KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

774

MKRCIS APPELLATIO

MERITORIOUS

Mercis appellatio ad res mobiles tan tvm pertinet. The term "merchandise" be longs to movable things only. Dig. 50, 16, 66. Mercis appellatione homines uon con tineri. Men are not included under the de nomination of "merchandise." Dig. 50, 16, 207. MERCY. In practice. The arbitrament of the king or judge in punishing offenses not directly censured by law. Jacob. So, "to be in mercy" signifies to be amerced or fined for bringing or defending an unjust suit, or to be liable to punishment in the discretion of the court. In criminal law. The discretion of a judge, within the limits prescribed by posi tive law, to remit altogether the punishment to which a convicted person is liable, or to mitigate the severity of his sentence; as when a jury recommends the prisoner to the mercy of the court MERE. Sax. A marsh. Spelman. MERE. L. Fr. Mother. JEle, mere, fUle, grandmother, mother, daughter. Britt. c. 89. En ventre so mere, in its mother's womb. MERE MOTION. The free and volun tary act of a party himself, done without the suggestion or influence of another person, is said to be done of his mere motion, ex mero motu, (g. v.) Brown. The phrase is used of an interference of the courts of law, who will, under some cir cumstances, of their own motion, object to an irregularity in the proceedings, though no objection has been taken to the informality by (he plaintiff or defendant in the suit. 3 Chit. Gen. Pr. 430. MERE RIGHT. The mere right of prop erty in land; the jus proprietatis, without either possession or even the right of pos session. 2 Bl. Comm. 197. The abstract right of property. MERE-STONE. In old English law. A stone for bounding or dividing lands. Yearb. P. 18 Hen. VI. 5. MERENNIUM. In old records. Timber. Cowell. MERETRICIOUS. Of the nature of un lawful sexual connection. The term is de scriptive of the relation sustained Dy per sons who contract a marriage that is void by reason of legal incapacity. 1 Bl. Comm. 436. MERGER. The fusion or absorption of one thing or right into another; generally spoken of a case where one of the subjects is of less dignity or importance than the

other. Here the less important ceases to have an independent existence. In real-property law. It is a general principle of law that where a greater estate and a less coincide and meet in one and the same person, without any intermediate es tate, the less is immediately annihilated, or, in the law phrase, is said to be merged, that is, sunk or drowned, in the greater. Thus, if there be tenant for years, and the reversion in fee-simple descends to or is purchased by him, the term of years is merged in the in heritance, and shall never exist any more. 2 Bl. Comm. 177; 1 Steph. Comm. 293; 4 Kent, Comm. 99. James v. Morey, 2 Cow. (N. Y.) 300, 14 Am. Dec. 475; Duncan v. Smith, 31 N. J. Law, 327. Of rights. This term, as applied to rights, is equivalent to "confusio" in the Ro man law, and indicates that where the quali ties of debtor and creditor become united in the same individual, there arises a confusion of rights which extinguishes both qualities; whence, also, merger is often called "extin guishment." Brown. Rights of action. In the law relating to rights of action, when a person takes or ac quires a remedy or security of a higher na ture, 4n legal estimation, than the one which he already possesses for the same right, then his remedies in respect of the minor right or security merge in those attaching to the higher one. Leake, Cont. 506; 10 O. B. 561. As where a claim is merged in the judgment recovered upon it. In criminal law. When a man commits a great crime which includes a lesser, or com mits a felony which includes a fort against a private person, the latter is merged in the former. 1 East, P. C. 411. Of corporations. A merger of corpora tions consist in the uniting of two or more corporations by the transfer of property of all to one of them, which continues in ex istence, the others being swallowed up or merged therein. In regard to the survivor ship of one of the constituent corporations, it differs from a "consolidation," wherein all the consolidating companies surrender their separate existence and become parts of a new corporation. Adams v. Yazoo & M. V. R. Co., 77 Miss. 194, 24 South. 200, 60 L. R. A. 33; Vicksburg & Y. C. Tel. Co. v. Citizens' Tel. Co., 79 Miss. 341, 30 South. 725, 89 Am. St. Rep. 656. MERIDIES. In old English law. Noon. Fleta, lib. 5, c. 5, § 31. MERITORIOUS. Possessing or charac terized by "merit" in the legal sense of the word. See MEBITS. — Meritorious cause of action. This de scription is sometimes applied to a person with whom the ground of action, or the consideration, originated or from whom it moved. For exam*