LAW OF THE LAND

Due process of law (q. v.). By the law of the land is most clearly intended the general law which hears before it condemns, which proceeds upon inquiry, and renders judgment only after trial. Dupuy v. Tedora, 204 La. 560, 15 So.2d 886, 891. The meaning is that every citizen shall hold his life, liberty, property, and immunities under the protection of general rules which govern society.

 

CITIZEN

A member of a free city or jural society, (civitas,) possessing all the rights and privileges which can be enjoyed by any person under its constitution and government, and subject to the corresponding duties. "Citizens" are members of community inspired to common goal, who, in associated relations, submit themselves to rules of conduct for the promotion of general welfare and conservation of individual as well as collective rights. In re McIntosh, D.C.Wash., 12 F. Supp. 177.

The term appears to have been used in the Roman government to designate a person who had the freedom of the city, and the right to exercise all political and civil privileges of the government. There was also, at Rome, a partial citizenship, including civil, but not political rights. Complete citizenship embraced both. Thomasson v. State, 15 Ind. 451; 17 L.Q.Rev. 270; 1 Sel.Essays in Anglo-Amer.

L.H. 578. A member of a nation or body politic of the sovereign state or political society who owes allegiance, Luria v. U.S., 34 S.Ct. 10, 19, 231 U.S. 9,

 

One who, under the constitution and laws of the United States, or of a particular state, is a member of the political community, owing allegiance and being entitled to the enjoyment of full civil rights.  

Amy v. Smith, 1 Litt. (Ky.) 331; Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 162, 22 L.Ed. 627.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Amend. XIV, Const.

 

CIVIL LAW

"Civil Law," "Roman Law" and "Roman Civil Law" are convertible phrases, meaning the same system of jurisprudence. That rule of action which every particular nation, commonwealth, or city has established peculiarly for itself; more properly called "municipal" law, to distinguish it from the "law of nature," and from international law. See Bowyer, Mod. Civil Law, 19; Sevier Riley, 189. Cal. 170, 244 P. v.323, 325.

 

CIVILIAN

One who is skilled or versed in the civil law. A doctor, professor, or student of the civil law. Also a private citizen, as distinguished from such as belong to the army and navy or (in England) the church.

 

IGNORANCE 

The want or absence of knowledge.

Ignorance of law is want of knowledge or acquaintance with the laws of the land in so far as they apply to the act, relation, duty, or matter under consideration. Ignorance of fact is want of knowledge of some fact or facts constituting or relating to the subject-matter in hand. Marshall v.

Coleman, 187 Ill. 556, 58 N.E. 628.

Ignorance is not a state of the mind in the sense in which sanity and insanity are. When the mind is ignorant of a fact, its condition still remains sound; the power of thinking, of judging, of willing, is just as complete before communication of the fact as after ; the essence or texture, so to speak, of the mind, is not, as in the case of insanity, affected or impaired. Ignorance of a particular fact consists in this : that the mind, although sound and capable of healthy action, has never acted upon the fact in question, because the subject has never been brought to the notice of the perceptive faculties. Meeker v. Boylan, 28 N.J.Law, 274.

 

"Ignorance" and "error" or "mistake" are not convertible terms. The former is a lack of information or absence of knowledge; the latter, a misapprehension or confusion of information, or a mistaken supposition of the possession of knowledge. Error as to a fact may imply ignorance of the truth; but ignorance does not necessarily imply error. Cuibreath v. Culbreath, 7 Ga. 70, 50 Am.Dec. 375.

 

Culpable ignorance is that which results from a failure to exercise ordinary care to acquire knowledge, and knowledge which could be acquired by the exercise of ordinary care is by law imputed to the person and he is held to have constructive knowledge. Luck v. Buffalo Lakes, Tex. Civ.App., 144 S.W.2d 672, 676.

 

NOMEN

 Lat. In the civil law, a name; the name, style, or designation of a person. Properly, the name showing to what Bens or tribe he belonged, as distinguished from his own individual name, (the prcenomen,) from his surname or family name, (cog?wmen,) and from any name added by way of a descriptive title, (agnomen.) The name or style of a class or genus of persons or objects. A debt or a debtor. Ainsworth; Calvin.

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NOM DE GUERRE

An assumed name; pseudonym

[French, literally: war name]

Noun. 1. nom de guerre - a fictitious name used when the person performs a particular social role. anonym, pseudonym. name - a language unit by which a person or thing is known.

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STATUS

Standing, state or condition. Reynolds v. Pennsylvania Oil Co., 150 Cal. 629, 89 P.

610, 612. The legal relation of individual to rest of the community. Duryea v. Duryea, 46 Idaho

512, 269 P. 987, 988. The rights, duties, capacities and incapacities which determine a person to a given class. Camp b. Austin 137. A legal personal relationship, not temporary in its nature nor terminable at the mere will of the parties, with which third persons and the state are concerned. Holzer v. Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft, 159 Misc. 830, 290 N.Y.S. 181, 191. While term implies relation it is not a mere relation. De La Montanya v. De La Montanya, 112 Cal. 101, 115, 44 P. 345, 348, 32 L.R.A. 82, 53 Am.St.Rep. 165. It also means estate, because it signifies the condition or circumstances in which one stands with regard to his property. In the Year Books, it was used in this sense; 2 Poll. & Maitl. Hist, E. L.

 

MINOR

An infant or person who is under the age of legal competence. One under twenty-one.

A term derived from the civil law, which described a person under a certain age as less than

So many years. Minor viginti quinque annis, one less than twenty-five years of age. Inst. 1, 14, 2; Audsley v. Hale, 303 Mo. 451, 261 S.W. 117, 123.Also, less; of less consideration; lower; a person of inferior condition. Fleta, 2, 47, 13, 15; Calvin. /ETAS. Lat. Minority or infancy. Cro.Car. 516. Literally, lesser age

 

MINORITY

The state or condition of a minor; infancy.

 

IN PROPRIA PERSONA 

In one's own proper person.

 

IN PROPRIA

It is a rule in pleading that pleas to the jurisdiction of the court must be plead in propria persona, because if pleaded by attorney they admit the jurisdiction, as an attorney is an officer of the court, and he is presumed to plead after having obtained leave, which admits the jurisdiction.

 

Lawes, PI. 91. In some jurisdictions, however, this rule is no longer recognized. 1 C.J. 255.