KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

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DIANATIO

DIES

DIANATIO. A logical reasoning in a pro gressive manner, proceeding from one sub ject to another. Enc. Lond. DIARIUM. Daily food, or as much as will suffice for the day. Du Cange. DIATIM. In old records. Daily; every day; from day to day. Spelman. DICA. In old English law. A tally for accounts, by number of cuts, (taillees,) marks, or notches. Cowell. See TALLIA, TAIXY. DICAST. An officer in ancient Greece an swering in some respects to our juryman, but combining, on trials had before them, the functions of both judge and jury. The di casts sat together in numbers varying, ac cording to the importance of the case, from one to five hundred. BICE. Small cubes of bone or ivory, marked with figures or devices on their sev eral sides, used in playing certain games of chance. See Wetmore v. State, 55 Ala. 198. DICTATE. To order or instruct what is to be said or written. To pronounce, word by word, what is meant to be written by an other. Hamilton v. Hamilton, 6 Mart. (N. S.) (La.) 143. DICTATION. In Louisiana, this term is used in a technical sense, and means to pro nounce orally what is destined to be written at the same time by another. It is used in reference to nuncupative wills. Prendergast v. Prendergast, 16 La. Ann. 220, 79 Am. Dec. 575. DICTATOR. A magistrate invested with unlimited power, and created in times of na tional distress and peril. Among the Ro mans, he continued in office for six months only, and had unlimited power and authority over both the property and lives of the citi zens. DICTORES. Arbitrators. DICTUM. In general. A statement, re mark, or observation. Gratis dictum; a gra tuitous or voluntary representation; one which a party is not bound to make. 2 Kent, Comm. 486. Simplex dictum; a mere as sertion; an assertion without proof. Bract, fol. 320. The word is generally used as an abbrevi ated form of obiter dictum, "a remark by the way;" that is, an observation or remark made by a judge in pronouncing an opinion upon a cause, concerning some rule, principle, or application of law, or the solution of a question suggested by the case at bar, but not necessarily involved in the case or essential to its determination; any statement of the law enunciated by the court merely by way of illustration, argument, analogy, or sug gestion. See Railroad Co. v. Schutte, 103

U. S. 118, 143, 26 L. Ed. 327; In re Woodruff (D. C.) 96 Fed. 317; Hart v. Stribling, 25 Fla. 433, 6 South. 455; Buchner v. Railroad Oo., 60 Wis. 264, 19 N. W. 56; Rush v. French, 1 Ariz. 99, 25 Pac 816; State v. Clarke, 3 Nev. 572. Dtcta are opinions of a judge which do not embody the resolution or determination of the couit, and made without argument, or full con sideration of the point, are not the professed de liberate determinations of the judge himself. Otiter dicta are such opinions uttered by the way, not upon the point or question pending, as if turning aside for the time from the main topic of the case to collateral subjects. Rohrbach v. Insurance Co., 62 N. Y. 47, 58, 20 Am. Rep. 451. In old English law. Dictum meant an arbitrament, or the award of arbitrators. In French law. The report of a judg ment made by one of the judges who has given it Poth. Proc. Civil, pt 1, c. 5, art 2. —Dictum de Kenilworth. The edict or declaration of Kenilworth. An edict or award between King Henry III. and all the barons and others who had been in arms against bim; and so called because it was made at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, in the fif ty-first year of his reign, containing a compo sition of five years' rent for the lands and es tates of those who had forfeited them in that rebellion. Blount; 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 62. DIE WITHOUT ISSUE. See DYING WITHOUT ISSUE. DIEI DICTIO. Lat In Roman law. This name was given to a notice promulgated by a magistrate of his intention to present an impeachment against a citizen before the peo ple, specifying the day appointed, the name of the accused, and the crime charged. DIEM CLAUSIT EXTREMUM. (Lat He has closed his last day,—died.) A writ which formerly lay on the death of a tenant in capite, to ascertain the lands of which he died seised, and reclaim them into the king's hands. It was directed to the king's es cheators. Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 251, K; 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 327. A writ awarded out of the exchequer after the death of a crown debtor, the sheriff be ing commanded by it to inquire by a jury when and where the crown debtor died, and what chattels, debts, and lands he had at the time of his decease, and to take and seize them into the crown's hands. 4 Steph. Comm. 47, 48. DIES. Lat A day; days. Days for ap pearance in court. Provisions or mainte nance for a day. The king's rents were an ciently reserved by so many days' provisions. Spelman; Cowell; Blount —Dies a quo. (The day from which.) ^n the civil law. The day from which a transaction begins; the commencement of it; the conclu sion being the dies ad quern. Mackeld. Rom, Law, § 185.— Dies amoris. A day of favor. The name given to the appearance day of the term on the fourth day, or quarto die post. It was the day given by the favor and indulgence of the court to the defendant for his appear-