KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

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CUSTOM

CUSTOS

where the duties, bounties, or drawbacks payable or receivable upon such importation or exportation are paid or received; and where ships are cleared out, etc. —Custom-house broker. One whose occu pation it is, as the agent of others, to arrange entries and other custom-house papers, or transact business, at any port of entry, relat ing to the importation or exportation of goods, wares, or merchandise. 14 St. at Large, 117. A person authorized by the commissioners of customs to act for parties, at their option, in the entry or clearance of ships and the trans action of general business. Wharton. Custom is the best interpreter of the law. 4 Inst. 75; 2 Eden, 74; McKeen v. Delancy, 5 Cranch, 32, 3 L. Ed. 25; Mc Ferran v. Powers, 1 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 106. According to custom or usage; founded on, or growing out of, or CUSTOMARY. dependent on, a custom, {q. v.) —Customary Court-Baron. BABON.— Customary estates. Estates which owe their origin and existence to the custom of the manor in which they are held. 2 Bl. Comm. 149.— Customary freehold. In Eng lish law. A variety of copyhold estate, the evi dences of the title to which are to be found upon the court rolls; the entries declaring the holding to be according to the custom of the manor, but it is not said to be at the will of the lord. The incidents are similar to those of com mon or pure copyhold. 1 Steph. Comm. 212, 213, and note.— Customary interpretation. See INTEBPBETATION.— Customary services. Such as are due by ancient custom or prescrip tion only.— Customary tenants. Tenanta holding by custom of the manor. Custom shall be taken [is to be construed] strictly. Jenk. Cent. 83. This term is usually applied to those taxes which are payable upon goods and merchandise imported or exported. Sto ry, Const. § 949; Pollock v. Trust Co., 158 U. S. 601, 15 Sup. Ct. 912, 39 L. Ed. 1108; Marriott v. Brune, 9 How. 632, 13 L. Ed. 282. The duties, toll, tribute, or tariff payable upon merchandise exported or imported. These are called "customs" from having been paid from' time immemorial. Expressed in law Latin by custuma, as distinguished from consuetudvnes, which are usages merely. 1 Bl. Comm. 314. — Customs consolidation act. The statute 16 & 17 Vict. c. 107, which has been frequent ly amended. See 2 Steph. Comm. 563. CUSTOMS COURT. A court of the Unit ed States, created by act of congress in 1909, to hear and determine appeals from the decisions of the revenue officers in the imposition and collection of customs-duties. It is composed of a chief judge and four as sociates, and sits at Washington. CUSTOS. Lat. A custodian, guard, keep er, or warden; a magistrate. — Custos brevium. The keeper of the writs. A principal clerk belonging to the courts of See COUBT Custome serra prise stricte. CUSTOMS.

Termes de la Ley; Cowell; Bract fol. 2. If it be universal, it is common law; if par ticular to this or that place, it is then prop erly custom. 3 Salk. 112. Customs result from a long series of ac tions constantly repeated, which have, by such repetition, and by uninterrupted acqui escence, acquired the force of a tacit and common consent. Civil Code La. art. 3. It differs from prescription, which is personal and is annexed to the person of the owner of a particular estate; while the other is local, and relates to a particular district. An in stance of the latter occurs where the question is upon the manner of conducting a particular branch of trade at a certain place; of the former, where a certain person and his ances tors, or those whose estates he has, have been entitled to a certain advantage or privilege, as to have common of pasture in a certain close, or the like. The distinction has been thus ex pressed: "While prescription is the making of a right, custom is the making of a law." Law son, Usages & Oust. 15, note 2. Classification. Customs are general, local or particular. General customs are such as prevail throughout a country and become the law of that country, and their existence is to be determined by the court. Bodfish v. Pox, 23 Me. 95; 39 Am. Dec. 611. Or as applied to usages of trade and business, a general cus tom is one that is followed in all cases by all persons in the same business in the same ter ritory, and which has been so long established that persons sought to be charged thereby, and all others living in the vicinity, may be pre sumed to have known of it and to have acted upon it as they had occasion. Sturges v. Buck ley, 32 Conn. 267; Railroad Co. v. Harrington, 192 111. 9, 61 N. EI 622 ; Bonham v. Railroad Co., 13 S. O. 267. Local customs are such as prevail only in some particular district or lo cality, or in some city, county, or town. Bod fish v. Fox, 23 Me. 95, 39 Am. Dec. 611; Clough v. Wing, 2 Ariz. 371, 17 Pac. 457. Particular customs are nearly the same, being such as af fect only the inhabitants of some particular Certain particular customs, peculiar to that city, with regard to trade, apprentices, widows, orphans and a var iety of other matters; contrary to the general law of the land, but confirmed by act of par liament. 1 Bl. Comm. 75.— Custom of mer chants. A system of customs or rules relative to bills of exchange, partnership, and other mercantile matters, and which, under the name of the "lex mercatona," or "law-merchant," has been ingrafted into and made a part of, the common law. 1 Bl. Comm. 75; 1 Steph. Comm. 54; 2 Burrows, 1226, 1228.— Custom of York. A custom of intestacy in the province of York similar to that of London. Abolished by 19 & 20 Vict. c. 94.— Customs and serv ices annexed to the tenure of lands are those which the tenants thereof owe unto their lords, and which, if withheld, the lord might ancient ly have resorted to "a writ of customs and services" to compel them. Cowell. But at the present day he would merelv proceed to eject the tenant as upon a forfeiture, or claim dam ages for the subtraction. Brown.— Special custom. A particular or local custom; one which, in respect to the sphere of its observ ance, does not extend throughout the entire state or country, but is confined to some parti cular district or locality. 1 Bl. Comm. 67; Bodfish v. Fox, 23 Me. 95, 39 Am. Dec. 611. administrative law. The house or office where commodities are entered for importation or exportation; district. 1 Bl. Comm. 74. —Customs of London. CUSTOM-HOUSE. In