KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

745

MAGNUM CAPE

MAGISTRATE

MAGNA ASSISA ELIGENDA. An an cient writ to summon four lawful knights before the justices of assize, there to choose twelve others, with themselves to constitute the grand assise or great jury, to try the matter of right. The trial by grand assize was instituted by Henry II. in parliament, as an alternative to the duel in a writ of right Abolished by 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 27. Wharton. In old pleading. Great beasts, as horses, oxen, etc. Cro. Jac. 580. MAGNA CENTUM. The great hundred, or six score. Wharton. MAGNA CHARTA. The great charter. The name of a charter (or constitutional en actment) granted by King John of England to the barons, at Runnymede, on June 15, 1215, and afterwards, with some alterations, confirmed in parliament by Henry III. and Edward I. This charter is justly regarded as the foundation of English constitutional lib erty. Among its thirty-eight chapters are found provisions for regulating the adminis tration of justice, defining the temporal and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, securing the per sonal liberty of the subject and his rights of property, and the limits of taxation, and for preserving the liberties and privileges of the church. Magna Charta is so called, partly to distinguish it from the Charta de Foresta, which was granted about the same time, and partly by reason of its own transcendent im portance. Magna Charta et Charta de Foresta sont appeles les "deux grandes char ters." 2 Inst. 570. Magna Charta and the Charter of the Forest are called the "two great charters." MAGNA COMPONERE PARVIS. To compare great things with small things. MAGNA CULPA. Great fault; gross negligence. MAGNA NEGLIGENTIA. In the civil law. Great or gross negligence. Magna negligentia culpa est; magna culpa dolus est. Gross negligence is fault; gross fault is fraud. Dig. 50, 16, 226. MAGNA PRECARIA. In old English law. A great or general reap-day. Cowell; Blount MAGNA SERJEANTIA. In old English law. Grand serjeanty. Fleta, lib. 2, c. A, § 1. MAGNUM CAPE. In old practice. Great or grand cape. 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 418. See GBAND CAPE. MAGNA AVERIA.

framed by the masters or principal clerks of the chancery. Bract fol. 4136; Crabb, Com. Law, 547, 548. MAGISTRATE. A public officer belong ing to the civil organization of the state, and invested with powers and functions which may be either judicial, legislative, or execu tive. But the term is commonly used in a nar rower sense, designating, in England, a per son intrusted with the commission of the peace, and, in America, one of the class of inferior judicial officers, such as justices of the peace and police justices. Martin v. State, 32 Ark. 124; Scanlan v. Wright, 13 Pick. (Mass.) 528, 25 Am. Dec. 344; Ex parte White, 15 Nev. 146, 37 Am. Rep. 466; Kurtz v. State, 22 Fla. 44, 1 Am. St. Rep. 173. A magistrate is an officer having power to issue a warrant for the arrest of a person charged with a public offense. Pen. Code Cal. § 807. The word "magistrate" does not necessarily imply an officer exercising any judicial func tions, and might very well be held to embrace notaries and commissioners of deeds. Schultz v. Merchants' Ins. Co., 57 Mo. 336. —Chief magistrate. The highest or princi pal executive officer of a state (the governor) or of the United States (the president)—Commit ting magistrate. An inferior judicial officer who is invested with authority to conduct the preliminary hearing of persons charged with crime, and either to discharge them for lack of sufficient prima facie evidence or to commit them to jail to await trial or (in some juris dictions) to accept bail and release them there on.—Police magistrate. An inferior judicial officer having jurisdiction of minor criminal offenses, breaches of police regulations, and the like; so called to distinguish them from mag istrates who have jurisdiction in civil cases al so, as justices of the peace. People v. Curley, 5 Colo. 416; McDermont v. Dinnie, 6 N. D. 278, 69 N. W. 295.—Stipendiary magis trates. In Great Britain, the magistrates or police judges sitting in the cities and large towns, and appointed by the home secretary, are so called, as distinguished from the jus tices of the peace in the counties who have the authority of magistrates. MAGISTRATE'S COURT. In Ameri can law. Courts in the state of South Caro lina, having exclusive jurisdiction in mat ters of contract of and under twenty dollars. A local court in the city of Philadelphia, possessing the criminal jurisdiction of a po lice court and civil jurisdiction in actions in volving not more than one hundred dollars. It is not a court of record. See Const. Pa. art 4, § 12. MAGISTRATES. Lat. In the civil law. A magistrate. Calvin. A judicial officer who had the power of hearing and determin ing causes, but whose office properly was to inquire into matters of law, as distinguished from fact Hallif ax, Civil Law, b. 3, c. 8.

MAGNA ASSISA. In old English law. The grand assize. Glanv. lib. 2, cc 11, 12.