KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

714

LEVEE

LEVYING WAR

nal. When these causes were heard, this sail was raised, and suitors came directly to the court, and their causes were heard im mediately. As applied to maritime courts, its meaning is that causes should be heard without delay. These causes require dis patch, and a delay amounts practically to a denial of justice. (See Cod. 11, 4, 5.) Bou vier. An embankment or artificial mound of earth constructed along the mar gin of a river, to confine the stream to its natural channel or prevent inundation or overflow. State v. New Orleans & N. E. R. Co., 42 La. Ann. 138, 7 South. 226; Royse v. Evansville & T. H. R. Co., 160 Ind. 592, 67 N. E. 446. Also (probably by an exten sion of the foregoing meaning) a landing place on a river or lake; a place on a river •or other navigable water for lading and un lading goods and for the reception and dis charge of passengers to and from vessels lying in the contiguous waters, which may be either a wharf or pier or the natural bank. See Coffin v. Portland (C. C.) 27 Fed. 415; St. Paul v. Railroad Co., 63 Minn. 330, 68 N. W. 458, 34 L. R. A. 184; Napa v. How land, 87 Cal. 84, 25 Pac. 247. —Levee district. A municipal subdivision of a state (which may or may not be a public corporation) organized for the purpose, and charged with the duty, of constructing and maintaining such levees within its territorial limits as are to be built and kept up at public expense and for the general public benefit. See People v. Levee Dist. No. 6, 131 Cal. 30, 63 Pac. 676. LEVIABLE. That which may be levied. That which is a proper or permissible sub ject for a levy; as, a "leviable interest" in land. See Bray v. Ragsdale, 53 Mo. 172. LEVIR. In Roman law. A husband's brother; a wife's brother-in-law. Calvin. LEVIS. Lat. light; slight; trifling. Levis culpa, slight fault or neglect. Levis sima culpa, the slightest neglect. Levis no ta, a slight mark or brand. See Brand v. Schenectady & T. R. Co., 8 Barb. (N. Y.) 378. Degrees of kindred within which persons are prohibited to marry. They are set forth in the eight eenth chapter of Leviticus. LEVY; V. TO raise; execute; exact; col lect; gather; take up; seize. Thus, to levy (raise or collect) a tax; to levy (raise or set up) a nuisance; to levy (acknowledge) a fine; to levy (inaugurate) war; to levy an execu tion, •. e*, to levy or collect a sum of money on an execution. In reference to taxation, the word "levy" is \ised in two different senses. In the first place, and more properly, it means to lay or impose a tax. This is a legislative function, and includes a determination that a tax shall LEVEE. LEVITICAL DEGREES.

be imposed, and also the ascertainment of the amount necessary or desirable to be raised, the amount or rate to be imposed, and the subjects or persons to contribute to the tax. The ob ligation resulting from a "levy" in this sense falls upon the collective body of taxpayers or the community, not (as yet) upon individuals. But in another sense, it means the imposition of the tax directly upon the person or property involved (probably by analogy to the "levy" of an execution or other writ), and includes the assessment of persons or property, the entering of their several dues on the tax books, and the entire process of collecting the taxes. See State v. Lakeside Land Co., 71 Minn. 283, 73 N. W. 970; Morton v. Comptroller General, 4 Rich. (S. C.) 430; Emeric v. Alvarado, 64 Cal. 529, 2 Pac. 418; Moore v. Foote, 32 Miss. 479; Valle v. Fargo, 1 Mo. App. 347; Perry County v. Railroad Co., 58 Ala. 559; Rhoads v. Given, 5 Houst. (Del.) 186; U. S. v. Port of Mobile (C. C.) 12 Fed. 770. LEVY, n. In practice. A seizure; the raising of the money for which an execution has been issued. —Equitable levy. The lien in equity created by the filing of a creditors' bill to subject real property of the debtor, and of a lis pendens, is sometimes so called. Miller r. Sherry, 2 Wall. 249, 17 L. Ed. 827; Mandeville v. Campbell, 45 App. Div. 512, 61 N. Y. Supp. 443; George v. Railroad Co. (C. C.) 44 Fed. 120. LEVY COURT. A court formerly ex isting in the District of Columbia. It was a body charged with the administration of the ministerial and financial duties of Washing ton county. It was charged with the duty of laying out and repairing roads, building bridges, providing poor-houses, laying and collecting the taxes necessary to enable it to discharge these and other duties, and to pay the other expenses of the county. It had capacity to make contracts in reference to any of these matters, and to raise money to meet such contracts. It had perpetual suc cession, and its functions were those which, in the several states, are performed by "county commissioners," "overseers of the poor," "county supervisors," and similar bod ies with other designations. Levy Court v. Coroner, 2 Wall. 507, 17 L. Ed. 851. In Delaware, the "levy court" is an ad ministrative board elected and organized in each county, composed of from five to thir teen "commissioners," who, in respect to taxation, perform the functions of a board of equalization and review and also of a board to supervise the assessors and col lectors and audit and adjust their accounts, and who also have certain powers and spe cial duties in respect to the administration of the poor laws, the system of public roads and the officers in charge of them, the care of insane paupers and convicts, the govern ment and administration of jails, school dis tricts, and various other matters of local concern. See Rev. St. Del. 1893, c. 8; Mealey v. Buckingham, 6 Del. Ch. 356, 22 Atl. 357. LEVYING WAR. In criminal law. The assembling of a body of men for the purpose of effecting by force a* treasonable object;