FEMALE. This term denotes the sex which bears young.

2. It is a general rule, that the young of female animals which belong to us, are ours, nam fetus ventrem sequitur. Inst. 2, 1, 19; Dig. 6, 1, 5, 2. The rule is, in general, the same with regard to slaves; but when a female slave comes into. a free state, even without the consent of her master, and is there delivered of a child, the latter is free. Vide Feminine; Gender; Masculine.

FEME, or, more properly,

FEMME. Woman.

2. This word is frequently used in law. Baron and feme, hushand and wife; feme covert, a. married woman; feme sole, a single woman.

3. A feme covert, is a married woman. A feme covert may sue and be sued at law, and will be treated as a feme sole, when the hushand is civiliter mortuus. Bac. Ab. Baron and Feme, M; see article, Parties to Actions, part 1, section l, §7, n. 3; or where, as it has been decided in England, he is an alien and has left the country, or has never been in it. 2 Esp. R. 554; 1 B. & P. 357. And courts of equity will treat a married woman as a, feme sole, so as to enable her to sue or be sued, whenever her hushand has abjured the realm, been transported for felony, or is civilly dead. And when she has a separate property, she may sue her hushand in respect of such property, with the assist ance of a next friend of her own selection. Story, Eq. Pl. §61; Story, Eq . Jur. §1368; and see article, Parties to a suit in equity, 1, n. 2; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.

4. Coverture subjects a woman to some duties and disabilities, and gives her some rights and immunities, to which she would not be entitled as a feme sole. These are considered under the articles, Marriage, (q. v.) and Wife. (q. v.)

5. A feme sole trader, is a married woman who trades and deals on her own account, independently of her hushand. By the custom of London, a feme covert, being a sole trader, may sue and be sued in the city courts, as a feme sole, with reference to her transactions in London. Bac. Ab. Baron and Feme, M. 6. In Pennsylvania, where any mariners or others go abroad, leaving their wives at shop-keeping, or to work for their livelihood at any other trade, all such wives are declared to be feme sole traders, with ability to sue and be sued, without naming the hushands. Act of February 22, 1718. See Poth. De la Puissance du Mari, n. 20.

7. By a more recent act, April 11, 1848, of the same state, it is provided, that in all cases where debts may be contracted for necessaries for the support and maintenance of the family of any married woman, it shall be lawful for the creditor, in such case, to institute suit against the hushand and wife for the price of such necessaries, and after obtaining a judgment, have an execution against the hushand alone and if no property of the said hushand be found, the officer executing the said writ shall so return, and thereupon an alias execution may be issued, which may be levied upon and satisfied out of the separate property of the wife, secured to her under the provisions of the first section of this act. Provided, That judgment shall not be rendered against the wife, in such joint action, unless it shall have be proved that the debt sued for in such action, was contracted by the wife, or incurred for articles necessary for the support of the family of the said hushand and wife.

FEMININE. What belongs to the female sex.

2. When the feminine is used, it is generally confined to females; as, if a man bequeathed all his mares to his son, his horses would not pass. Vide: 3 Brev. R. 9 Gender; Man; Masculine.

FENCE. A building or erection between two contiguous estates, so as to divide them; or on the same estate, so as to divide one part from another.

2. Fences are regulated by the local laws. In general, fences on boundaries are to be built on the line, and the expense, when made no more expensively than is required by the law, is borne equally between the parties. See the following cases on the subject. 2 Miles, 337, 395; 2 Greenl. 72; 11 Mass. 294; 3 Wend. 142; 2 Metc. 180; 15 Conn. 526 2 Miles, 447; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.

3. A partition fence is presumed to be the common property of both owners of the land. 8 B. & C. 257, 259, note a. When built upon the land of one of them, it is his; but if it were built equally upon the land of both, at their joint expense, each would be the owner in severalty of the part standing on his own land. 5 Taunt. 20; 2 Greenl. Ev. 617.

FEOD. The same as fief. Vide Fief or Feud.

FEOFFMENT, conveyancing. A gift of any corporeal hereditaments to another. It operates by transmutation of possession, and it is essential to its completion that the seisin be passed. Watk. Prin. Conv. 183. This term also signifiesthe instrument or deed by which such hereditament is conveyed.

2. This instrument was used as one of the earliest modes of conveyance of the common law. It signified, originally, the grant of a feud or fee; but it came, in time, to signify the grant of a free inheritance in fee, respect being had to the perpetuity of the estate granted, rather than to the feudal tenure. The feoffment was, likewise, accompanied by livery of seisin. The conveyance, by feoffment, with livery of seisin, has become infrequent, if not obsolete, in England; and in this country it has not been used in practice. Cruise, Dig. t. 32, c. 4. s. 3; Touchs. c. 9; 2 Bl. Corn. 20; Co. Litt. 9; 4 Kent, Com. 467; Perk.. c. 3; Com. Dig. h. t.; 12 Vin. Ab. 167; Bac. Ab. h. t. in pr.; Doct. Plac. 271; Dane's Ab. c. 104, a. 3, s. 4. He who gives or enfeoffs is called the feoffor; and the person enfeoffed is denominated the feoffee. 2 Bl. Com. 20. See 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 2045, note.

FERAE. Wild, savage, not tame.

FERAE BESTIAE. Wild beasts. See Animals; Ferae naturce.

FERAE NATURAE. Of a wild nature.

2. This term is used to designate animals which are not usually tamed. Such animals belong to the person who has captured them only while they are in his power for if they regain their liberty his property in them instantly ceases, unless they have animum revertendi, which is to be known only by their habit of returning. 2 Bl. Com. 386; 3 Binn. 546; Bro. Ab. Propertie, 37; Com. Dig. Biens, F; 7 Co. 17, b; 1 Chit. Pr. 87; Inst. 2, 1, 15; 13 Vin. Ab. 207.

3. Property in animals ferae naturae is not acquired by hunting them and pursuing them; if, therefore, another person kill such animal in the sight of the pursuer, he has a right to appropriate it to his own use. 3 Caines, 175. But if the pursuer brings the animal within his own control, as by entrapping it, or wounding it mortally, so as to render escape impossible, it then belongs to him. Id. Though if he abandons it, another person may afterwards acquire property in the animal. 20 John. 75. The owner of land has a qualified property in animals ferae naturae, when, in consequence of their inability and youth, they cannot go away. See Y. B. 12 H. VIII., 9 B, 10 A 2 Bl. Com. 394; Bac. Ab. Game. Vide Whelp.

FERM or FEARM. By this ancient word is meant land, fundus; (q. v.) and, it is said, houses and tenements may pass by it. Co. Litt. 5 a.

FERRY. A place where persons and things are taken across a river or other stream in boats or other vessels, for hire. 4 N. S. 426; S. C. 3 Harr. Lo. R. 341.

2. In England a ferry is considered a franchise which cannot be set up without the king's license. In most, perhaps all of the United States, ferries are regulated by statute.

3. The termini of a ferry are at the water's edge. 15 Pick. R. 254 and see 8 Greenl. R. 367; 4 John. Ch. R., 161; 2 Porter, R. 296; 7 Pick. R. 448; 2 Car. Law Repos. 69; 2 Dev. R. 403; 1 Murph. 279 1 Hayw. R. 457; Vin. Ab. h. t.; Com. Dig. Piscary B: 6 B. & Cr. 703; 12 East, R. 333; 1 Bail. R. 469; 3 Watts, R. 219 1 Yeates, R. 167; 9 S. & R. 26.

FERRYMAN. One employed in taking persons across a river or other stream, in boats or other contrivances at a ferry. The owner of a ferry is not considered a ferryman, when it is rented and in the possession of a tenant. Minor, R. 366.

2. Ferrymen are considered as common carriers, and are therefore the legal judges to decide when it is proper to pass over or not. 1 M'Cord, R. 444 Id. 157 1 N. & M. 19; 2 N. & M. 17. They are to regulate how the property to be taken across shall be put in their boats or flats; 1 M'Cord 157; and as soon as the carriage is fairly on the drop or slip of a fat, although driven by the owner's servant, it is in possession of the ferryman, and he is answerable. 1 M'Cord's R. 439.

FESTINUM REMEDIUM. A speedy remedy.

2. This is said of those cases where the remedy for the redress of an injury is given without any unnecessary delay. Bac. Ab. Assise, A. The action of Dower is festinum remedium, and so is Assise.

FETTERS. A sort of iron put on the legs of malefactors, or persons accused of crimes.

2. When a prisoner is brought into court to plead he shall not be put in fetters. 2 Inst. 315; 3 Inst. 34; 2 Hale, 119; Hawk. b. 21 c. 28, s. 1 Kel. 10; 1 Chitty's Cr. Law, 417. An officer having arrested a defendant on a civil suit, or a person accused of a crime, has no right to handcuff him unless it is necessary, or he has attempted to make his escape. 4 B. & C. 596; 10 Engl. C. L. Rep. 412, S. C.

FEUD. This word, in Scotland, signifies a combination of kindred to revenge injuries or affronts done to any of their blood. Vide Fief.

FEUDA. In the early feudal times grants were made, in the first place, only during the pleasure of the grantor, and called muncra; (q. v.) afterwards for life, called beneficia; (q. v.) and, finally, they were extended to the vassal and his sons, and then they acquired the name offeudal. Dalr. Feud. Pr. 199.

FEUDAL. A term applied to whatever concerned a feud; as feudal law: feudal rights.

FEUDAL LAW. By this phrase is understood a political system which placed men and estates under hierarchical and multiplied distinctions of lords and vassals. The principal features of this system were the following.

2. The right to all lands was vested in the sovereign. These were, parcelled out among the great men of the nation by its chief, to be held of him, so that the king had the Dominum directum, and the grantee or vassal, had what was called Dominum utile. It was a maxim nulle terre sans seigneur. These tenants were bound to perform services to the king, generally of a military character. These great lords again granted parts of the lands. they thus acquired, to other inferior vassals, who held under them, and were bound to perform services to the lord.

3. The principles of the feudal law will be found in Littleton's Tenures Wright's Tenures; 2 Blackstone's Com. c. 5 Dalrymple's History of Feudal Property; Sullivan's Lectures; Book of Fiefs; Spellman, Treatise of Feuds and Tenures; Le Grand Coutumier; the Salic Laws; The Capitularies; Les Establissements de St. touis; Assizes de Jerusalem; Poth. Des Fiefs. Merl. Rep. Feodalite; Dalloz, Dict. Feodalit 6; Guizot, Essais sur I'Histoire de France, Essai 5eme.

4. In the United States the feudal law never was in its full vigor, though some of its principles are still retained. "Those principles are so interwoven with every part of our jurisprudence," says Ch. J. Tilghman, 3 S. & R. 447, " that to attempt to eradicate them would be to destroy the whole. They are massy stones worked into the foundation of our legal edifice. Most of the inconveniences attending them, have been removed, and the few that remain can be easily removed, by acts of the legislature." See 3 Kent, Com. 509, 4th ed.

FIAR, Scotch law. He whose property is burdened with a life rent. Ersk. Pr. of L. Scot. B. 2, t. 9, s. 23.

FIAT, practice. An order of a judge, or of an officer, whose authority, to be signified by his signature, is necessary to authenticate the particular acts.

FICTION OF LAW. The assumption that a certain thing is true, and which gives to a person or thing, a quality which is not natural to it, and establishes, consequently, a certain disposition, which, without the fiction, would be repugnant to reason and to truth. It is an order of things which does not exist, but which the law prescribe; or authorizes it differs from presumption, because it establishes as true, something which is false; whereas presumption supplies the proof of something true. Dalloz, Dict. h. t. See 1 Toull. 171, n. 203; 2 Toull. 217, n. 203; 11 Toull. 11, n. 10, note 2; Ferguson, Moral Philosophy, part 5, c. 10, s. 3 Burgess on Insolvency, 139, 140; Report of the Revisers of the Civil Code of Pennsylvania, March 1, 1832, p. 8.

2. The law never feigns what is impossible fictum est id quod factum non est sed fieri potuit. Fiction is like art; it imitates nature, but never disfigures it it aids truth, but it ought never to destroy it. It may well suppose that what was possible, but which is not, exists; but it will never feign that what was impossible, actually is. D'Aguesseau, Oeuvres, tome iv. page 427, 47e Plaidoyer.

3. Fictions were invented by the Roman praetors, who, not possessing the power to abrogate the law, were nevertheless willing to derogate from it, under the pretence of doing equity. Fiction is the resource of weakness, which, in order to obtain its object, assumes as a fact, what is known to be contrary to truth: when the legislator desires to accomplish his object, he need not feign, he commands. Fictions of law owe their origin to the legislative usurpations of the bench. 4 Benth. Ev. 300.

4. It is said that every fiction must be framed according to the rules of law, and that every legal fiction must have equity for its object. 10 Co. 42; 10 Price's R. 154; Cowp. 177. To prevent, their evil effects, they are not allowed to be carried further than the reasons which introduced them necessarily require. 1 Lill. Ab. 610; Hawk. 320; Best on Pres. §20.

5. The law abounds in fictions. That an estate is in abeyance; the doctrine of remitter, by which a party who has been disseised of his freehold, and afterwards acquires a defective title, is remitted to his former good title; that one thing done today, is considered as done, at a preceding time by the doctrine of relation; that, because one thing is proved, another shall be presumed to be true, which is the case in all presumptions; that the heir, executor, and administrator stand by representation, in the place of the deceased are all fictions of law. "Our various introduction of John Doe and Richard Roe," says Mr. Evans, (Poth. on Ob. by Evans, vol. n. p. 43,) "our solemn process upon disseisin by Hugh Hunt; our casually losing and finding a ship (which never was in Europe) in the parish of St. Mary Le Bow, in the ward of Cheap; our trying the validity of a will by an imaginary, wager of five pounds; our imagining and compassing the king's death, by giving information which may defeat an attack upon an enewy's settlement in the antipodes our charge of picking a pocket, or forging a bill with force and arms; of neglecting to repair a bridge, against the peace of our lord the king, his crown and dignity are circumstances, which, looked at by themselves, would convey an impression of no very favorable nature, with respect to the wisdom of our jurisprudence." Vide 13 Vin. Ab. 209; Merl. Rep. h. t.; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; and Rey, des Inst. de I'Angl. tome 2, p. 219, where he severely cesures these fictions as absurd and useless.

FICTITIOUS Pretended; supposed; as, fictitious actions; fictitious payee.

FICTITIOUS ACTIONS, Practice. Suits brought. on pretended rights.

2. They are sometimes brought, usually on a pretended wager, for the purpose of obtaining the opinion of the court on a point of law. Courts of justice were constituted for the purpose of deciding really existing questions of right between parties, and they are not bound to answer impertinent questions which persons think proper to ask them in the form of an action on a wager. 12 East, 248. Such an attempt has been held to be a contempt of court; and Lord Hardwicke in such a case committed the parties and their attorneys. Rep. temp. Hardw. 237. See also Comb. 425; 1. Co. 83; 6 Cranch, 147-8. Vide Feigned actions.

3. The court of the king's bench fined an attorney forty pounds for stating a special case for the opinion of the court, the greater part of which statement was fictitious. 3 Barn. & Cr. 597; S. C. 10 E. C. L. R. 193.

FICTITIOUS PAYEE, contract. A supposed person; a payee, who has no existence.

2. When the name of a fictitious payee has been used, in making a bill of exchange, and it has been endorsed in such name, it is considered as having the effect of a bill payble to bearer, and a bona fide holder, ignorant of that fact, may recover on it, against all prior parties who were privy, to the transaction. 2 H. Bl. 178, 288; 3 T. R. 174, 182, 481; 3 Bro. C. C. 238. Vide Bills of Exchange, §1.

FIDEI-COMMISSARY, civil law. One who has a beneficial interest in an estate, which, for a time, is committed to the faith or trust of another. This term has nearly, the same meaning as cestui que trust has in our law. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1895, note.

FIDEI-COMMISSUM, civil law. A gift which a man makes to another, through the agency of a third person, who is requested to perform the desire of the giver. For example, when a testator writes, "I institute for my heir, Lucius Titius," he may add, "I pray my heir, Lucius Titius, to deliver, as soon as he shall be able, my succession to Caius Seius: cum igitur aliquis scripserit Lucius Tilius heres esto; potest ajicere, rogo te Luci Titi, ut cum poteris hereditatem meam adire, eam Caio Sceio reddas, restituas. Inst. 2, 23, 2; vide Code 6, 42.

2. Fidei-commissa were abolished in Louisiana by the code. 5 N. S. 302.

3. The uses of the common law, it is said, were borrowed from the Roman fidei-commissum. 1 Cru. Dig. 388; Bac. Read. 19; 1 Madd. Ch. 446-7.

4. The fidei-coimmissa of the civil law, have been supposed to resemble entails, though some writers have declared that the Roman law was a stranger to entails. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1708.

FIDE-JUSSIO, civil law. The contract of suretyship.

FIDE-JUSSOR, civil law. One who becomes security for the debt of another, promising to pay it in case the principal does not do so.

2. He differs from co-obligor in this, that the latter is equally bound to a debtor with his principal, while the former is not liable till the principal has failed to fulfil his engagement. Dig. 12, 4, 4; Id. 16, 1, 13; Id. 24, 3, 64; Id. 38, 1, 37; Id. 50, 17, 110, and 14, 6, 20; Hall's Pr. 33; Dunl. Ad. Pr. 300; Clerke's Prax. tit. 63, 4, 5.

3. The obligation of the fide-jussor was an accessory contract, for, if the principal obligation was not previously contracted, his engagement then took the name of mandate. Lec. Elem. §872; Code Nap. 2012.

FIDUCIA, civil law. A contract by which we sell a thing to some one, that is, transmit to him the property of the thing, with the solemn forms of emancipation, on condition that he will sell it back to us. This species of contract took place in the emancipation of children, in testaments, and in pledges. Poth. Pand. h. t.

FIDUCIARY. This term is borrowed from the civil law. The Roman laws called a fiduciary heir, the person who was instituted heir, and who was charged to deliver the succession to a person designated by the testament. Merl. Repert. h. t. But Pothier, Pand. vol. 22, h. t., says that fiduciarius heres properly signifies the person to whom a testator has sold his inheritance, under the condition that he should sell it to another. Fiduciary may be defined to be, in trust, in confidence.

2. A fiduciary contract is defined to be, an agreement by which a person delivers a thing to another, on the condition that he will restore it to him. The following formula was employed:' Ut inter bonos agere opportet, ne propter te fidemque tuam frauder. Cicer. de Offc. lib. 3, cap. 13; Lec. du Dr. Civ. Rom. §237, 238. See 2 How. S. C. Rep. 202, 208; 6 Watts & Serg. 18; 7 Watts, 415.

FIEF, or FEUD. In its origin, a fief was a district of country allotted to one of the chiefs who invaded the Roman empire, as a stipend or reward; with a condition annexed that the possessor should do service faithfully both at home and in the wars, to him by whom it was given. The law of fiefs supposed that originally all lands belonged to lords, who had had the generosity to abandon them to others, from whom the actual possessors derive their rights upon the sole reservation of certain services more or less onerous as a sign of superiority. To this superiority was added that which gives the right of dispensing justice, a right which was originally attached to all fiefs, and conferred upon those who possessed it, the most eminent part of public power. Henrion de Pansey, Pouvoir, Municipal; 2 Bl. Com. 45 Encyclop6die, h. t.; Merl. Rep. h. t.

FIELD. A part of a farra separately enclosed; a close. 1 Chit. Pr. 160. The Digest defines a field to be a piece of land without a house; ager est locus, que sine villa est. Dig. 50, 16, 27.

FIERI FACIAS, practice. The name of a writ of execution. It is so called because, when writs were in Latin, the words directed to the sheriff were, quod fieri facias de bonis et catallis, &c., that you cause to be made of the goods and chattels, &c. Co. Litt. 290 b.

2. The foundation of this writ is a judgment for debt or damages, and the party who has recovered such a judgment is generally entitled to it, unless he is delayed by the stay of execution which the law allows in certain cases after the rendition of the judgment, or by proceedings in error.

3. This subject will be considered with regard to, 1. The form of the writ. 2. Its effects. 3. The manner of executing it.

4.-1. The writ is issued in the name of the commonwealth or of the government, as required by the constitution, and directed to the sheriff, commanding him that of the goods and chattels, and (where lands are liable for the payment of debts, as in Pennsylvania,) of the lands and tenements of the defendant, therein named, in his bailiwick, he cause to be levied as well a certain debt of - dollars, which the plaintiff, (naming him) in the court of - (naming,it,) recovered against him, as - dollars like money which to the said plaintiff was adjudged for his daimages, which he had by the detention of that debt, and that he, (the sheriff,) have that money before the judges of the said court, on a day certain, (being the return day therein mentioned,) to render to the said plaintiff his debt and damages aforesaid, whereof the said defendant is convict. It must be tested in the name of the officer, as directed by the constitution or laws; as, "Witness the honorable John B. Gibson, our chief justice, at Philadelphia, the tenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight. It must be signed by the prothonotory, or clerk of the court, and sealed with its seal. The signature of the prothonotary, it has been decided, in Pennsylvania, is not indispensable. The amount of the debt, interest, and costs, must also be endorsed on the writ. This form varies as it is issued on a judgment in debt, and one obtained for damages merely. The execution being founded on the judgment, must, of course, follow and be warranted by it. 2 Saund. 72 h. k; Bing. on Ex. 186. Hence, where there is more than one one plaintiff or defendant, it must be in the name of all the plaintiffs, against all the defendants. 6 T. R. 525. It is either for the plaintiff or the defendant. When it is against an executor or administrator, for a liability of the testator or intestate, it is conformable to the judgment, and must be˜20only against the goods of the deceased, unless the defendant has made himself personally liable by his false pleading, in which case the judgment is de bonis testatoris si, et si non, de bonis propriis, and the fieri facias must conform to it.

5. - 2. At common law, the writ bound the goods of the defendant or party against whom it was issued, from the test day; by which must be understood that the writ bound the property against the party himself, and all claiming by assingment from, or by, representatives under him; 4 East, B. 538; so that a sale by the defendant, of his goods to a bona fide purchaser, did no protect them from a fieri facias tested before, although not issued or delivered to the sheriff till after the sale. Cro. Eliz. 174; Cro. Jac. 451; 1 Sid. 271. To remedy this manifest injustice, the statute of frauds, 29 Car. II. c. 3, s. 16, was passed. The principles of this statute have been adopted in most of the states. Griff. Law Reg. Answers to No. 38, under No. III. The statue enacts "that no writ of fieri facias, or other writ of execution, shall bind the property of the goods of the party, against whom such writ of execution is sued forth, but from the time that such writ shall be delivered to the sheriff, under-sheriff, or coroners, to be executed; and for the better manifestation of the said time, the sheriffs, &c., their deputies or agents, shall, upon the receipt of any such writ, (without fee for doing the sam,) endorse upon the back thereof, the day of the month and year whereon he or they received the same." Vide 2 Binn. R. 174; 2 Serg. & Rawle, 157; 2 Yeates, 177; 8 Johns. R. 446; 12 Johns. R. 320; 1 Hopk. R. 368; 3 Penna. R. 247; 3 Rawle, 401 1 Whart R. 377.

6. - 3. The execution of the writ is made by levying upon the goods and chattels of the defendant, or party against whom it is issued; and, in general, seizing a part of the goods in the name of the whole on the premises, is a good seizure of the whole. Ld. Raym. 725; 2 Serg. & Rawle, 142; 4 Wash. C. C. R. 29; but see 1 Whart. Rep. 377. The sheriff cannot break the outer door of a house for the purpose of executing a fieri facias; 5 do. 92; nor can a window be broken for this purpose. W. Jones, 429. See articles Door; House. He may, however, enter the house, if it be open, and, being once lawfully entered, he may break open an inner door or chest to seize the goods of the defendant, even without any request to open them. 4 Taunt. 619; 3 B. & P. 223; Cowp. 1. Although the sheriff is authorized to enter the house of the party to search for goods, he cannot enter that of a stranger, for that purpose, without being guilty of a trespass, unless the defendant's goods are actually in the house. Com. Dig. Execution, C 5: 1 Marsh. R. 565. The sheriff may break the outer door of a barn 1 Sid. 186; S. C. 1 Keb. 689; or of a store disconnected with the dwelling-house, and forming no part of the curtilage. 16 Johns. R. 287. The fi. fa. may be executed at any time before, and on the return day, but not on Sunday, where it is forbidden by statute. Wats. on Sheriffs, 173 5 Co. 92; Com. Dig. Execution, c. 5. Vide 3 Bouv. Inst. n. 3383, et. seq; Wats. on Sher. ch. 10; Bing. Ex. c. 1, s. 4; Gilb. on Exec. Index, h. t.; Grab. Pr. 321: Troub. & Hal. Pr. Index, h. t.; Com. Dig. Execution, C 4; Process, F 5, 7; Caines' Pr. Index, h. t.; Tidd's Pr. Index, h. t.; Sell. Pr. Index, h. t.

FIERI FECI, practice. The return which the sheriff, or other proper officer, makes to certain writs, signifying, "I have caused to be made."

2. When the officer has made this return, a rule may be obtained upon him, after the return day, to pay the money into court, and if he withholds payment, an action of debt may be had on the return, or assumpsit for money had and received may be sustained against him. 3 Johns. R. 183.

FIFTEENTH, Eng. law. The name of a tax levied by authority of parliament for the use of the king, which consisted of one-fifteenth part of the goods of those who are subject to it. T. L

FIGURES, Numerals. They are either Roman, made with letters of the Alphabet, for example, MIDCCLXXVI; or they are Arabic, as follows, 1776.

2. Roman figures may be used in contracts and law proceedings, and they will be held valid; but Arabic figures, probably owing to the case with which they may be counterfeited, or. altered, have been holden not to be sufficient to express the sum due on a contract; but, it seems, that if the amount payable and due on a promissory note be expressed in figures or ciphers, it will be valid. Story on Bills, §42, note; Story, Prom. Notes, §21. Indictments have been set aside because the day or year was expressed in figures. 13 Vin Ab. 210; 1 Ch. Rep. 319; S. C. 18 Eng. Com. Law Rep. 95.

3. Bills of exchange, promissory notes, cheeks and agreements of every description, are usually dated with Arabic figures; it is, however, better to date deeds and other formal instruments, by writing the words at length. Vide l Ch. Cr. L. 176; 1 Verm. R. 336; 5 Toull. n. 336; 4 Yeates, R. 278; 2 John. R. 233; 1 How. Mis. 256; 6 Blackf., 533.

FIGURES OF SPEECH. By figures of speech is meant that manner of speaking or writing, which has for its object to give to our sentiments and, thoughts a greater force, more vivacity and agreeableness.

2. This subject belongs more particularly to grammar and rhetoric, but the law has its figures also. Sometimes fictions come in aid of language, when found insufficient by the law; language, in its turn, by means of tropes and figures, sometimeslends to fictions a veil behind which they are hidden; sometimes the same denominations are preserved to things which have ceased to be the same, and which have been changed; at other times they lend to things denominations which supposed them to have been modified.

3. In this immense subject, it will not be expected that examples should be here given of every kind of figures; the principal only will be noticed. The law is loaded with abstract ideas; abstract in itself, it has often recourse to metaphors, which, as it were, touch our senses. The inventory is faithful, a defect is covered, an account is liquidated, a right is open or closed, an obligation is extinguished, &c. But the law has metaphors which are properly its own; as civil fruits, &c. The state or condition of a man who has been deprived by the law of almost all his social prerogatives or rights, has received the metaphorical name of civil death. Churches being called the houses of God, formerly were considered an asylum, because to seize a person in the house of another was considered a wrong. Mother country, is applied to the country from which people emigrate to a colony; though this pretended analogy is very different in many points, yet this external ornament of the idea soon became an integral part of the idea; and on the faith of this metaphor, this pretended filiation became the source whence flowed the duties which bound the colonies to the metropolis or mother country.

4. In public speaking, the use of figures, when natural and properly selected, is of great force; such Ornaments impress upon the mind of the bearers the ideas which the speaker desires to convey, fix their attention and disposes them to consider favorably the subject of inquiry. See 3 Bouv. Inst. n. 3243.

FILACER, FILAZIER, or FILZER, English law. An officer of the court of common pleas, so called because he files those writs on which he makes out process. FILE, practice. A thread, string, or wire, upon which writs and other exhibits in courts and offices are fastened or filed. for the more safe keeping and ready turning to the same. The papers put together in order, and tied in bundles, are also called a file.

2. A paper is said to be filed, when it is delivered to the proper officer, and by him received to be kept on file. 13 Vin. Ab. 211.