Free Legal Encyclopedia: Ex proprio motu (ex mero motu) to File
Extension
An increase in the length of time specified in a contract. A part constituting an addition or enlargement, as in an annex to a building or an extension to a house. Addition to existing facilities. An allowance of additional time for the payment of debts. An agreement between a debtor and his or her creditors, by which they allow the debtor further time for the payment of liabilities. A creditor&#x…
Extortion - Elements Of Offense, Extortion By Public Officers, Other Crimes Distinguished, Defenses, Further Readings - Punishment, Federal Offenses
The obtaining of property from another induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right. Most jurisdictions have statutes governing extortion that broaden the common-law definition. Under such statutes, any person who takes money or property from another by means of illegal compulsion may be guilty of the offense. When used in this sense, e…
Extradition - Further Readings
The transfer of an accused from one state or country to another state or country that seeks to place the accused on trial. Extradition comes into play when a person charged with a crime under state statutes flees the state. An individual charged with a federal crime may be moved from one state to another without any extradition procedures. Article IV, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution provides t…
Extraterritoriality
The operation of laws upon persons existing beyond the limits of the enacting state or nation but who are still amenable to its laws. Jurisdiction exercised by a nation in other countries by treaty, or by its own ministers or consuls in foreign lands. The general laws binding nations to extraterritorial agreements still rest on principle more than established order. The modern, global marketplace …
Factors - Factor-principal Relationship, Compensation For Services, Enforcement
People who are employed by others to sell or purchase goods, who are entrusted with possession of the goods, and who are compensated by either a commission or a fixed salary. A factor is a type of agent who sells goods owned by another, called a principal. The factor engages more frequently in the sale of merchandise than the purchase of goods. A factor is distinguished from a mere agent in that a…
Failure to State a Claim
Within a judicial forum, the failure to present sufficient facts which, if taken as true, would indicate that any violation of law occurred or that the claimant is entitled to a legal remedy. Failure to state a claim is frequently raised as a defense in civil litigation. In some jurisdictions, such as California, the defense is called a demurrer. The successful invocation of this defense will resu…
Fair Comment
In order for a statement to fall into the category of a fair comment, it must not extend beyond matters of concern to the public. It must be a mere expression of the opinion of the commentator. …
Fair Credit Reporting Act - Further Readings
FCRA represents the first federal regulation of the consumer reporting industry, covering all credit bureaus, investigative reporting companies, detective and collection agencies, lenders' exchanges, and computerized information reporting companies. The consumer is guaranteed several rights under the FCRA, including the right to a notice of reporting activities, the right of access to infor…
Fair Hearing
A judicial proceeding that is conducted in such a manner as to conform to fundamental concepts of justice and equality. …
Fair Housing Act of (1968)
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discriminatory conduct by a variety of legal entities. The act defines "person" to include one or more individuals, corporations, partnerships, associations, labor organizations, legal representatives, mutual companies, joint-stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations, trustees, receivers, and fiduciaries. In addition, municipalities, local g…
Fair Labor Standards Act
Over the years, the Fair Labor Standards Act has been subject to amendment but continues to play an integral role in the U.S. workplace. …
Fair-Trade Laws
State statutes enacted in the first half of the twentieth century permitting manufacturers to set minimum, maximum, or actual selling prices for their products, and thus to prevent retailers from selling products at very low prices. Manufacturers have an interest in establishing and maintaining good will toward their products. This means assuring consumers that the manufacturers' goods are …
Fairness Doctrine - Further Readings
The doctrine that imposes affirmative responsibilities on a broadcaster to provide coverage of issues of public importance that is adequate and fairly reflects differing viewpoints. In fulfilling its fairness doctrine obligations, a broadcaster must provide free time for the presentation of opposing views if a paid sponsor is unavailable and must initiate programming on public issues if no one els…
False Imprisonment - Further Readings
The illegal confinement of one individual against his or her will by another individual in such a manner as to violate the confined individual's right to be free from restraint of movement. To recover damages for false imprisonment, an individual must be confined to a substantial degree, with her or his freedom of movement totally restrained. Interfering with or obstructing an individual&#x…
False Personation
The crime of falsely assuming the identity of another to gain a benefit or avoid an expense. A false impersonator need not alter her or his voice, wear a disguise, or otherwise change her or his characteristics or appearance in order to be found guilty. False personation simply involves passing oneself off as another person. For example, an individual who misrepresents herself to be someone else i…
False Pretenses - Further Readings
False representations of material past or present facts, known by the wrongdoer to be false, and made with the intent to defraud a victim into passing title in property to the wrongdoer. Suppose Reba tells Alberto that a synthetic gemstone is a valuable diamond that she will give to Alberto in exchange for Alberto's truck. Alberto thinks this sounds like a good deal and transfers title of h…
Family Car Doctrine
The family car doctrine, also known as the family purpose doctrine, is based on the premise that a car is provided by the head of the household for the family's use and, therefore, the operator of the car acts as an agent of the owner. For example, if a husband is the owner of a car and his wife uses the car for one of the purposes for which it was purchased, such as grocery shopping, then …
Family Law - Historical Background, Divorce, Child Custody, Child Support, Other Areas, Court Procedures, Cross-references - Conclusion
Statutes, court decisions, and provisions of the federal and state constitutions that relate to family relationships, rights, duties, and finances. …
Family Medical Leave
Federal, state, and local laws that authorize employees to take paid or unpaid leave for a defined period of time for major health-related medical issues affecting their immediate family. Beginning in the 1990s, federal and state family medical leave laws were passed, allowing employees to take unpaid leaves of absence from work for major, family-related medical issues without first obtaining perm…
Farm Credit Administration
The modern FCA derives its authority from the Farm Credit Act of 1971 (12 U.S.C.A. § 2241 et seq.), which superseded all prior authorizing legislation. The FCA examines the lending institutions that constitute the Farm Credit System to certify that they are sound. It also ensures compliance with the regulations under which the Farm Credit institutions operate. To that end, it is authorized …
Federal
Relating to the general government or union of the states; based upon, or created pursuant to, the laws of the Constitution of the United States. The United States has traditionally been named a federal government in most political and judicial writings. The term federal has not been prescribed by any definite authority but is used to express a broad opinion concerning the nature of the form of go…
Federal Appendix
A legal reference source containing federal courts of appeals decisions that have not been selected by the court for publication. The first volume of the Federal Appendix was published September 1, 2001. Coverage began with decisions handed down after January 1,2001. The Federal Appendix is an appendix to the Federal Reporter, Third Series (F.3d). However, unpublished opinions from the Fifth and E…
Federal Aviation Administration
Half a century after Wilbur and Orville Wright flew an airplane for 12 seconds in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903—becoming the first U.S. residents to successfully fly a powered aircraft—Congress established the Federal Aviation Agency, later renamed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (49 U.S.C.A. § 106). Under the…
Federal Budget - Government Shutdown, Further Readings
An annual effort to balance federal spending in such areas as forestry, education, space technology, and the national defense, with revenue, which the United States collects largely through federal taxes. The 1974 act greatly reduced the president's role in the budget process—in particular, the president's responsibility of determining and recommending budget aggregates to Con…
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover points to a crime map of the United States. He served as FBI director for 48 years, during which the bureau grew in size and expertise, though he was criticized for abuse of power and harrassment of suspects. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS The modern FBI divides its investigations among seven major areas: applicant matters (background checks on applicants and candidates for federal …
Federal Courts - Legislative And Constitutional Courts, Structure, Geographic Organization, Jurisdiction, Bankruptcy Courts, Court Of Federal Claims - Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
The Constitution created the Supreme Court and empowered Congress, in Article I, Section 8, to establish inferior federal courts. The authority of federal courts is limited to that given to them by the federal statutes that created them. Federal courts exist independently of the system of courts in each state that adjudicate controversies that arise pursuant to the laws of that state. …
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The FDIC is an independent agency of the federal government. Its management was established by the Banking Act of 1933. It consists of a board of directors numbering three members, one the comptroller of the currency, and two appointed by the president with approval of the Senate. The two appointed members serve six-year terms, and one is elected by the members to serve as chair of the board. The …
Federal Election Commission - Further Readings
The FEC is composed of six commissioners who are appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The act also provides for three statutory officers—the staff director, the general counsel, and the inspector general—who are appointed by the commission. The FEC's main responsibility is to enforce federal campaign financing laws. Thus, its scope is limi…
Federal Emergency Management Agency
In the weeks following the attacks, FEMA employees worked relentlessly in a massive rescue and recovery effort at the World Trade Center site. More than 1,500 employees of FEMA and more than 6,500 other federal employees took part in the effort. Tens of thousands of tons of debris were removed from the site in New York and taken to a landfill on Staten Island. Several hundred bodies were discovere…
Federal Judicial Center
Because of increasing caseloads and the growing complexity of the law, court administration has become an important part of the judicial branch. Congress gave the FJC a broad mandate to improve the performance of the courts and judges through research, planning, and education. The FJC conducts research on the operation of federal courts and coordinates similar research with other public and privat…
Federal Maritime Commission
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) regulates the waterborne foreign and domestic offshore commerce of the United States; ensures that U.S. international trade is open to all nations on fair and equitable terms; and protects against unauthorized activity in the waterborne commerce of the United States. The FMC reviews agreements made by groups of common carriers (those who operate ships for comm…
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service - Further Readings
The Labor-Management Relations Act requires that parties to a labor contract must file a notice with the FMCS if agreement is not reached within 30 days before a contract termination or reopening date. The FMCS is required by the act to avoid mediation of disputes that would have only a minor effect on interstate commerce. However, in seeking to promote labor peace through the encouragement and de…
Federal National Mortgage Association - Further Readings
Fannie Mae has sought to provide consumers with comprehensive information about securing home mortgages. It provides lists of lenders, mortgage calculators, glossaries of terms and worksheets through its web site. In addition, Fannie Mae has developed programs to promote home ownership by people who traditionally have been cut off from financing. It has made a $2 trillion pledge to increase home-o…
Federal Register
A daily publication that makes available to the public the rules, regulations, and other legal notices issued by federal administrative agencies. The Federal Register includes (1) presidential proclamations and executive orders; (2) other documents that the president from time to time determines to have general applicability and legal effect; (3) documents that are required by an act of Congress t…
Federal Reporter®
A legal reference source primarily covering published decisions of federal appellate courts. A case may be found in the Federal Reporter in the volume whose number is that given first in the citation for the case. If the case was decided after 1924, the citation will refer to the second series of the Federal Reporter. For example, the case of O'Connor v. Lee-Hy Paving Co., decided by the U.…
Federal Reserve Board - Federal Reserve Banks And Their Branch Members, The Federal Open Market Committee, The Consumer Advisory Council - The Federal Advisory Council
Alan Greenspan became chair of the Federal Reserve Board in 1987. The board determines monetary and credit policies and influences national interest rates. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Following the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, Congress attempted to claim exclusive control over the management of monetary policy. It asserted that this was the proper function of Congress, as the constitutiona…
Federal Rules of Evidence
In some instances the Federal Rules of Evidence apply only to the extent that they have not been superseded by statute or other Supreme Court rules governing certain proceedings in particular areas of law. For example, the Federal Rules of Evidence do not fully apply to the trial of misdemeanors and other petty offenses before U.S. magistrates, to the review of orders by the Secretary of Agricultu…
Federal Supplement®
A set of legal reference books containing decisions of federal courts in chronological order. The first volume of the Federal Supplement was published in 1933, and successive volumes have been numbered consecutively. Volume 900 was published in 1994. A citation to an opinion printed in the Federal Supplement gives, first, the volume and then the page number on which the case begins. For example, 4…
Federal Tort Claims Act - Further Readings
The FTCA permits persons to sue the government of the United States in federal court for In passing the FTCA, Congress allowed the federal government to be sued. Congress also made specific exceptions to the act, and the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted one provision broadly, both actions resulting in the dismissal of many plaintiffs' lawsuits. Now a person who alleges that an employee of…
Federal Trade Commission - Further Readings
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent federal regulatory agency charged with the responsibility of promoting fair competition among rivals in the marketplace by preventing unfair and deceptive trade practices and restraining the growth of monopolies that tend to lessen free trade. The FTC's creation was supported both by anti-monopolists seeking to halt "unfair competi…
Federal Unemployment Compensation Act
The Federal Unemployment Compensation Act (FUCA) was enacted by Congress to care for workers who in times of economic hardship and through no fault of their own lose their job and are unable to find new employment. FUCA was first enacted in 1939, underwent substantial revision in 1954, and has been amended over the years, most recently in 1988 (42 U.S.C.A. §§ 501–504, 1101…
Federalism - Checks And Balances, The Federalist Papers: The History Of Federalism, Supreme Court Tilting Toward States' Rights? - Conclusion
A principle of government that defines the relationship between the central government at the national level and its constituent units at the regional, state, or local levels. Under this principle of government, power and authority is allocated between the national and local governmental units, such that each unit is delegated a sphere of power and authority only it can exercise, while other power…
Federalist Papers - Federalist, No. 78, And The Power Of The Judiciary, Further Readings
The essays that constitute The Federalist Papers were published in various New York newspapers between October 27, 1787, and August 16, 1788, and appeared in book form in March and May 1788. They remain important statements of U.S. political and legal philosophy as well as a key source for understanding the U.S. Constitution. The Federalist Papers originated in a contentious debate over ratificati…
Federalist Party - Further Readings
Even before the Articles of Confederation were ratified by the original 13 states in 1781, prominent Americans were criticizing the document for having failed to create a strong federal government. In 1783, George Washington, as commander in chief of the army, sent a circular to state governors discussing the need to add tone to our federal government. Three years later Washington and his politica…
Fee Tail
An estate in land subject to a restriction regarding inheritance. A fee tail is an interest in real property that is ordinarily created with words such as "to A and the heirs of his body." It may be limited in various ways, such as to male or female heirs only, or to children produced by a particular spouse. A fee tail is passed by inheritance from generation to generation to the hei…
Fellatio
A sexual act in which a male places his penis into the mouth of another person. Under both the common law and present-day statutes, there must be actual insertion of the male organ into the mouth of another for the crime to be committed. Any penetration, however slight, is sufficient. Emission is not a necessary element of the offense under most modern statutes. If the offense is committed by two …
Fellow-Servant Rule - Further Readings
The fellow-servant rule first appeared in 1837, in Great Britain, in Priestly v. Fowler (150 Eng. Rep. 1030 [1837]). In that case, an over-loaded delivery van driven by one employee overturned and fractured the leg of another employee. The injured employee's lawsuit against their common employer succeeded, but it was overturned by the Court of Exchequer. The magistrate, Lord Abinger, scoldi…
Felony-Murder Rule
Generally an intent to kill is not necessary for felony-murder. The rule becomes operative when there is a killing during or a death soon after the felony, and there is some causal connection between the felony and the killing. …
Fences
Enclosures composed of any substance that will present an adequate blockade around a field, yard, or other such expanse of land for the purpose of prohibiting intrusions from outside. A landowner is entitled to construct a fence along the boundaries of his or her property, but statutes may regulate the building and maintenance of fences. The laws of some states make provisions for the establishmen…
Millicent Vernon Hammond Fenwick
Fenwick's formal education was fragmentary. She attended the Foxcroft School, in Virginia, until age 15, when she left school to Millicent Fenwick. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS accompany her father to Spain. While there, she briefly attended a convent school. After she returned to the United States she took courses at Columbia University's extension school. In the late 1930s, Fenwick…
Feres Doctrine - Further Readings
A doctrine that bars claims against the federal government by members of the armed forces and their families for injuries arising from or in the course of activity incident to military service. Commenting on the Feres doctrine in United States v. Brown, 348 U.S. 110, 75 S. Ct. 141, 99 L. Ed. 139 (1954), the Court emphasized that discipline and "[t]he peculiar and special relationship of the…
Geraldine Anne Ferraro - Further Readings
Ferraro was born August 26, 1935, in Newburgh, New York, the fourth child of a tight-knit family enjoying prosperity. The good life did not last. When she was eight, her father, Dominick Ferraro, an Italian immigrant and successful restaurant and dime-store owner, died of a heart attack. Two of Ferraro's brothers had preceded him in death. Bad investments left her mother, Antonetta L. Corri…
Ferry
A specially constructed vessel to bring passengers and property across rivers and other bodies of water from one shoreline to another, making contact with a thoroughfare at each terminus. The landing place for a boat. A right or privilege to maintain a vessel upon a body of water in order to transport people and their vehicles across it in exchange for payment of a reasonable toll. A ferry is …
Fetal Rights - Forced Cesarean Sections, Drug Use By The Mother, Fetal Protection Policies, Willow Island, West Virginia, Women Paid The Price Of Fetal Protection Policies
The rights of any unborn human fetus, which is generally a developing human from roughly eight weeks after conception to birth. A doctor performs an ultrasound examination on a pregnant woman. The legal status of a fetus remains unclear. Although an unborn child does have some rights under the law, those rights sometimes conflict with the rights of the mother. AMY ETRA/PHOTOEDIT Roe evoked…
Feudalism - Further Readings
A series of contractual relationships between the upper classes, designed to maintain control over land. Feudalism flourished between the tenth and thirteenth centuries in western Europe. At its core, it was an agreement between a lord and a vassal. A person became a vassal by pledging political allegiance and providing military, political, and financial service to a lord. A lord possessed complet…
Fiction
An assumption made by a court and embodied in various legal doctrines that a fact or concept is true when in actuality it is not true, or when it is likely to be equally false and true. …
Fiduciary
An individual in whom another has placed the utmost trust and confidence to manage and protect property or money. The relationship wherein one person has an obligation to act for another's benefit. A fiduciary relationship encompasses the idea of faith and confidence and is generally established only when the confidence given by one person is actually accepted by the other person. Mere resp…
Field Code of New York
The Field Code was a radical departure from the procedures of the past. As a result of its merger of law and equity actions into one action, the code provided a uniform set of rules of pleading to be used in each type of case. The pleadings were to be in simple, concise language that set forth only the facts of the dispute between the two parties. …
David Dudley Field - Further Readings
Field followed his father's lead by also studying at Williams. He left the school in 1825 and began the study of law in the office of Hermanus Bleecker of Albany, New York. In 1828, he was admitted to the bar as an attorney, and in 1830, he was appointed a counselor. He went on to practice law with his former teachers from Williams, Henry Sedgwick and Robert Sedgwick. David Dudley …
Stephen Johnson Field
Stephen J. Field. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Field contended that the regulations violated due process and that under the U.S. system of government the legislature lacked the power "to fix the price which anyone shall receive for his property of any kind." By 1890 he had convinced the majority of the Court that his view of the Due Process Clause was correct and had extended its reac…
Fifth Amendment - Double Jeopardy Clause, Self-incrimination Clause, Due Process Clause, Eminent Domain Clause, Grand Jury Clause
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: …