Your Free Online Legal Dictionary • Featuring Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd Ed.

Category: P

PECUS

Lat. In Roman law. Cattle; a beast. Under a bequest of pccudes were in- cluded oxen and other beasts of burdeu. Dig. 32, 81, 2.

PELES

Issues arising from or out of a thing. Jacob.

PENETRATION

A term used in criminal law, and denoting (in cases of alleged rape) the insertion of the male part into the female parts to however slight an extent; and by which insertion

PER AND CUI

When a writ of entry is brought against a second alienee or de PER AND POST 889 PER MISADVENTURE scendant from the disseisor, It is said to be in. the per and

PER LEGEM TERRS

Lat. By the law of the land; by due process of law. U. S v. Kendall. 20 Fed. Cas. 74S; Appeal of Ervine, 10 Pa. 203. 55 Am. Dec. 499; Ithinehart v.

PER VISUM ECCLESLX

Lat In old English law. By view ol’ the church ; under the supervision of the church. The disposi- tion of intestates’ goods per visum ecciesiw was one of the articles confirmed

PEREMPTORY

Imperative; absolute; not admitting of question, delay, or recon PEREMPTORY 892 PERIL sideration. Positive; final; decisive; not admitting of any alternative. Self-determined ; arbitrary; not requiring any cause to be shown.

PERMISSION

A license to do a thing; an authority to do an act which, without such authority, would have been unlawful.

PERSONA

Lat. In the civil law. Character, in virtue of which certain rights belong to a man and certain duties are im- posed upon him. Thus one man may unite many characters, (persona;,)

PERTURBATION

In the English ecclesiastical courts, a “suit for perturbation of seat” is the technical name for an action growing out of a disturbance or infringement of one’s right to a pew or

PHAROS

A watch-tower, light-house, or sea-mark.

PIER

A structure extending from the solid land out Into the water of a river, lake, harbor, etc., to afford convenient passage for persons and property to and from vessels along the sides

PINCERNA

In old English law. Butler ; the king’s butler, whose office it was to select out of the cargo of every vessel laden with wine, one cask at the prow and another

PLACARD

An edict; a declaration; a manifesto. Also an advertisement or public notification.

PLAGIUM

Lat. In the civil law. Man-stealing; kidnapping. The offense of enticing away and stealing men, children, and slaves. Calvin. The persuading a slave to escape from his master, or tlie concealing or

PLEADINGS

The pleadings are the formal allegations by the parties of their respective claims and defenses, for the Judgment of the court. Code Civ. Proc. Cal. 8 420. The individual allegations of the

PLENA PROBATIO

In the civil law. A term used to signify full proof, (that is, proof by two witnesses,) in contradistinction to semi-plena probatio, which is only a pre- sumption. Cod. 4, 19, 5.

PLUNDER,

The most common meaning of the term “to plunder” is to take property from persons or places by open force, and this may be in course of a lawful war, or by

POISON

In medical jurisprudence. A substance having an inherent deleterious property which renders it, when taken into the system, capable of destroying life. 2 Whart. & S. Med. Jur.

POLYGAMY

In criminal law. The offense of having several wives or husbands at the same time, or more than one wife or husband at the same time. 3 Inst. 88. And see Reynolds

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