infant, n. 1. A newborn baby. 2. MINOR(1). “An infant in the eyes of the law is a person under the age of twenty-one years, and at that period (which is the same in the French and generally in the American law) he or she is said to attain majority; and for his torts and […]
fiduciary contract. Hist. An agreement by which one party delivers something to another on condition that the second party will return the thing to the first.
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cujus haeredibus maxime prospicitur (k[y]oo-j[schwa]s h[schwa]-red-i-b[ schwa]s mak-s[schwa]-mee proh-spis-i-t[schwa]r). [Latin] Hist. Whose heirs are chiefly regarded. “Cujus haeredibus maxime prospicitur…. This is a rule of construction to be attended to in ascertaining from the terms of a destination, in whom the fee of a property is vested, the ordinary rule being, that he is the
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Torrens system (tor-[schwa]nz ortahr-[schwa]nz). A system for establishing title to real estate in which a claimant first acquires an abstract of title and then applies to a court for the issuance of a title certificate, which serves as conclusive evidence of ownership. • This system — named after Sir Robert Torrens, a 19th-century reformer of
unconstitutional-conditions doctrine. Constitutional law. 1. The rule that the government cannot condition a person’s receipt of a governmental benefit on the waiver of a constitutionally protected right (esp. a right under the First Amendment). • For example, a television station that receives public funds cannot be forced to refrain from endorsing political candidates. [Cases: Constitutional
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feme (fem), n. [Law French] Archaic. 1. A woman. 2. A wife. — Also spelled femme. feme covert (fem k[schwa]v-[schwa]rt). [Law French “covered woman”] Archaic. A married woman. • The notion, as Blackstone put it, was that the husband was the one “under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing.” 1 William Blackstone,
check-kiting. The illegal practice of writing a check against a bank account with insufficient funds to cover the check, in the hope that the funds from a previously deposited check will reach the account before the bank debits the amount of the outstanding check. — Also termed kiting; check-flashing. [Cases: Banks and Banking 150. C.J.S.
time-place-or-manner restriction. Constitutional law. A government’s limitation on when, where, or how a public speech or assembly may occur, but not on the content of that speech or assembly. • As long as such restrictions are narrowly tailored to achieve a legitimate governmental interest, they do not violate the First Amendment. — Also written time,
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North Western Reporter. A set of regional lawbooks, part of the West Group’s National Reporter System, containing every published appellate decision from Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, from 1879 to date. • The first series ran from 1879 to 1941; the second series is the current one. — Abbr. N.W.;
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accounting. 1. The act or a system of establishing or settling financial accounts; esp., the process of recording transactions in the financial records of a business and periodically extracting, sorting, and summarizing the rec-orded transactions to produce a set of financial records. — Also termed financial accounting. 2. A rendition of an account, either voluntarily