KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

CONSOLIDATION

252

CONSTABLE

toad Co., 118 Mich. S14, 76 N. W. 635, 53 L. R. A. 274; People v. Coke Co., 205 111. 482, 68 N. E. 950, 98 Am. St. Rep. 244; Buford v. Packet Co., 3 Mo. App. 171.—Consolidation role. In practice. A rule or order of court requiring a plaintiff who has instituted separate suits upon several claims against the same de fendant, to consolidate them in one action, where that can be done consistently with the rules of pleading. CONSOLS. An abbreviation of the ex pression "consolidated annuities," and used in modern times as a name of various funds united in one for the payment of the British national debt. Also, a name given to certain issues of bonds of the state of South Caro lina. Whaley y. Gaillard, 21 S. C. 568. Consortio malorum me qnoqne ma lum facit. Moore, 817. The company of wicked men makes me also wicked. CONSORTIUM. In the civil law. A union of fortunes; a lawful Roman marriage. Also, the joining of several persons as par ties to one action. In old English law, the term signified company or society. In the language of pleading, (as in the phrase per quod consortium amisit) it means the com panionship or society of a wife. Bigaouette v. Paulet, 134 Mass. 123, 45 Am. Rep. 307; Lockwood v. Lockwood, 67 Minn. 476, 70 N. W. 784; Kelley v. Railroad Co., 168 Mass. 308, 46 N. B. 1063, 38 L. R. A. 631, 60 Am. St Rep. 397. CONSORTSHIP. In maritime law. An agreement or stipulation between the owners of different vessels that they shall keep in company, mutually aid, instead of interfering with each other, in wrecking and salvage, and share any money awarded as salvage, whether earned by one vessel or both. An drews v. Wall, 3 How. 571, 11 L. Ed. 729. CONSPIRACY. In criminal law. A combination or confederacy between two or more persons formed for the purpose of com mitting, by their joint efforts, some unlaw ful or criminal act, or some act which is in nocent in itself, but becomes unlawful when done by the concerted action of the conspira tors, or for the purpose of using criminal or unlawful means to the commission of an act not in itself unlawful. Pettibone v. U. S., 148 U. S. 197, 13 Sup. Ct. 542, 37 L. Ed. 419; State v. Slutz, 106 La. 182, 30 South. 298; Wright v. U. S., 108 Fed. 805, 48 C. C. A. 37; U. S. v. Benson, 70 Fed. 591, 17 C. C. A. 293; Cirdner v. Walker, 1 Heisk. (Tenn.) 186; Boutwell v. Marr, 71 Vt 1, 42 Atl. 607, 43 L. R. A. 803, 76 Am. St. Rep. 746; U. S. v. Weber (C. C.) 114 Fed. 950; Comm. v. Hunt, 4 Mete. (Mass.) Ill, 38 Am. Dec. 346; Erdman v. Mitchell, 207 Pa. 79, 56 Atl. 327, 63 L. R. A. 534, 99 Am. St Rep. 783; Standard Oil Co. v. Doyle, 118 Ky. 662, 82 S. W. 271, 111 Am. St Rep. 331. Conspiracy is a consultation or agreement be tween two or more persons, either falsely to ac

cuse another of a crime punishable by law; or wrongfully to injure or prejudice a third per son, or any body of men, in any manner; or to commit any offense punishable by law; or to do any act with intent to prevent the course of justice; or to effect a legal purpose with a corrupt intent, or by improper means. Hawk. P. a c. 72, § 2; Archb. Crim. PI. 390, adding also combinations by journeymen to raise wages. State v. Murphy, 6 Ala. 765, 41 Am. Dec. 79. Civil and criminal. The term "civil" is used to designate a conspiracy which will fur nish ground for a civil action, as where, in carrying out the design of the conspirators, overt acts are done causing legal damage, the person injured has a right of action. It is said that the gist of civil conspiracy is the injury or damage. While criminal conspiracy does not require such overt acts, yet, so far as the rights and remedies are concerned, all criminal con spiracies are embraced within the civil conspira cies. Brown v. Pharmacy Co., 115 Ga. 429, 41 S. E. 563, 57 L. R. A. 547, 90 Am. St Rep. 126. An ancient writ that lay against conspirators. Reg. Orig. 134; Fitzh. Nat Brev. 114. CONSPIRATORS. Persons guilty of % conspiracy. Those who bind themselves by oath, cov enant, or other alliance that each of them shall aid the other falsely and maliciously to Indict persons; or falsely to move and main tain pleas, etc. 33 Edw. I. St 2. Besides these, there are conspirators in treasonable purposes; as for plotting against the govern ment. Wharton. CONSTABLE. In medieval law. The name given to a very high functionary under the French and English kings, the dignity and importance of whose office was only sec ond to that of the monarch. He was in gen eral the leader of the royal armies, and had cognizance of all matters pertaining to war and arms, exercising both civil and military jurisdiction. He was also charged with the conservation of the peace of the nation. Thus there was a "Constable of France" and a "Lord High Constable of England." In English law. A public civil officer, whose proper and general duty is to keep the peace within his district, though he Is fre quently charged with additional duties. 1 BL Comm. 356. High constables, in England, are officers ap pointed in every hundred or franchise, whose proper duty seems to be to keep the king's peace within their respective hundreds. 1 Bl. Comm. 356; 3 Steph. Comm. 47. Petty constables are inferior officers in every town and parish, subordinate to the high consta ble of the hundred, whose principal duty is the preservation of the peace, though they also have other particular duties assigned to them by act of parliament, particularly the service of the summonses and the execution of the warrants of justices of the peace. 1 Bl. Comm. 356; 3 Steph. Comm. 47, 48. Special constables are persons appointed (with or without their consent) by the magistrates to execute warrants on particular occasions, as in the case of riots, etc. In American law. An officer of a mu nicipal corporation (usually elected) whose CONSPIRATIONS.