KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

PRINCIPAL

939

PRIMO VENIENTI

PRINCIPAL. Chief; leading; highest in . rank or degree; most important or consider able; primary; original; the source of au thority or right. In the law relating to real and personal property, "principal" is used as the correla tive of "accessory," and denotes the more Im portant or valuable subject with which oth ers are connected in a relation of dependence or subservience, or to which they are inci dent or appurtenant In criminal law. A chief actor or per petrator, as distinguished from an "acces sary." A principal in the first degree is he that is the actor or absolute perpetrator of the crime; and, in the second degree, he who Is present, aiding and abetting the fact to be done. 4 Bl. Comm. 34. And see Bean v. State, 17 Tex. App. 60; Mitchell v. Com., 33 Grat (Va.) 868; Cooney v. Burke, 11 Neb. 258, 9 N. W. 57; Red v. State, 39 Tex. Cr. R. 667, 47 S. W. 1003, 73 Am. St Rep. 965; State v. Phillips, 24 Mo. 481; Travis v. Com., 96 Ky. 77, 27 S. W. 863. All persons concerned in the commission of crime, whether it be felony or misdemeanor, and whether they directly commit the act constitut ing the offense, or aid and abet in its commis sion, though not present, are principals. Pen. Code Dak. § 27. A criminal offender is either a principal- or an accessary. A principal is either the actor (i. e., the actual perpetrator of the crime) or else is present, aiding and abetting the fact to be done; an accessary is he who is not the chief actor in the offense, nor yet present at its performance, but is some way concerned therein, either before or after the fact commit ted. 1 Hale, P. C. 613. 618. In the law of guaranty and surety snip. The principal is the person primarily liable, and for whose performance of his ob ligation the guarantor or surety has become bound. In the law of agency. The employer or constitutor of an agent; the person who gives authority to an agent or attorney to do some act for him. Adams v. Whittlesey, 3 Conn. 567. One, who, being competent sui juris to do any act for his own benefit or on his own account, confides it to another person to do for him. 1 Domat, b. 1, tit. 15. The term also denotes the capital sum of a debt or obligation, as distinguished from in terest or other additions to it. Christian v. Superior Court, 122 Cal. 117, 54 Pac. 518. An heir-loom, mortuary, or corse-present Wharton. —Vice principal. In the law of master and servant, this term means one to whom the employer has confided the entire charge of the business or of a distinct branch of it, giving him authority to superintend, direct, and con trol the workmen and make them obey his or ders, the master himself exercising no particular oversight and giving no particular orders, or one to whom the master has delegated a duty of his own, which is a direct, personal, and ab solute obligation- See Durkin v. Kingston Coal Co.. 171 Pa, 193, 33 Atl. 237, 29 L. R. A. 808, 50 Am. St Rep. 801; Moore v. Rail-

full meaning of a word should be ascertained at the outset, in order that the sense may not be lost by defect of expression, and that the law be not without reasons. PRIMO VENIENTI. Lat To the one first coming. An executor anciently paid debts as they were presented, whether the assets were sufficient to meet all debts or not Stim. Law Gloss. PRIMOGENITURE. 1. The state of being the first-born among several children of the same parents; seniority by birth in the same family. 2. The superior or exclusive right pos sessed by the eldest son, and particularly, his right to succeed to the estate of his ancestor, in right of his seniority by birth, to the ex clusion of younger sons. PRIMOGENITUS. Lat In old English law. A first-born or eldest son. Bract fol. 33. PRIMUM DECRETUM. Lat. In the canon law. The first decree; a preliminary decree granted on the non-appearance of a defendant, by which the plaintiff was put in possession of his^ goods, or of the thing itself which was demanded. Gilb. Forum Rom. 32, 33. PRINCE. In a general sense, a sover eign; the ruler of a nation or state. More particularly, the son of a king or emperor, or the issue of a royal family; as princes of the blood. The chief of any body of men. Web ster. —Prince of 'Wales. The eldest son of the English sovereign. He is the heir-apparent to the crown. PRINCEPS. Lat. In the civil law. The prince; the emperor. Princeps et respublica ex justa causa possunt rem meaxa auferre. 12 Coke, 13. The prince and the republic, for a just cause, can take away my property. Princeps legibus solutus est. The em peror is released from the laws; is not bound by the laws. Dig. 1, 3, 31. Princeps mavult domesticos milites qnam stipendiaries bellicis opponere casibns. Co. Litt. 69. A prince, in the chances of war, had better employ domestic than stipendiary troops. PRINCES OF THE ROYAL BLOOD. In English law. The younger ^sons and daughters of the sovereign, and other branch es of the royal family who are not in the im mediate line of succession. PRINCESS ROYAL. In English law. The eldest daughter of the sovereign. 3 Steph. Comm. 450.