KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

232

COMPETENCY

COMPASSING

COMPASSING. Imagining or contriv ing, or plotting. In English law, "compas sing the king's death" is treason. 4 Bl. Comm. 76. COMPATERNITAS. In the canon law. A kind of spiritual relationship contracted by baptism. COMPATERNITY. Spiritual affinity, contracted by sponsorship in baptism. COMPATIBILITY. Such relation and consistency between the duties of two offices that they may be held and filled by one person. COMPEARANCE. In Scotch practice. Appearance; an appearance made for a de fendant; an appearance by counsel. Bell. COMPEIXATTVUS. An adversary or accuser. Compendia rant dispendia. Co. Litt. 305. Abbreviations are detriments. COMPENDIUM. An abridgment, syn opsis, or digest COMPENSACION. In Spanish law. Compensation; set-off. The extinction of a debt by another debt of equal dignity. COMPENSATIO. Lat. In the civil law. Compensation, or set-off. A proceeding re sembling a set-off in the common law, being a claim on the part of the defendant to have an amount due to him from the plaintiff de ducted from his demand. Dig. 16, 2; Inst. 4, 6, 30, 39; 3 Bl. Comm. 305. —Compensatio criminis. (Set-off of crime or guilt.) In practice. The plea of recrimination in a suit for a divorce; that is, that the com plainant is guilty of the same kind of offense with which the respondent is charged. COMPENSATION. Indemnification; pay ment of damages; making amends; that which is necessary to restore an injured par ty to his former position. An act which a court orders to be done, or money which a court orders to be paid, by a person whose acts or omissions have caused loss or injury to another, in order that thereby the person damnified may receive equal value for his loss, or be made whole in respect of his in jury. Railroad Co. v. Denman, 10 Minn. 280 (Gil. 208). Also that equivalent In money which Is paid to the owners and occupiers of lands taken or injuriously affected by the opera tions of companies exercising the power of eminent domain. In the constitutional provision for "just compensation" for property taken under the COMPEAR, In Scotch law. To appear.

power of eminent domain, this term means a payment in money. Any benefit to the re» maining property of the owner, arising from public works for which a part has been tak en, cannot be considered as compensation. Railroad Co. v. Burkett, 42 Ala. 83. As compared with consideration and damages, compensation, in its most careful use, seems to be between them. Consideration is amends for something given by consent, or by the owner's choice. Damages is amends exacted from a wrong-doer for a tort. Compensation is amends for something which was taken without the own er's choice, yet without commission of a tort. Thus, one should say, consideration for land sold; compensation for land taken for a rail way ; damages for a trespass. But such dis tinctions are not uniform. Land damages is a common expression for compensation for lands taken for public use. Abbott. The word also signifies the remuneration or wages given to an employe or officer. But it is not exactly synonymous with "salary." See People v. Wemple, 115 N. Y. 302, 22 N. E. 272;'Com. v. Carter, 55 S. W. 701, 21 Ky. Law Rep. 1509; Crawford County v. Lindsay, 11 111. App. 261; Kilgore v. Peo ple, 76 111. 548. In the civil, Scotch, and French law. Recoupment; set-off. The meeting of two debts due by two parties, where the debtor in the one debt is the creditor In the other; that is to say, where one person is both debtor and creditor to another, and there fore, to the extent of what is due to him, claims allowance out of the sum that he is due. Bell; 1 Karnes, Eq. 395, 396. Compensation is of three kinds,—legal, or by operation of law; compensation by way of ex ception; and by reconvention. Stewart v. Harper, 16 La. Ann. 181. —Compensatory damages. See DAMAGES. COMPERENDINATIO. In the Roman law. The adjournment of a cause, in order to hear the parties or their advocates a sec ond time; a second hearing of the parties to a cause. Calvin. COMFERTORIUM. In the civil law. A judicial inquest made by delegates or com missioners to find out and relate the truth of a cause. COMPERUIT AD DIEM. In practice. A plea in an action of debt on a bail bond that the*defendant appeared .at the day re quired. COMPETENCY. In the law of evi dence. The presence of those characteris tics, or the absence of those disabilities, which render a witness legally fit and quali fied to give testimony in a court of justice. The term is also applied, In the same sense, to documents or other written evidence. Competency differs from credibility. The former is a question which arises before con sidering the evidence given by the witness; the latter concerns the degree of credit to be