KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

21

ACT

ACQUITTAL

ACROSS.

Under a grant of a right of

acquitted by the jury but by the judgment of the court. Burgess v. Boetefeur, 7 Man. & G. 481. 504; People v. Lyman, 53 App. Div. 470, 65 N. Y. Supp. 1062. And he may be legally acquitted by a judgment rendered other wise than in pursuance of a verdict, as where he is discharged by a magistrate because of the insufficiency of the evidence, or the indictment is dismissed by the court or a nol. pros, entered. Junction City v. Keeffe. 40 Kan. 275, 19 Pac. 735; People v. Lyman, 53 App. Div. 470, 65 N. Y. Supp. 1062; Lee v. State, 26 Ark. 260, 7 Am. Rep. 611; Morgan County v. Johnson, 31 Ind. 463. But compare "Wilson v. Com., 3 Bush (Ky.) 105; State v. Champeau, 52 Vt. 813, 315, 36 Am. Rep. 754. are those which take place when the jury, upon trial, finds a ver dict of not guilty. Acquittals in law are those which take place by mere operation of law; as where a man has been charged merely as an acces sary, and the principal has been acquitted. 2 Co. Inst. 364. In feudal law. The obligation on the part of a mesne lord to protect his tenant from any claims, entries, or molestations by lords paramount arising out of the services due to them by the mesne lord. See Co. Litt. 100a. In contracts. A writ ten discharge, whereby one is freed from an obligation to pay money or perform a duty. It differs from a release in not requiring to be under seal. This word, though perhaps not strictly speak ing synonymous with "receipt," includes it. A receipt is one form of an acquittance; a dis charge is another. A receipt in full is an ac quittance, and a receipt for a part of a de mand or obligation is an acquittance pro tanto. State v. Shelters, 51 Vt. 104, 31 Am. Rep. 679. ACQUITTED. Released; absolved; purged of an accusation; judicially discharg ed from accusation; released from debt, etc. Includes both civil and criminal prosecutions. Dolloway v. Turrill, 26 Wend. (N. Y.) 383, 899. ACRE. A quantity of land containing 160 square rods of land, in whatever shape. Serg. Land Laws Pa. 185; Cro. Eliz. 476, 665; 6 Coke, 67; Poph. 55; Co. Litt 56. Originally the word "acre" (acer, aher, or Sax. ceqer) was not used as a measure of land, or to signify any determinate quantity of land, but to denote any open ground, (latum quan tumvis agrum,) wide champaign, or field; which is still the meaning of the German acker, de rived probably from the same source, and is [>reserved in the names of some places in Eng and, as Castle Acre, South Acre, etc. Burrill. ACREFIGHT, or ACRE. A camp or Held fight; a sort of duel, or judicial combat, anciently fought by single combatants, En glish and Scotch, between the frontiers of the two kingdoms with sword and lance. Called "campfight," and the combatants "cham pions," from the open field that was the Rtage of trial. CowelL Acquittals in fact ACQUITTANCE.

way across the plaintiff's lot of land, the grantee has not a right to enter at one place, go partly across, and then come out at an other place on the same side of the lot. Corn stock v. Van Deusen, 5 Pick. (Mass.) 163. See Brown v. Meady, 10 Me. 391, 25 Am. Dec. 248. ACT, v. In Scotch practice. To do or per form judicially; to enter of record. Surety "acted in the Books of Adjournal." 1 Broun, 4. ACT, «. In ats most general sense, this noun signifies something done voluntarily by a person; the exercise of an individual's power; an effect produced in the external world by an exercise of the power of a per son objectively, prompted by intention, and proximately caused by a motion of the will. In a more technical sense, it means some thing done voluntarily by a person, and of such a nature that certain legal consequences attach to it. Duncan v. Landis, 106 Fed. 839, 45 C. C. A. 666. Thus a grantor acknowl edges the conveyance to be his "act and deed," the terms being synonymous. In the civil latw. An act is a writing which states in a legal form that a thing has been said, done, or agreed. Merl. Repert. In practice. Anything done by a court and reduced to writing; a decree, judgment, resolve, rule, order, or other judicial proceed ing. In Scotch law, the orders and decrees of a court, and in French and German law, all the records and documents in an action, are called "acts." In legislation. A written law, fprmally ordained or passed by the legislative power of a state, called in England an <'act of par liament," and in the United States an "act of congress," or of the "legislature;" a stat ute. People v. Tiphaine, 3 Parker, Cr. R. (N. Y.) 241; United States v. Smith, 27 Fed. Cas. 1167. Acts are either public or private. Public acts (also called general acts, or general statutes, or statutes at large) are those which relate to the community generally, or establish a universal rule for the governance of the whole body poli tic. Private acts (formerly called special, Co. Litt. 126a) are those which relate either to par ticular persons (personal acts) or to particular places, (local acts,) or which operate only upon specified individuals or their private concerns. In Scotch practice. An abbreviation of ' actor, (proctor or advocate, especially for a plaintiff or pursuer,) used in records. "Act. A. Alt. B." an abbreviation of Actor, A. Alter, B.; that is, for the pursuer or plain tiff, A., for the defender, B. 1 Broun, 336, note. —Act book. In Scotch practice. The minute book of a court. 1 Swin. 81.—Act in pais. An act done or performed out of court, and not a matter of record. A deed or an assur ance transacted between two or more private persons in the country, that is, according to the old common law, upon the very spot to be