KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

935

PRESIDENT

PRESUMPTION

main direction and administration of their concerns. Roe v. Bank of Versailles, 167 Mo. 406, 67 S. W. 303. The chief executive magistrate of a state or nation, particularly under a democratic form of government; or of a province, col ony, or dependency. In English law. A title formerly given to theking's lieutenant in a province; as the president of Wales. Cowell. This word is also an old though corrupted form of "precedent," (q. v.,) used both as a French and English word. Le president est rare. Dyer, 136. —President of t h e council. In English law. A great officer of state; a member of the cab inet. He attends on the sovereign, proposes business at the council-table, and reports to the sovereign the transactions there. 1 Bl. Comm. 230.—President of theUnited States. The official title of the chief executive officer of the federal government in the United States. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS. A body of electors chosen in the different states, whose sole duty it is to elect a president and vice-president of the United States. Each state appoints, in such manner as the legis lature thereof may direct, a number of elect ors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state is entitled in congress. Const. U. S. art.2, § 1. PRESS. In old practice. A piece or skin of parchment, several of which used to be sewed together in making up a roll or rec ord of proceedings. See 1 Bl. Comm. 183; Townsh. PI. 486. Metaphorically, the aggregate of publica tions issuing from the press, or the giving publicity to one's sentiments and opinions through the medium of printing; as in the phrase "liberty of the press." PRESSING TO DEATH. See PEINE FOBTB ET DUBE. PREST. In old English law. A duty m money to be paid by the sheriff upon his ac count in the exchequer, or for money left or remaining in his hands. Cowell. P REST-MONET. A payment which binds those who receive it to be ready at all times appointed, being meant especially of soldiers. Cowell. PRESTATION. In old English law. A payment or performance; the rendering of a service. PRE STATION-MONEY. A sum of money paid by archdeacons yearly to their bishop; also purveyance. Cowell. PRESTIMONT, or PRiESTIMONlA. In canon law. A fund or revenue appropri PRESSING SEAMEN. See IMPRESS MENT.

ated by the founder for the subsistence of a priest, without being erected into any title or benefice, chapel, prebend, or priory. It is not subject to the ordinary; but of it the pa tron, and those who have a right from him, are the collators. Wharton.

PRESTJMPTIO. See PB.ESUMPTIO; PBE SUMPTION.

PRESUMPTION. An inference affirma tive or disaffirmative of the truth or false hood of any proposition or fact drawn by a process of probable reasoning in the absence of actual certainty of its truth or falsehood, or until such certainty can be ascertained. Best, Pres. § 3. A rule of law that courts and judges shall draw a particular inference from a particu lar fact, or from particular evidence, unless and until the truth of such inference is dis proved. Steph. Ev.4. And see Lane v. Mis souri Pac. Ry. Co, 132 Mo. 4, 33 S. W. 645; State v. Tibbetts, 35 Me. 81; Newton v. State, 21 Fla. 98; Ulrich v. Ulrich, 136 N. Y. 120, 32 N. E. 606, 18 L. R. A. 37; U, S. v. Sykes (D. C.) 58 Fed. 1000; Snediker v. Everingham, 27 N. J. Law, 153; Cronan v. New Orleans, 16 La. Ann. 374; U. S. v. Searcey (D. C.) 26 Fed. 437; Doane v. Glenn, 1 Colo. 495. A presumption is a deduction which* the law expressly directs to be made from particular facts. Code Civ. Proc. Cal. § 1959. Presumptions are consequences which the law or the judge draws from a known fact to a fact unknown. Civ. Code La. art. 2284. An inference affirmative or disaffirmative of the existence of a disputed fact, drawn by a ju dicial tribunal, by a process of probable reason ing, from some one or more matters of fact, either admitted in the cause or otherwise satis factorily established. Best, Pres. § 12. A presumption is an inference as to the exist ence of a fact not known, arising from its con nection with the facts that are known, and founded upon a knowledge of human nature and the motives which are known to influence hu man conduct. Jackson v. Warford, 7 Wend. (N. T.) 62. Classification.—Presumptions are either pre sumptions of law or presumptions of fact. "A presumption of law is a juridical postulate that a particular predicate is universally assignable to a particular subject. A presumption of fact is a logical argument from a fact to a fact; or, as the distinction is sometimes put, it is an argument which infers a fact otherwise doubt ful from a fact which is proved." 2 Whart. Ev. § 1226. See Code Ga. § 2752. And see Home Ins. Co. v. Weide, 11 Wall. 438, 20 L, Ed. 197; Podolski v. Stone, 186 111. 540, 58 N. E. 340; Mclntyre v. Ajax Min. Co., 20 Utah, 323, 60 Pac. 552; U. S. v. Sykes (D. C.) 58 Fed. 1000; SunMut. Ins. Co. v. Ocean Ins. Co., 107 U. S. 485, -1 Sup. Ct. 582, 27 L. Ed. 337; Lyon v. Guild, 5 Heisk. (Tenn.) 182; Com. v. Frew, 3 Pa. Co. Ct. R. 496. Presumptions of law are rules which, in cer tain cases, either forbid or dispense with any ul terior inquiry. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 14. Inferences or positions established, for the most part, by the common, but occasionally by the statute, law, which are obligatory alike on judges and juries. Best, Pres. § 15. ^Presumptions of fact are inferences as to the existence of some fact drawn from the existence