KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

COMMON RECOVERY

228

COMMOTION

COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIA MENT. In the English parliament The lower house, so called because the commons of the realm, that is, the knights, citizens, and burgesses returned to parliament, repre senting the whole body of the commons, sit there. COMMONTY. In Scotch law. Land pos sessed in common by different proprietors, or by those having acquired rights of servitude. Bell. COMMONWEALTH. The public or com mon weal or welfare. This cannot be re garded as a technical term of public law, though often used in political science. It generally designates, when so employed, a republican frame of government,—one in which the welfare and rights of the entire mass of people are the main consideration, rather than the privileges of a class or the will of a monarch; or it may designate the body of citizens living under such a govern ment. Sometimes it may denote the corpo rate entity, or the government of a Jural society (or state) possessing powers of self government in respect of its immediate con cerns, but forming an integral part of a lar ger government (or nation.) In this latter sense, it is the official title of several of the United States, (as Pennsylvania and Massa chusetts,) and would be appropriate to them all. In the former sense, the word was used to designate the English government during the protectorate of Cromwell. See GOVERN MENT; NATION; STATE. (State v. Lambert 44 W. Va. 308, 28 S. E. 930.) COMMORANCY. The dwelling In any place as an inhabitant; which consists in usually lying there. 4 Bl. Comm. 273. In American law it is used to denote a mere temporary residence. Ames v. Winsor, 19 Pick. (Mass.) 248; Pullen v. Monk, 82 Me. 412, 19 Atl. 909; Gilman v. Inman, 85 Me. 105, 26 Atl. 1049. COMMORANT. Staying or abiding; dwelling temporarily in a place. COMMORIENTES. Several persons who perish at the same time in consequence of the same calamity. COMMORTH, or COMORTH. A contri bution which was gathered at marriages, and when young priests said or sung the first masses. Prohibited by 26 Hen. VIIL c 6. Cowell. COMMOTE. Half a cantred or hundred in Wales, containing fifty vilages. Also a great seignory or lordship, and may include one or divers manors. Co. Litt 5. COMMOTION. A "civil commotion" is an insurrection of the people for general purposes, though it may not amount to re-

Justice and five (formerly four, until 31 & 32 Vict c. 125, § 11, subsec. 8) puisne" judges. It was detached from the king's court (aula regis) as early as the reign of Richard I., and the fourteenth clause of Magna Charta enacted that it should not follow the king's court, but be held in some certain place. Its Jurisdiction was altogether confined to civil matters, having no cognizance in criminal cases, and was concurrent with that of the queen's bench and exchequer in personal actions and ejectment Wharton. COMMON RECOVERY. In conveyanc ing. A species of common assurance, or mode of conveying lands by matter of record, formerly in frequent use in England. It was in the nature and form of an action at law, carried regularly through, and ending in a recovery of the lands against the ten ant of the freehold; which recovery, being a supposed adjudication of the right, bound all persons, and vested a free and absolute fee simple in the recoverer. 2 Bl. Comm. 357. Christy v. Burch, 25 Fla. 942, 2 South. 258. Common recoveries were abolished by the statutes 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 74. COMMONABLE, Entitled to common. Commonable beasts are either beasts of the plow, as horses and oxen, or such as manure the land, as kine and sheep. Beasts not commonable are swine, goats, and the like. Co. Litt 122o; 2 Bl. Comm. 33. COMMONAGE. In old deeds. The right of common. See COMMON. COMMONALTY. In English law. The great body of citizens; the mass of the peo ple, excluding the nobility. In American law. The body of people composing a municipal corporation, exclud ing the corporate officers. COMMONANCE. The commoners, or tenants and inhabitants, who have the right of common or commoning in open field. Cow ell. COMMONERS. In English law. Per sons having a right of common. So called because they have a right to pasture on the waste, in common with the lord. 2 H. Bl. 889. COMMONS. 1. The class of subjects in Great Britain exclusive of the royal family and the nobility. They are represented in parliament by the house of commons. 2. Part of the demesne land of a manor, (or land the property of which was in the lord,) which, being uncultivated, was termed the "lord's waste," and served for public roads and for common of pasture to the lord and his tenants. 2 Bl. Comm. 90.