Latin for Lawyers

IN CAPITE

IN CAPITE A feudal land interest or tenement held directly from the king. See CAPITE INCARCERATE [L. in + carcer, carcerare / prison, jail] To imprison or place in confinement. IN CASU CONSIMILI In a similar case. INCENDI CRIMEN [L. incendere / to set afire, to burn + crimen / accusation, crime] The crime of arson. INCEST [L. in / not + castus / chaste, pure, morally pure] Sexual intercourse or cohabitation between two persons so closely related to each other as to make marriage between them illegal; also, the crime of par ticipating in such intercourse. INCHOATE [L. inchoare / to begin work on] Partly or incompletely done or formed. Something not yet completed or fin ished. In criminal law, an inchoate offense is one in which the initial steps leading to another crime have been commenced but in which execution of that other crime is not yet complete. The offenses of attempt, solicitation, or conspiracy to commit a crime may all be described as inchoate offenses (see Model Penal Code). INCHOATE DOWER [INCHOATE RIGHT OF DOWER] The contingent life interest which a wife has in her husband’s lands prior to his death and which ripens and becomes effective only if she survives him. Her inchoate right could not be defeated by a transfer of title to others by the husband. The right of dower has now been eliminated in all but a handful of states. INCHOATE INSTRUMENT An instrument which has been executed and delivered by one party to another and is therefore effective as between the two parties and their assigns, but which requires recording or registration before it is effective against third persons without notice. INCHOATE INTEREST An interest in real property which ripens only upon the happening of a later condition or event and which is subject to being barred, divested, extin guished or terminated upon failure of that condition or event.

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