KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

933

PRESENCE

PRES

scription by which the ownership of proper ty is acquired, is a right by which a mere pos sessor acquires the ownership of a thing which he possesses by the continuance of his possession during the time fixed by law. The prescription by which debts are released, is a peremptory and perpetual bar to every species of action, real or personal, when the creditor has been silent for a certain time without urging his claim. Civ. Code La. arts. 3457-3459. In this sense of the term it is very nearly equivalent to what is else where expressed by "limitation of actions," or rather, the "bar of the statute of limita tions." "Prescription" and "custom" are frequently confounded in common parlance, arising perhaps from the fact that immemorial usage was es sential to both of them; but, strictly, they ma terially differ from one another, in that custom is properly a local impersonal usage, such as borough-English, or postremogeniture, which is annexed to a given estate, while prescription is simply personal, as that a certain man and his ancestors, or those whose estate he enjoys, have immemorially exercised a right of pasture-com mon in a certain parish. Again, prescription has its origin in a grant, evidenced by usage, and is allowed on account of its loss, either ac tual or supposed, and therefore only those things can be prescribed for which could be raised by a grant previously to 8 & 9 Vict c. 106, § 2; but this principle does not necessarily hold in the case of a custom. Wharton. The difference between "prescription," "cus tom," and "usage" is also thus stated: "Pre scription hath respect to a certain person who, by intendment may have continuance forever, as, for instance, he and all they whose estate he hath in such a thing,—this is a prescription; while custom is local, and always applied to a certain place, and is common to all; while usage differs from both, for it may be either to persons or places." Jacob. —Corporations by prescription. In Eng lish law. Those which have existed beyond the memory of man, and therefore are looked upon in law to be well created, such as the city of London.—Prescription act. The statute 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 71, passed to limit the period of prescription in certain cases.—Prescription in a que estate. A claim of prescription based on the immemorial enjoyment of the right claim ed, by the claimant and those former owners "whose estate" he has succeeded to and holds. See Donnell v. Clark, 19 Me. 182.—Time of prescription. The length of time necessary to establish a right claimed by prescription or a title by prescription. Before the act of 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 71, the possession required' to constitute a prescription must have existed "time out of mind" or "beyond the memory of man." that is, before the reign of Richard I.; but the time of prescription, in certain cases, was much shortened by that act. 2 Steph. Comm. 35. PRESENCE. The existence of a person in a particular place at a given time, partic ularly with reference to .some act done there and then. Besides actual presence, the law recognizes constructive presence, which lat ter may be predicated of a person who, though not on the very spot, was near enough to be accounted present by the law, or who was actively co-operating with another who was actually present See Mitchell v. Com., 33 Grat (Va.) 868.

T. Ashenfelter, 4 N. M. 93, 12 Pac. 879; State T. Archibald, 5 N. D. 359, 66 N. W. 234; Du luth Elevator Co. v. White, 11 N. D. 534, 90 N. W. 12; Attorney General v. Eau Claire, 37 Wis. 400.

PRES. L. Fr. Near. as near. See CY PRES.

Cy pre*, so near;

PRESBYTER. In civil and ec clesiastical law. An elder; a presbyter; a priest. Cod. 1, 3, 6, 20; Nov. 6. That part of the church where divine offices are performed; formerly applied to the choir or chancel, be cause it was the place appropriated to the bishop, priest, and other clergy, while the laity were confined to the body of the church. Jacob. Lat. PRESBYTERIUM. PRESCRIBE. To assert a right or title to the enjoyment of a thing, on the ground of having hitherto had the uninterrupted and immemorial enjoyment of it. To direct; define; mark out. In modern statutes relating to matters of an administra tive nature, such as procedure, registration, etc., it is usual to indicate in general terms the nature of the proceedings to be adopted, and to leave the details to be prescribed or regulated by rules or orders to be made for that purpose in pursuance of an authority contained in the act. Sweet And see Mans field v. People, 164 111. 611, 45 N. E. 976; Ex parte Lothrop, 118 U. S. 113, 6 Sup. Ct 984, 30 L. Ed. 108; Field v. Marye, 83 Va. 882, 3 S. E. 707. PRESCRIPTION. A mode of acquiring title to incorporeal hereditaments grounded on the fact of immemorial or long-continued enjoyment. See Lucas v. Turnpike Co., 36 W. Va. 427, 15 S. E. 182; Gayetty v. Bethune, 14 Mass. 52, 7 Am. Dec. 188; Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Hays, 11 Lea (Tenn.) 388, 47 Am. Rep. '291; Clarke v. Clarke, 133 Cal. 667, 66 Pac. 10; Alhambra Addition Water Co. v. Richardson, 72 Cal. 598, 14 Pac. 379; Stevens v. Dennett, 51 N. H. 329. Title by prescription is the right which a possessor acquires to property by reason of the continuance of his possession for a period of time fixed by the laws. Code Ga. 1882, i 2678. "Prescription" is the term usually applied to incorporeal hereditaments, while "adverse possession" is applied to lands. Hindley v. Metropolitan El. R. Co., 42 Misc. Rep. 56, 85 N. T. Supp. 561. In Louisiana, prescription is defined as a manner of acquiring the ownership of prop erty, or discharging debts, by the effect of time, and under the conditions regulated by law. Each of these prescriptions has its special and particular definition. The pre PRESCRIBABLE. That to which a right may be acquired by prescription.