TO DEFEND. To forbid. This word is used in some old English statutes in the sense it has in French, namely, to forbid. 5 Pic. 2, c. Lord Coke uses the...
DEFECT. The want of something required by law.2. It is a general rule that pleadings shall have these two requisites; 1. A matter sufficient in law. 2...
DEFAULT. The neglect to perform a legal obligation or duty; but in technical language by default is often understood the non-appearance of the defenda...
DEED POLL, contracts. A deed made by one party only is not indented, but polled or shaved quite even, and is, for this reason, called a deed poll, or ...
DEDICATION. Solemn appropriation. It may be expressed or implied.2. An express dedication of property to public use is made by a direct appropriation ...
DECREE, legislation. In some countries as in France, some acts of the legislature, or of the sovereign, which have the force of law, are called decree...
DECLARATORY. Something which explains, or ascertains what before was uncertain or doubtful; as a declaratory statute, which is one passed to put an en...
DECLARATION OF WAR. An act of the national legislature, in which a state of war is declared to exist between the United States and some other nation.2...
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. This is a state paper issued by the congress of the United States of America, in the name and by the authority of the peo...
TO DECEIVE. To induce another either by words or actions, to take that for true which is not so. Wolff, Inst. Nat. §356.DECEM TALES, practice. In...