KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

MEANS

768

ET INFIRM-ffi!

MEDIM

not the meander line as naturally run on the ground, is the boundary. St. Paul & P. R. Co. v. Schurmeier, 7 Wall. 286, 19 L. Ed. 74; Niles v. Cedar Point Club, 175 U. S. 300, 20 Sup. Ct. 124, 44 L. Ed. 171. 1. The instrument or agency through which an end or purpose is accom plished. 2. Resources; available property; money or property, as an available instrumentality for effecting a purpose, furnishing a liveli hood, paying a debt, or the like. —Means of support. This term embraces all those resources from which the necessaries and comforts of life are or may be supplied, such as lands, goods, salaries, wages, or other sourc es of income. Meidel v. Anthis, 71 111. 241. MEANS. MEASURE. That by which extent or dimension is ascertained, either length, breadth, thickness, capacity, or amount. Webster. The rule by which anything is adjusted or proportioned. —Measure of damages. The rule, or rather the system of rules, governing the adjustment or apportionment of damages as a compensa tion for injuries in actions at law.—Measure of value. In the ordinary sense of the word, "measure" would mean something by compari son with which we may ascertain what is the value of anything. When we consider, further, that value itself is relative, and that two things are necessary to constitute it, independently of the third thing, which is to measure it, we may define a "measure of value" to be some thing by comparing with which any two other things we may infer their value in relation to one another. 2 Mill, Pol. Econ. 101. MEASURER, or METER. An officer in the city of London, who measured woolen clothes, coals, etc. MEASURING MONEY. In old English law. A duty which some persons exacted, by letters patent, for every piece of cloth made, besides alnage. Now abolished. A workman employed in shaping and uniting materials, such as wood, metal, etc., into some kind of structure, ma chine, or other object, requiring the use of tools. Story v. Walker, 11 Lea (Term.) 517, 47 Am. Rep. 305;, In re Osborn (D. C.) 104 Fed. 781; Savannah & C. R. Co. v. Callahan, 49 Ga. 511; Berks County v. Bertolet, 13 Pa. 524. MECHANIC'S LIEN. A species of lien created by statute in most of the states, which exists In favor of persons who have performed work or furnished material in and for the erection of a building. Their lien attaches to the land as well as the MECHANIC. MEASE, or MESE. Norman-French for a house. Litt §§ 74, 251 MEASON-DUE. (Corruption of maison 4e Dieu.) A house of God; a monastery; religious house or hospital. See 39 Eliz. c. 5.

building, and is intended to secure for them •a priority of payment. The lien of a mechanic is created by law, and is intended to be a security for the price and value of work performed and materials furnished, and as such it attaches to and exists on the land and the building erected thereon, from the commencement of the time that the labor is being performed and the materials furnished; and the mechanic has an actual and positive interest in the build ing anterior to the time of its recognition by the court, or the reducing of the amount due to a judgment. First Nat. Bank v. Campbell, 24 Tex. Civ. App. 160, 58 S. W. 630; Carter v. Humboldt F. Ins. Co., 12 Iowa, 292; Barrows v. Baughman, 9 Mich. 217. MECHANICAL. Having relation to, or produced or accomplished by, the use of mechanism or machinery. Used chiefly in patent law. See compound terms infra. —Mechanical equivalent. A device which may be substituted or adopted, instead of an other, by any person skilled in the particular art from his knowledge of the art, and which is competent to perform the same functions or produce the same result, without introducing an original idea or changing the general idea of means. Johnson v. Root, 13 Fed. Cas. 823; Smith v. Marshall, 22 Fed. Cas. 595; Alaska Packers' Ass'n v. Letson (C. C.) 119 Fed. 611; Jensen Can-Filling Mach. Co. v. Norton, 67 Fed. 239, 14 C. C. A. 383; Adams Electric R. Co. v. Lindell R. Co., 77 Fed. 440, 23 a C. A. 223.—Mechanical movement. A mech anism transmitting power or motion from a driving part to a part to be driven; a com bination and arrangement of mechanical parts intended for the translation or transformation of motion. Campbell Printing Press Co. v. Miehle Printing Press Co., 102 Fed. 159, 42 C. C. A. 235.—Mechanical process. See PROCESS.—Mechanical skill. As distinguish ed from invention or inventive capacity, this term means such skill, intelligence, ingenuity, or constructive ability in the adaptation of means to ends as would be possessed and ex hibited by an ordinarily clever mechanic in the practice of his particular art or trade. See Hollister v. Benedict & B. Mfg. Co., 113 U. S. 59, 5 Sup. Ct. 717, 28 L. Ed. 901: John son Co. v. Pennsylvania Steel Co., 67 Fed. 942; Perfection Window Cleaner Co. v. Bos ley, 2 Fed. 577; Stimpson v. Woodman, 10 Wall. 117, 19 L. Ed. 866. MEDFEE. In old English law. A bribe or reward; a compensation' given in ex change, where the things exchanged were not of equal value. CowelL MEDIA ANNATA. In Spanish law. Half-yearly profits of land. McMullen v. Hodge, 5 Tex. 34, 79. MEDIA NOX. In old English law. Mid night Ad medium noctem, at midnight Fleta, lib. 5, c. 5, § 31. MEDLS2 ET INFIRMiE MANUS HOM INES. Men of a middle and base condition. Blount MEDERIA. In old records. A house or place where metheglin, or mead, was made.