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In a narrower, judicial sense: Accident or casus, as distinguished from dolus and culpa, and hence relieving one from the duty of performing an obligation.

se statement in a fact material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a competent judicial proceeding. By statute the penalties of perjury are imposed on the making of willfully false affirmations.

A plea; a pleading; a judicial proceeding; a suit. Burrill.

A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas. See under Common. The Supreme Judicial Court shall have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed. Laws of Massachusetts.

A judicial and executive system, for the government of a city, town, or district, for the preservation of rights, order, cleanliness, health, etc., and for the enforcement of the laws and prevention of crime; the administration of the laws and regulations of a city, incorporated town, or borough.

rcise of his rights when such exercise becomes a danger to the community. The tendency of judicial and popular usage is towards this narrower definition.

A judicial decision which serves as a rule for future determinations in similar or analogous cases; an authority to be followed in courts of justice; forms of proceeding to be followed in similar cases. Wharton.

ect of inquiry; to give notice officially of, as a crime of offence; to find or represent judicially; as, a grand jury present certain offenses or nuisances, or whatever they think to be public injuries.

Of or pertaining to a pretor or magistrate; judicial; exercised by, or belonging to, a pretor; as, pretorian power or authority. Pretorian bands or guards, or Pretorians (Rom. Hist.), the emperor's bodyguards, instituted by the Emperor Augustus in nine cohorts of 1,000 men each. -- Pretorian gate (Rom. Antiq.), that o…

usively for the settlement of private and personal interests, of which courts do not take judicial notice; -- opposed to a general law, which operates on the whole community. -- Private nuisance or wrong. See Nuisance. -- Private soldier. See Private, n., 5. -- Private way, a right of private passage over another ma…

ndant into court to answer to the action; -- a generic term for writs of the class called judicial. Deacon's process Etym: [from H. Deacon, who introduced it] (Chem.), a method of obtaining chlorine gas by passing hydrochloric acid gas over heated slag which has been previously saturated with a solution of some metalli…

l nominations, direct election of United States senators, women's suffrage, and recall of judicial decisions in certain cases.

law, or to pursue for redress or punishment, before a legal tribunal; to proceed against judicially; as, to prosecute a man for trespass, or for a riot. To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes. Milton.

r equity, to obtain some right, or to redress and punish some wrong; the carrying on of a judicial proceeding in behalf of a complaining party, as distinguished from defense.

the king formerly exempted a person from arrest; -- now disused. [Eng.] Blackstone. (b) A judicial writ issued to a person required to attend court, as party, juror, etc., intended to secure him from arrest in coming, staying, and returning.

, an act or statute affecting matters of public concern. Of such statutes the courts take judicial notice. -- Public credit. See under Credit. -- Public funds. See Fund, 3. -- Public house, an inn, or house of entertainment. -- Public law. (a) See International law, under International. (b) A public act or statute.…

To follow a matter judicially, as a complaining party; to act as a prosecutor. Burrill.

Examination with reference to a decisive result; investigation; specifically, a judicial or official investigation; also, examination under torture. Blackstone. He that was in question for the robbery. Shak. The Scottish privy council had power to put state prisoners to the question. Macaulay.

dy was gradually stretched until, sometimes, the joints were dislocated; -- formerly used judicially for extorting confessions from criminals or suspected persons. During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used under the plea of political necessity. Macaula…

An official contemporaneous memorandum stating the proceedings of a court of justice; a judicial record.