § 10; 3 Steph. Comm. 442.—County commissioners. See COUNTY. The compensation or reward paid to a factor, broker, agent, bailee, executor, trustee, receiver, etc., when the same is calculated as a percentage on the amount of his transactions or the amount re ceived or expended. See COMMISSION. Caused by or consisting in acts of commission, as distinguished from neglect, sufferance, or toleration; as in the phrase "commissive waste," which is con trasted with "permissive waste." See WASTE. In Roman law. A clause which might be inserted in an agreement for a sale upon credit, to the ef fect that the vendor should be freed from his obligation, and might rescind the sale, if the vendee did not pay the purchase price at the appointed time. Also a similar agreement between a debtor and his pledgee that, if the debtor did not pay at the day appointed, the pledge should become the absolute property of the creditor. This, however, was abol ished by a law of Constantine. Cod. 8, 35, 3. See Dig. 18, 3; Mackeld. Rom. Law, §S 447, 461; 2 Kent, Comm. 583. In practice. To send a per son to prison by virtue of a lawful authori ty, for any crime or contempt, or to an asy lum, workhouse, reformatory, or the like, by authority of a court or magistrate. People v. Beach, 122 Cal. 37, 54 Pac. 369; Cummington v. Wareham, 9 Cush. (Mass.) 585; French v. Bancroft, 1 Mete. (Mass.) 502; People v. Warden, 73 App. Div. 174, 76 N. Y. Supp. 728. To deliver a defendant to the custody of the sheriff or marshal, on his surrender by his bail. 1 Tidd, Pr. 285, 287. COMMISSIONS. COMMISSIVE. COMMISSORIA LEX. COMMIT.

COMMITMENT.

In practice. The war

rant or mittimus by which a court or magis trate directs an officer to take a person to prison. The act of sending a person to prison by means of such a warrant or order. People v. Rutan, 3 Mich. 49; Guthmann T. People, 203 111. 260, 67 N. E. 821; Allen r. Hagan, 170 N. Y. 46, 62 N. B. 1086. An assem bly or board of persons to whom the consid eration or management of any matter is com mitted or referred by some court. LJoyd v. Hart, 2 Pa. 473, 45 Am. Dec. 612; Farrar v. Eastman, 5 Me. 345. An individual or body to whom others have delegated or committed a particular du ty, or who have taken on themselves to per form it in the expectation of their act being confirmed by the body they profess to repre sent or act for. 15 Mees. & W. 529. The term is especially applied to the per son or persons who are invested, by order of the proper court, with the guardianship of the person and estate of one who has been adjudged a lunatic. In parliamentary law. A portion of a legislative body, comprising one or more members, who are charged with the duty of examining some matter specially referred to them by the house, or of deliberating upon it, and reporting to the house the result of their investigations or recommending a course of action. A committee may be appointed for one special occasion, or it may be appointed to deal with all matters which may be refer red to it during a whole session or during the life of the body. In the latter case, it is called a "standing committee." It is usu ally composed of a comparatively small num ber of members, but may include the whole house. — Joint committee. A joint committee of a legislative body comprising two chambers is a committee consisting of representatives of each of the two houses, meeting and acting together as one committee —Secret committee. A se cret committee of the house of commons is a committee specially appointed to investigate a certain matter, and to which secrecy being deemed necessary in furtherance of its objects, its proceedings are conducted with closed doors, to the exclusion of all persons not members of the committee. AH other committees are open to members of the house, although they may not be serving upon them. Brown. COMMITTEE. In practice.

COMMITTING MAGISTRATE.

See

MAGISTBATE.

COMMITTITUR. In practice. An or der or minute, setting forth that the person named in it is committed to the custody of the sheriff. — Committitnr piece. An instrument in writ ing on paper or parchment, which charges a person, already in prison, in execution at the suit of the person who arrested him. 2 Chit. Archb. Pr. (12th Ed.) 1208,