Page:Black's Law Dictionary (Second Edition).djvu/178

Rh A head; the head of a person; the whole person; the life or a person; one‘s personality: status; civil condition.

At common law. A head.

Caput comiratis, the head or the county: the sheriff; the king. Spelmann.

A person; a life. The upper part of, a town. Cowell. A castle. Spelman.

In the civil law. It signified a person's civil condition or status, and among the Ro- mans consisted of three component parts or elements,—libertas. liberty; civitas, citizenship; and familia, family.

'—capitis æstinmtio. In Saxon law. The estimation or value of the him]. that is, the price or value of a man's life.—Caput anni. The first day of the year.—Caput baroniæ. The castle or chief seat of a barn.'—Caput jejunii The beginning of the Lent fast. i. e., Ash Wednesday.—Caput loci. The bond or upper part of a place.—Caput lupinum. in old English law. A wolf's head. An outlawed felon was said to be caput lupinum. and might be knocked on the hr-ail, like a woif.—Caput mortnum. A dead bend; dead; obselete. —Caput portus. In old English law. The head of a port. The town to which a part belongs, and which gives the denomination to the port, and is the hand of it Hale de Jure Mar. pt. 2, (de protubus maris) c. 2.—'''Caput. principum, et finis.'''}} The head, beginning, and end. A term applied in English law in the king, as head of parliament. 4 Inst, 3; 1 Bl. Comm. 188.

in old English law. Head or poll money, or the payment of it. Cowell; Blount.

In old English law. A head of land; a headland. Cowell.

} In old English law. A kind of raft or boat. Spelman.

A measure of weight for diamonds and other precious stones, equivalent to three and one-sixth grains Troy, though divided by jewelers into four parts called "diamond grains." Also a standard of flueness of gold. twenty-four carats being conventionally taken as expressing absolute purity, and the proportion of gold to alloy in a mixture being represented as so many carats.

In French law. An instrument of punishment, somewhat resembling a piliory. It sometimes signifies the punishment itself. Biret, Vocab.

A gaol; a prison.

In old English law. To load; to load a vessel; to freight.

Loaded: frelghted, as a ship.

Gaoi-dues: prison-fees.

A prison or gaol. Strictly, a place of detention and siife-keeping, and not of punishment. Co. Litt. 620.

'''Career ad homines custodiendos, non ad piiniendoa, dari debet. '''}} A prison should be used for keeping persons, not for punishing them. Co. Litt. 260a.

Career non supplicii causâ sed custdiaæ constitus. A prison is ordained not for the sake of punishment, but of detention and guarding. Lofft. 119.

In ecclesiastical law. A dignitary of the court at Rome, next in rank to the pope.

In criminal law. Small papers or pasteboards of anoblong or rectangular shame, on which are printed figures or points used in playing certain games. See Estes v. State, 2 Humph. (Tenn) 496: Commonwealth v. Arnold, 4 Pick. (Mass) 51; State V. Herryford, 19 Mo. 377; State v. Lewis, 12 Wis. 434.

As a legal term, this word means diligence, prudence, discretion, attentiveness, watchfulness, vigiliance. It is the opposite of negligence or carelessness.

There are three degrees of care in the law, corresponding (inversely) to the three degrees of negligence, viz.: slight (are, ordinarycare, and great care.

The exact boundaries between the several de- grees of care, and their correlative degrees of carelessness, or negligence, are not always clearly defined or easily pointed out. We think, however, that by "ordinary care" is meant that degree of care which may reasonably be expected from a person in the party's situation that is, "reasonable care:" and that "gross negligence" imports not a malicious intention or design to produce a particular injury, but a thoughtless disregard of consequences, the absence, rather than the actual exercise, of volition with reference to results. Neal v. Gilleti. 23 Conn. 443

Slight care is such as persons of ordinary prudence usally exercise about their own affairs of slight importance Rev. Codes N. D 1899, § 5109; Rev. St. Okl. 1903. § 27 82. Or it is that degree of care which a person exercises about his own concerns, though he may be a person of less than common prudence or of careless and inattentive disposition. Litchfield v. White. 7 N Y. 4-12. 57 Am. Dec. 53 : Bank v. Guilmartin. 93 Ga. 503. 21 S. E. 55, 44 Am. St. Rep. 182.

Ordinary care is that degree of care which persons of ordinary care and prudence are accustomed to use and employ, under the same or similar circumstances. in order to conduct the enterprise in which they are engaged to a safe and successful termination having due regard to the rights of others and the objects to be accomplished. Giinn v. Ralroad Co. 36 W. Va. 165. 14 S. E. 465. 32 Am. St. Rep. 842; Sullivan v. Scripture. 3 Allen (Mass.) 566; Osborn v. Woodford. 31 Kan. 290, 1 Par. 549: Railroad Co. v. Terry, S Ohio St. 570: Railroad 00. v. McCoy. 81 Ky. 403: Railroad Co. v. Howard, 79 Ga. 44. 3 S. E. 426: Paden v. Van Blarcom. 100 Mo. App. 185, 74 S. W. 124.

Great care is such as persons of ordinary prudence usually exercise about affairs of their