Latin for Lawyers

L ATIN FOR L AWYERS

COMMITTITUR An order providing that a defendant was to be taken into the custody of a sheriff. COMMODITY [L. commodare / to make fit, adapt, to furnish or give] Any article or product having economic value. An agricultural or manufac turing product which is traded in commerce. Any item of personal property which can be used in barter or sale. COMMON [L. communis / shared, common, universal] Concerning the community as a whole. Applying to the greatest number of persons. Occurring regularly. Also, in a different sense, vulgar, not in good taste, ordinary. Shared by all the members of the community, such as a com mon dining room or hall, or the Commons (a public park or center in a town, such as the Boston Common). Common stock is a class of stock issued by corporations, usually bearing the greatest risk but providing the greatest potential return. A tenancy in common is a tenancy in property in which two or more tenants or owners share the ownership but have no rights of survivor ship. A common easement is an easement shared by the dominant tenant and the servient tenant, i.e., a non-exclusive easement. COMMON LAW The body of law developed over the centuries in England and carried to and preserved in all the American states except the State of Louisiana. A body of law based upon the gradual development of rules and principles generally adhered to and preserved, reflected and defined in the decisions of the English and American courts. The remedies provided originally by the English law courts as distinguished from the relief under principles of equity supplied by the English chancery courts. COMMORIENTES [L. com + morior , mori / to die] Victims of a simultaneous death, as in a plane crash. Many states have simul taneous death statutes dealing with the disposition of the assets of commori entes in defined degrees of relationship. See SIMULTANEOUS (DEATH) COMMUNE BONUM [L. communis / common, general + bonus, bonum / good, moral] The common good, public welfare. COMMUNE VINCULUM [L. communis / common + vinculum / a chain] Common ties or bonds. Consanguinity.

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