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certus plegius (sar-tas plee-jee-as). [Latin "sure pledge"] See SALVUS PLEGIUS.

certworthy (Of a case or issue) deserving of review by writ of certiorari. certworthiness, n.

cess (ses), 1. English law. An assessment or tax. 2. Scots law. A land tax. - Also spelled cesse; sess.

cessation-of-production clause Oil & gas. A lease provision that specifies what the lessee must do to maintain the lease if production stops . The purpose of the clause is to avoid the uncertainties of the temporarycessation-of-production doctrine. Cf. TEMPORARY-CESSATION-OF-PRODUCTION DOCTRINE. "Many oil and gas leases contain provisions intended to give lessees more certainty than is given by the temporary cessation of production doctrine. Usually, such provision takes the form of a temporary cessation of production clause, a provision in the lease that states that the lease will be maintained so long as production does not cease for more than an agreed period of time, usually sixty to ninety days so long as sixty days does not elapse without operations on the property, the lease will not terminate even though there is no production." John S. Lowe, Oil and Gas Law in a Nutshell 258 (3d ed. 1995).

cessavit per biennium (se-say-vit par bI-en-ee-am). [Latin "he ceased for two years"] Hist. A writ of right available to a landlord to recover land from a tenant who has failed to pay rent or provide prescribed services for a two year period . The writ could also be used to recover land donated to a religious order if the order has failed to perform certain spiritual services. Also termed cessavit.

cesse See CESS.

cesser (ses-ar). 1. A tenant whose failure to pay rent or perform prescribed services gives the landowner the right to recover possession of the land. - Also spelled cessor; cessure. 2. The termination of a right or interest. "A proviso of cesser is usually annexed to long terms, raised by mortgage, marriage settlement, or annuity, whereby the term is declared to be determinable on the happening of a certain event; and until the event provided for in the declaration of cesser has occurred, the term continues." 4 James Kent, Commentaries on American Law'90 (George Comstock ed., 11th ed. 1866). "The cesser of a term, annuity or the like takes place when it determines or comes to an end. The expression was formerly chiefly used with reference to long terms of years created by a settlement for the purpose of securing portions, etc., given to the objects of the settlement. In such cases, it was usual to introduce a proviso that the term should cease when the trusts thereof were satisfied (as, for example, on the death of the annuitant where the term was created to secure an annuity). This was called a proviso for cesser." jowitt's Dictionary of English Law 308 Uohn Burke ed., 2d ed. 1977).

cesset executio (ses-at ek-sa-kyoo-shee-oh). [Latin "let execution stay"] An order directing a stay of execution.

cesset processus (ses-at proh-ses-as). {Latin "let process stay"] An order entered on the record directing a stay of a legal proceeding.

cessio (sesh-ee-oh). [Latin "cession"] A relinquishment or assignment; CESSION.

cessio actionum (sesh-ee-oh ak-shee-oh-nam). [Latin] Roman law. The assignment of an obligation by allowing a third party to (1) sue on the obligation in the name of the party entitled to it, and (2) retain the proceeds.

cessio bonorum (sesh-ee-oh ba-nor-am). [Latin "cession of goods"] Roman law. An assignment of a debtor's property to creditors. "It was the Roman equivalent of modern bankruptcy [O]ne who thus made cessio bonorum would not become infamis, was never liable in future beyond his means, for the old debts, and was not liable to personal seizure thereafter in respect ofthem."W.w. Buckland, A Manual of Roman Private Law 388 (2d ed. 1939).

cessio fori (sesh-ee-oh for-I). [Latin], The giving up ofbusiness; the act of becoming bankrupt.

cessio in jure (sesh-ee-oh in joor-ee). [Latin "transfer in law"] Roman law. A fictitious action brought to convey property, whereby the claimant demanded certain property, the owner did not contest the claim, and a magistrate awarded the property to the claimant.

cession (sesh-an). 1. The act of relinquishing property rights. 2. Int'llaw. The relinquishment or transfer of land from one nation to another, esp. after a war. as part of the price of peace. 3. The land so relinquished or transferred.

cessionary bankrupt Archaic. A person who forfeits all property so that it may be divided among creditors. For the modern near-equivalent, see CHAPTER 7.

cessionary bankrupt- See BANKRUPT.

cessment (ses-mant). An assessment or tax.

cessor See CESSER.

cessure See CESSER.

cestui (set-ee or ses-twee). [French "he who"]. A beneficiary. Also spelled cestuy.

cestui que trust (set-ee [or ses-twee] kee [or ka] trast). [Law French]. One who possesses equitable rights in property, usu. receiving the rents, issues, and profits from it; BENEFICIARY. Also termed fide-commissary;fidei-commissarius. PI. cestuis que trust or (erroneously) cestuis que trustent."[A]n alternative name for the beneficiary is 'cestui que trust,' an elliptical phrase meaning 'he [for]= whose [benefit the] trust [was created]. In this phrase cestui is pronounced 'settee' (with the accent on the first syllable), que is pronounced 'kee,' and trust as in English. Grammatically the plural should be cestuis que trust(pronounced like the singular); but by an understandable mistake it is some· times written cestuis que trustent, as if trust were a verb." Glanville Williams, Learning the Law 10 (11th ed. 1982).

cestui que use (set-ee [or ses-twee] kee [or ka] yoos). [Law French].The person for whose use and benefit property is being held by another, who holds the legal title to the property. PI. cestuis que use or (erroneously) cestuis que usent. "The basis of this institution was the transfer of property to a trusted friend, who was to hold it not for personal benefit but for the purpose of carrying out the transferor's instructions. The person to whom the land was conveyed for this purpose was the 'feoffee to uses'; the person for whose benefit the land was conveyed the beneficiary - was the 'cestui que use' from the law French 'cestui a que use Ie feoffment fuit fait,''' Peter Butt, Land Law § 702, at 97 (3d ed. 1996).

cestui que vie (set-ee [or ses-twee] kee [or ka] vee). [Law French]. The person whose life measures the duration of a trust, gift, estate, or insurance contract. Cf. MEASURING LIFE. "[L]et us assume that A instead transfers 'to E for the life of A.' Since A has used his own life as the measuring life of E's estate, A has given away all that he had. Because E's estate is measured by the life of someone other than himself, his estate is called an estate pur autre vie. A, whose life is the measuring life, is called the cestui que vie." Thomas F. Bergin & Paul C. Haskell, Preface to Estates in Land and Future Interests 36 (2d ed. 1984).

cestuy See CESTUI.

ceteris paribus (set-a-ris par-a-bas). [Latin] Other things being equal. Also spelled caeteris paribus.

ceteris tacentibus (set-a-ris ta-sen-ta-bas). [Latin]. The others being silent. This phrase appeared in serially printed law reports after an opinion by one judge. It referred to the judges who did not vote or express an opinion. Also spelled caeteris tacentibus. See SERIATIM.

cf [Latin confer]. Compare. As a citation Signal, cf. directs the reader's attention to another authority or section of the work in which contrasting, analogous, or explanatory statements may be found.

cfc See controlled foreign corporation under CORPORATION.

cfo CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER.

cfp CertifIed financial planner. See FDIANCIAL PLANNER.

cfr 1. CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS. 2. COST AND FREIGHT.

cftc COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION.

cgl insurance See comprehensive general-liability insurance under INSURANCE.

cgl policy 1. See commercial general-liability policy under INSURANCE POLICY. 2. See comprehensive general-liability policy under INSURANCE POLICY.

ch 1. Chapter. 2. Chancellor. 3. Chancery. 4. Chief.

chace act Copyright. An 1891 statute giving U.S. copyright protection to the citizens of other nations that in turn gave a similar degree of reciprocal protection to U.S. citizens. The Act was invoked by presidential order or by treaty, primarily with European countries. Under the Act's manufacturing clause, English-language books and other printed matter had to be produced in the U.S. or Canada in order to qualify for domestic protection. Also termed 1891 Copyright Amendment Act.

chad The small bit of precut paper that is attached to a punch-card ballot by several points and punched out by a voter to cast a vote. Because most punch-card ballots are machine-read, the chad must be completely separated from the ballot for the vote to be counted. The results of the closely contested 2000 presidential election were delayed for several weeks because more than 40,000 ballots with partially attached chads had to be hand counted.

chafewax (chayf-waks). A chancery officer who heated (or chafed) wax to seal writs, commissions, and other instruments. The office was abolished in 1852. Also spelled chaffwax.

chaffer (chaf-ar), To bargain; negotiate; haggle; dicker. For offer to chaffer, see INVITATION TO NEGOTIATE.

chain conspiracy See CONSPIRACY.

chain conspiracy- A single conspiracy in which each person is responsible for a distinct act within the overall plan, such as an agreement to produce, import, and distribute narcotics in which each person performs only one function. All participants are interested in the overall scheme and liable for all other participants' acts in furtherance of that scheme. "In a 'chain' conspiracy, the court looks to whether the parties serve as links in a chain. In Blumenthal v. United States (1947), the Supreme Court found that the parties had agreed to sell liquor at prices exceeding the ceiling set by regulations of the Office of Price Administration. The Court found that the agreements were steps in the formulation of one larger general conspiracy. By reason of all having knowledge of the plan's general scope and common end, the disposing of whiskey, they could be drawn together in a single conspiracy." Ellen S. Podgor &Jerold H. Israel, White Collar Crime in a Nutshell 52 (2d ed. 1997).

chain gang A group of prisoners chained together to prevent their escape while working outside a prison.

chain of causation 1. A series of events each caused by the previous one. 2. The causal connection between a cause and its effects. Cf. CAUSATION.

chain of custody 1. The movement and location of real evidence, and the history of those persons who had it in their custody, from the time it is obtained to the time it is presented in court. "Chain of custody requires testimony of continuous possession by each individual having possession, together with testimony by each that the object remained in substantially the same condition during its presence in his possession. All possibility of alteration, substitution or change of condition need not be eliminated. For example, normally an object may be placed in a safe to which more than one person had access without each such person being produced. However the more authentication is genuinely in issue, the greater the need to negate the possibility of alteration or substitution." Michael H. Graham, Federal Rules of Evidence In a Nutshell 402 (3d ed. 1992). 2. The history of a chattel's possession. - Also termed chain of possession.

chain of title 1. The ownership history of a piece of land, from its first owner to the present one. Also termed line of title; string of title. 2. The ownership history of commercial paper, traceable through the indorsements. For the holder to have good title, every prior negotiation must have been proper. If a necessary indorsement is missing or forged, the chain of title is broken and no later transferee can become a holder.

chain-certificate method The procedure for authenticating a foreign official record by the party seeking to admit the record as evidence at trial. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 44.

chain-of-causation rule Workers' compensation. The principle that an employee's suicide is compensable under workers' compensation statutes if the employee suffered an earlier work-related injury that led to a mental disorder resulting in the suicide.

chain-referral scheme See PYRAMID SCHEME.

chair 1. A deliberative assembly's presiding officer <the chair calls for order>. See PRESIDE. 2. The presiding officer's seat <take the chair>. 3. The officer who heads an organization <the treasurer reports directly to the chair>. Also termed chairman (of a male chair, in senses 1 & 3); chairwoman (of a female chair, in senses 1 & 3); chairperson (in senses 1 & 3); moderator (in sense 1); president (in senses 1 & 3); presiding officer (in sense 1); speaker (in sense 1). chair, vb. "The term the chair refers to the person in a meeti ng who is actually presiding at the time, whether that person is the regular presiding officer or not, The same term also applies to the presiding officer's station in the hall from which he or she presides, which should not be permitted to be used by other members as a place from which to make reports or speak in debate during a meeting, ..." Henry M, Robert, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised § 47, at 433 (1 Oth ed. 2000),

chair by decree A chair appointed by an outside authority rather than elected by the deliberative assembly being presided over.

chairman See CHAIR.

chairman of committees of the whole house The member of Parliament who presides over the House of Commons when it is sitting in committee.

chairperson See CHAIR.

chairpro tempore A chair elected or appointed during or in anticipation of the regular presiding officer's (or officers') absence from the chair, and whose service ends when a regular presiding officer resumes the chair. Often shortened to chair pro tern. See PRO TEMPORE.

chairwoman See CHAIR.

challenge 1. An act or instance offormally questioning the legality or legal qualifications of a person, action, or thing <a challenge to the opposing party's expert witness>.

challenge- 1. To dispute or call into question <the columnist challenged the wisdom of the court's ruling>.

challenge propter affectum (prop-tar a-fek-tam). A challenge because some circumstance, such as kinship with a party, renders the potential juror incompetent to serve in the particular case.

challenge propter defectum (prop-tar da-fek-tam). A challenge based on a claim that the juror is incompetent to serve on any jury for a reason such as alienage, infancy, or nonresidency.

challenge propter delictum (prop-tar da-lik-tam). A challenge based on a claim that the potential juror has lost citizenship rights, as by being convicted ofan infamous crime. See civil death (1) under DEATH.

challenge the vote See DIVIDE THE ASSEMBLY. 2. To formally object to the legality or legal qualifications of <the defendant challenged the person's eligibility for jury service>.

challenge to the array A legal challenge to the manner in which the entire jury panel was selected, usu. for a failure to follow prescribed procedures designed to produce impartial juries drawn from a fair cross-section of the community. Such a challenge is either a principal challenge (if some defect renders the jury prima facie incompetent, as where the officer selecting veniremembers is related to the prosecutor or defendant) or a challenge for favor (as where the defect does not amount to grounds for a principal challenge, but there is a probability of partiality). Also termed challenge to the jury array.

challenge to the favor A challenge for cause that arises when facts and circumstances tend to show that a juror is biased but do not warrant the juror's automatic disqualification. See challenge for cause.

challenge to the poll See challenge for cause.

challengefor cause A party's challenge supported by a specified reason, such as bias or prejudice, that would disqualify that potential juror. Also termed for-cause; causal challenge; general challenge; challenge to the poll.

chamber 1. A room or compartment <gas chamber>. 2. A legislative or judicial body or other deliberative assembly <chamber of commerce>. 3. The hall or room where such a body conducts business <the senate chamber>. chamber, adj.

chamber- (Of a judge) to sit in one's chambers at a given location <ChiefJudge Kaye chambers sometimes in New York City and sometimes in Albany>. chamber business. (1805) Official judicial business conducted outside the courtroom.

chamber of accounts A court responsible for adjudicating disputes concerning public-revenue collection. Cf. COURT OF EXCHEQUER.

chamber of commerce An association of merchants and other business leaders who organize to promote the commercial interests in a given area and whose group is generally affiliated with the national organization of the same name.

chamberlain (chaym-bar-lin). A treasurer; originally, the keeper of the royal treasure chamber. The term has been used for several high offices in England, such as the Lord Great Chamberlain, Lord Chamberlain of the Household, and Chamberlain of the Exchequer.

chamberlaria (chaym-bar-Iair-ee-a). [Law Latin] Chamberlainship; the office of chamberlain.

champertor (cham-par-tar), A person who engages in champerty; one who supports and promotes another person's lawsuit for pecuniary gain. Also termed (archaically) campiparticeps. Cf. BARRATOR.

champertous (cham-par-tas), Of, relating to, or characterized by champerty; constituting champerty <a champertous contract>. "In England and many other countries, the contingent fee is prohibited as a form of champerty because it permits a client to carryon litigation in exchange for a promise to the lawyer of a share in the recovery. Although most states in the United States prohibit a lawyer from accepting an assignment of a percentage of the client's cause of action as a legal fee, they do not similarly condemn, as champertous, contingent fees whereby the lawyer receives a percentage of the recovery as a fee and no fee at all if there is no recovery." Robert H. Aronson & Donald T. Weckstein, Professional Responsibility in a Nutshell 271-72 (2d ed. 1991).

champerty (cham-par-tee), [fr. French champs parti "split field"]. 1. An agreement between an officious intermeddler in a lawsuit and a litigant by which the intermeddler helps pursue the litigant's claim as consideration for receiving part ofany judgment proceeds; specif., an agreement to divide litigation proceeds between the owner of the litigated claim and a party unrelated to the lawsuit who supports or helps enforce the claim. Also termed (archaically) campipartia. Cf. BARRATRY; MAINTENANCE (6). "There is disagreement in the American courts as to what constitutes champerty. (1) Some courts hold that an agreement to look to the proceeds of the suit for compensation is champerty.... (2) Some courts hold that in addition the attorney must prosecute the suit at his own cost and expense to constitute champerty .... (3) Some courts hold even in a case like (2) that there is no champerty .... (4) All authorities agree that a contract for a contingent fee is not champerty if it is not to be paid out of the proceeds of the suit .... (5) In some states it is declared that the common law doctrines of maintenance and champerty are unknown ... ; in some the matter is regulated wholly by statute .... [AJnd in most there is a marked tendency to narrow the doctrines of champerty or to evade them." William R. Anson, Principles of the Law of Contract 294 n.2 (Arthur L Corbin ed., 3d Am. ed. 1919). "The rule as to champerty has been generally relaxed under modern decisions and a majority of courts now recognize that an agreement by which the attorney is to receive a contingent fee, i.e., a certain part of the avails of a suit or an amount fixed with reference to the amount recovered, is valid as long as the attorney does not agree to pay the expenses and costs of the action." Walter Wheeler Cook, "Quasi-Contracts," in 1 American Law and procedure 129(1952).

champion A person chosen to represent a defendant in trial by combat. If the champion lost, the defendant was adjudged gUilty. A champion who survived was fined for intentionally or ignorantly defending an unjust cause; one who died was buried in unhallowed ground. See TRIAL BY COMBAT.

chance 1. A hazard or risk. 2. The unforeseen, uncontrollable, or unintended consequences of an act. 3. An accident. 4. Opportunity; hope.

chance bargain A transaction in which the parties mutually agree to accept the risk that facts and circumstances assumed by the parties at the time of contracting may not actually be what the parties believe they are. If no fraud or misrepresentation is involved, a court will uphold a chance bargain. For instance, in a chance bargain involving a land swap, each deed may describe a tract as containing a number of acres "more or less." If the tract is actually larger than described, the seller cannot demand more money for the excess. And if the tract is actually smaller, the disappointed buyer cannot ask for a reduced price to make up for the deficiency.

chance verdict See VERDICT.

chancellor 1. A judge serving on a court of chancery. 2. A university president or CEO ofan institution of higher education. 3. In the U.S., a judge in some courts of chancery or equity. 4. Scots law. The presiding juror. 5. Eccles. law. A law officer who presides over the bishop's court. The chancellor advises and assists the bishop in all matters of canon law, both juridical and administrative. chancellorship, n.

chancellor of the exchequer In England, a government minister who controls revenue and expenditures. Formerly, the Chancellor sat in the Court of Exchequer.

Chancellor, Lord See LORD CHANCELLOR.

chancellor's foot A symbol of the variability of equitable justice. -John Selden, the 17th-century jurist, is thought to have coined the phrase in this passage, from his best-known book: "Equity is a roguish thing. For law we have a measure, know what to trust to: equity is according to the conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower, so is equity. 'Tis all one as if they should make the standard for the measure the Chancellor's foot. What an uncertain measure would this be! One Chancellor has a long foot, another a short foot, a third an indifferent foot; 'tis the same thing in the Chancellor's conscience." Table Talk (1689).

chance-medley [fr. Anglo-Norman chance medlee "chance scuffle"] A spontaneous fight during which one participant kills another in self-defense. Also termed chaud-medley; casual affray. Cf. MEDLEY. "But the self-defence, which we are now speaking of, is that whereby a man may protect himself from an assault, or the like, in the course of a sudden brawl or quarrel, by killing him who assaults him. And this is what the law expresses by the word chance-medley, or (as some rather choose to write it) chaud-medley; the former of which in its etymology signifies a casual affray, the latter an affray in the heat of blood or passion: both of them of pretty much the same import; but the former is in common speech too often erroneously applied to any manner of homicide by misadventure; whereas it appears that it is properly applied to such killing, as happens in self-defence upon a suddenrencounter." 4 William Blackstone. Commentaries on the Laws of England 184 (1769).

chance-of-survival doctrine The principle that a wrongful-death plaintiff need only prove that the defendant's conduct was a substantial factor in causing the death that is, that the victim might have survived but for the defendant's conduct.

chancer (chan-sar), To adjust according to equitable principles, as a court of chancery would. The practice arose in parts of New England when the courts had no equity jurisdiction, and were compelled to act on equitable principles. "The practice of 'chancering' is a very old one. A forfeiture could be 'chancered' under a law of 1699 .... Adjudged cases in 1630-1692 may be found in the Records of the Court of Assistants of Massachusetts Bay Colony. The early laws of Massachusetts provided for 'chancering' the forfeiture of any penal bond .... In Rhode Island an act of 1746 proVided for 'chancerizing' the forfeiture 'where any penalty is forfeited, or conditional estate recovered, or equity of redemption sued for, whether judgment is confessed or otherwise obtained.'" 1 John Bouvier, Bouvier's Law Dictionary 456-57 (8th ed. 1914).

chancery (chan-sar-ee). 1. A court of equity; collectively, the courts of equity. The term is derived from the court of the Lord Chancellor, the original English court of equity. Also termed court of chancery; chancery court. "Chancery's jurisdiction was complementary to that of the courts of common law it sought to do justice in cases for which there was no adequate remedy at common law. It had originated in the petition, not the writ, of the party who felt aggrieved to the Lord Chancellor as 'keeper of the King's conscience.' In its origins, therefore, Chancery's flexible concern for justice complemented admirably the formalism of a medieval system of common law which had begun to adhere strictly, perhaps overstrictly on occasion, to prescribed forms. By 1800, however, Chancery's system was itself regarded as being both consistent and certain." A.H. Manchester, Modem Legal History of England and Wales, 1750-1950-135-36 (1980). 2. The system of jurisprudence administered in courts of equity. See EQUITY. 3. Int'l law. The place where the head of a diplomatic mission and staff have their offices, as distinguished from the embassy (where the ambassador lives).

chancery guardian (chan-sar-ee). A guardian appointed by a court of chancery to manage both the person and the estate of the ward.

chancery court of york The ecclesiastical court of the province of York, responsible for appeals from provincial diocesan courts. This court corresponds to the Court of Arches in the Province of Canterbury. Cf. COURT OF ARCHES.

chancery guardian See GUARDIAN.

change in circumstances A modification in the physical, emotional, or financial condition of one or both parents, used to show the need to modify a custody or support order; esp., an involuntary occurrence that, if it had been known at the time of the divorce decree, would have resulted in the court's issuing a different decree, as when an involuntary job loss creates a need to modify the decree to provide for reduced child-support payments. Also termed change ofcircumstances; changed circumstances; material change in circumstances; substantial change in circumstances; change of condition. See MODI FICATIOK ORDER.

change of condition 1. Workers' compensation. A substantial worsening of an employee's physical health occurring after an award, as a result of which the employee merits an increase in benefits. 2. Family law. CHANGE IN CIRCUMSTANCES.

change of venue The transfer of a case from one locale to another court in the same judicial system to cure a defect in venue, either to minimize the prejudicial impact of local sentiment or to secure a more sensible location for trial. Also termed transfer of venue. See VENUE.

change order 1. A modification of a previously ordered item or service. See VALUE (2). 2. A directive issued by the federal government to a contractor to alter the specifications of an item the contractor is producing for the government.

change-of-ownership clause Oil & gas. A provision in an oil and gas lease specifying what notice must be given to a lessee about a change in the leased land's ownership before the lessee is obliged to recognize the new owner. Also termed assignment clause.

changing fund See FUND (1).

changing fund- A fund, esp. a trust fund, that changes its form periodically as it is invested and reinvested. client-security fund. A fund established usu. by a state or a state bar association to compensate persons for losses that they suffered because of their attorneys' misappropriation of funds or other misconduct.

channel 1. The bed of a stream of water; the groove through which a stream flows <digging a deeper channel was thought to help protect the river from flooding>.

channel of distribution See DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL.

channel of trade See DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL.