TIME, contracts, evidence, practice. The measure of duration., It is divided into years, months. days, (q. v.) hours, minutes, and seconds. It is also divided into day and night. (q. v.)

2. Time is frequently of the essence of contracts and crimes, and sometimes it is altogether immaterial.

3. Lapse of time alone is often presumptive evidence of facts which are otherwise unknown; an uninterrupted enjoyment of certain rights for twenty or twenty-one years, is evidence that the party enjoying them is legally entitled to them; after such a length of time, the law presumes payment of a bond or other specialty. 10 S. & R. 63, 383; 3 S. & R. 493; 6 Munf. R. 532; 2 Cranch, R. 180; 7 Wheat. R. 535; 2 W. C. C R. 323; 4 John. R. 202; 7 John' R. 556; 5 Conn. 1; 3 Day 289; 1 McCord 145; 1 Bay, 482; 7 Wend. 94; 5 Verm. 236.

4. In the computation of time, it is laid down generally, that where the computation is to be made from an act done, the day when such act was done is included. Dougl. 463. But it will be excluded whenever such exclusion, will prevent a forfeiture. 4 Greenl. 298. Sed vide 15 Ves. 248; 1 Ball & B. 196. In general, one day is taken inclusively and the other exclusively. 2 Browne; Rep. 18. Vide Chitt. Bl. 140 n. 2; 2 Evans , Poth. 50; 13 Vin. Abr. 52, 499; 15 Vin. Ab. 554; 20 Vin. Ab. 266; Com. Dig. Temps; 1 Rop. Legacy, 518; 2 Suppl. to Ves. jr. 229; Graham's Pract. 185; 1 Fonbl. Equity, 430; Wright, R. 580; 7 John. R. 476; 1 Bailey, R. 89; Coxe, Rep. 363; 1 Marsh. Keny. Rep. 321; 3 Marsh. Keny. Rep. 448; 3 Bibb, R. 330; 6 Munf. R. 394; vide Computation.

TIME, pleading. The avertment of time is generally necessary in pleading; the rules are different, in different actions.

2. - 1. Impersonal actions, the pleadings must allege the time; that is, the day, month and year when each traversable fact occurred; and when there is occasion to mention a continuous act, the period of its duration ought to be shown. The necessity of laying a time extends to traversable facts only; time is generally considered immaterial, ana any time may be assigned to a given fact. This option, however, is subject to certain restrictions. 1st. Time should be laid under a videlicit, or the party pleading it will be required to, prove it strictly. 2d. The time laid should not be intrinsically impossible, or inconsistent with the fact to which it relates. 3d. There are some instances in which time forms a material point in the merits of the case; and, in these instances, if a traverse be taken, the time laid is of the substance of the issue, and must be strictly proved. With respect to all facts of this description; they must be truly stated, at the peril of a failure for variance; Cowp. 671: and here a videlicit will give no help. Id. 6 T. R 463; 5 Taunt. 2; 4 Serg. & Rawle, 576; 7 Serg. & Rawle, 405. Where the time needs not to be truly stated, (as is generally the case,) it is subject to a rule of the same nature with one that applies to venues in transitory matters, namely, that the plea and subsequent pleadings should follow the day alleged in the writ or declaration; and if in these cases no time at all be laid, the omission is aided after verdict or judgment by confession or default, by operation of the statute of jeofails. But where, in the plea or subsequent pleadings, the time happens to be material, it must be alleged, and there the pleader may be allowed to depart from the day in the writ and declaration.

3. - 2. In real or mixed actions, there is no necessity for alleging any particular day in the declaration. 3 Bl. Com. App. No. 1, §6; Lawes' Pl. App. 212; 3 Chit. Pl. 620-635; Cro. Jac. 311; Yelv. 182 a, note; 2 Chitt. Pl. 396, n. r; Gould, Pl. c. 3, §99, 100; Steph. Pl. 314; Com. Dig. Pleader, C 19.

4. - 3. In criminal pleadings, it is requisite, generally, to show both the day and the year on which the offence was committed; but the indictment will be good, if the day and year can be collected from the whole statement, though they be not expressly averred. Com. Dig. Indictm. G 2; 5 Serg. & Rawle, 315. Although it be necessary that a day certain should be laid in the indictment, the prosecutor may give evidence, of an offence committed, on any other day, previous to the finding of the indictment. 5 Serg. & Rawle, 316; Arch. Cr. Pl. 95; 1 Phil Evid. 203; 9 East, Rep. 157. This rule, however, does not authorize the laying of a day subsequent to the trial. Addis. R. 36. See generally Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.

TIPPLING HOUSE. A place where spirituous liquors are sold and drunk in vio-lation of law. Sometimes the mere selling is considered as evidence of keeping a tippling house.

TIPSTAFF. An officer appointed by the marshal of the court of king's bench, to attend upon the judges with a kind of a rod or staff tipped with silver.

2. In the United States, the courts sometimes appoint an officer who is known by this name, whose duty it is to wait on the court and serve its process.

TITHES, Eng. law. A right to the tenth part of the produce of, lands, the stocks upon lands, and the personal industry of the inhabitants. These tithes are raised for the support of the clergy.

2. Fortunately, in the United States, the clergy can be supported by the zeal of the people for religion, and there are, no tithes. Vide Cruise, Dig. tit. 22; Ayliffe's Parerg. 504.

TITHING, Eng. law. Formerly a district containing ten men with their fam-ilies. In each tithing there was a tithing man whose duty it was to keep the peace, as a constable now is bound to do. St. Armand, in his Historical Essay on the Legislative Power of England, p. 70, expresses, an opinion that the tithing was composed not of ten common families, but of ten families of lords of a manor.

TITLE estates. A title is defined by Lord Coke to be the means whereby the owner of lands hath the just possession of his property. Co. Lit. 345; 2 Bl. Com. 195. Vide 1 Ohio Rep. 349. This is the definition of title to lands only.

2. There are several stages or degrees requisite to form a complete title to lands and tenements. 1st. The lowest and most imperfect degree of title is the mere possession, or actual occupation of the estate, without any apparent right to hold or continue such possession; this happens when one man disseises another. 2 Bl. Com. 195. 2dly. The next step to a good and perfect title is the right of possession, which may reside in one man, while the actual possession is not in himself, but in another. This right of possession is of two sorts; an apparent right of possession, which may be defeated by proving a better; and an actual right of possession, which will stand the test against all opponents. Idem. 196. 3dly. The mere right of property, the jus proprietatis without either possession or the right of possession. Id. 197.

3. A title is either good, marketable, doubtful, or bad.

4. A good title is that which entitles a man by right to a property or estate, and to the lawful possession of the same.

5. A marketable title is one which a court of equity considers to be so clear that it will enforce its acceptance by a purchaser. The ordinary acceptation of the term marketable title, would convey but a very imperfect notion of its legal and technical import.

6. To common apprehension, unfettered by the technical and conventional distinction of lawyers, all titles being either good or bad, the former would be considered marketable, the latter non-marketable. But this is not the way they are regarded in courts of equity, the distinction taken there being not between a title which is absolutely good or absolutely bad, but between a title, which the court considers to be so clear that it will enforce its acceptance by a purchaser, and one which the court will not go so far as to declare a bad title, but only that it is subject to so much doubt that a purchaser ought not to be compelled to accept it. 1 Jac. & Walk. R. 568. In short, whatever may be the private opinion of the court, as to the goodness of the title yet if there be a reasonable doubt either as to a matter of law or fact involved in it, a purchaser will not be compelled to complete his purchase; and such a title, though it may be perfectly secure and unimpeachable as a holding title is said, in the current language of the day, to be unmarketable. Atkins on Tit.2.

7. The doctrine of marketable titles is purely equitable and of modern ori-gin. Id. 26. At law every title not bad is marketable. 6 Taunt. R. 263; 5 Taunt. R. 625; S. C. 1 Marsh., R. 258. See Dalzell v. Crawford, 2 Penn. Law Journ. 17.

8. A doubtful title is one which the court does not consider to be so clear that it will enforce its acceptance by a purchaser, nor so defective as to declare it a bad title, but only subject to so much doubt that a purchaser ought not to be compelled to accept it. 1 Jac. & Walk. R. 568; 9 Cowen, R. 344; vide Title, Marketable.

9. At common law, doubtful, titles are unknown; there every title must be either good or bad. Atkins on Tit. 17. See Dalzell v. Crawford, 2 Penn. Law Journ. 17.

10. A bad title is one which conveys no property to a purchaser of an estate.

11. Title to real estate is acquired by two methods, namely, by descent and by purchase. (See these words.)

12. Title to personal property may accrue in three different ways. By original acquisition. 2. By transfer, by act of law. 3. By transfer, by, act of the parties.

13. - §1. Title by original acquisition is acquired, 1st. By occupancy. This mode of acquiring title has become almost extinct in civilized governments, and it is permitted to exist only in those few special cases, in which it may be consistent with the public good. First. Goods taken by capture in war were, by the common law, adjudged to belong to the captor, but now goods taken from enemies in time of war, vest primarily in the sovereign, and they belong to the individual captors only to the extent and under such regulations, as positive laws may prescribe. Finch's Law, 28, 178 Bro. tit. Property, pl. 18, 38; 1 Wilson, 211; 2 Kent, Com. 290, 95. Secondly. Another instance of acquisition by occupancy, which still exists under certain limitations, is that of goods casually lost by the owner, and unreclaimed, or designedly abandoned by him; and in both these cases they belong to the fortunate finder. 1 Bl. Com. 296. See Derilict.

14. - 2d. Title by original acquisition is acquired by accession. See Accession.

15. - 3d. It is acquired by intellectual labor. It consists of literary pro-perty as the construction of maps and charts, the writing of books and papers. The benefits arising from such labor are secured to the owner. 1. By patent rights for inventions. See Patents. 2. By copyrights. See Copyrights.

16. - §2. The title to personal property is acquired and lost by transfer, by act of law, in various ways. 1. By forfeiture. 2. By succession. 3. By marriage. 4. By judgment. 5. By insolvency. 6. By intestacy.

17. - §3. Title is also acquired and lost by transfer by the act of the party. 1. By gift. 2. By contract or sale.

18. In general, possession constitutes the criterion of title of personal property, because no other means exist by which a knowledge of the fact to whom it belongs can be attained. A seller of a chattel is not, therefore, required to show the origin of his title, nor, in general, is a purchaser, with-out notice of the claim of the owner, compellable to make restitution; but, it seems, that a purchaser from a tenant for life of personal chattels, will not be secure against the claims of those entitled in remainder. Cowp. 432; 1 Bro. C. C. 274; 2 T. R. 376; 3 Atk. 44; 3 V. & B. 16.

19. To the rule that possession is the criterion of title of property may be mentioned the case of ships, the title of which can be ascertained by the register. 15 Ves. 60; 17 Ves. 251; 8 Price, R. 256, 277.

20. To convey a title the seller must himself have a title to the property which is the subject of the transfer. But to this general rule there are exceptions. 1. The lawful coin of the United States will pass the property along with the possession. 2. A negotiable instrument endorsed in blank is transferable by any person holding it, so as by its delivery to give a good title "to any person honestly acquiring it." 3 B. & C. 47; 3 Burr. 1516; 5 T. R. 683; 7 Bing. 284; 7 Taunt. 265, 278; 13 East, 509; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.

TITLE, legislation That part of an act of the legislature by which it is known, and distinguished from other acts the name of the act.

2. A practice has prevailed of late years to crowd into the same act a mass of heterogeneous matter, so that it is almost impossible to describe, or even to allude to it in the title of the act. This practice has rendered the title of little importance, yet, in some cases, it is material in the construction of an act. 7 East, R. 132, 134; 2 Cranch, 386. See Lord Raym. 77; Hard. 324; Barr. on the Stat. 499, n.

TITLE, persons. Titles are distinctions by which a person is known.

3. The constitution of the United States forbids the tyrant by the United States, or any state of any title of nobility. (q. v.) Titles are bestowed by courtesy on certain officers; the president of the United States sometimes re-ceives the title of excellency; judges and members of congress that of honor-able; and members of the bar and justices of the peace are called esquires. Cooper's, Justinian, 416'; Brackenridge's Law Miscell. Index, h. t.

3. Titles are assumed by foreign princes, and, among their subjects they may exact these marks of honor, but in their intercourse with foreign nations they are not entitled to them as a matter of right. Wheat. Intern. Law, pt. 2, c. 3, §6.

TITLE, Iiterature. The particular division of a subject, as a law, a book, and the like; for example, Digest, book 1, title 2; for the law relating to bills of exchange, see Bacon's Abridgment, title Merchant.

TITLE, rights. The name of a newwpaper a book, and the like.

3. The owner of a newspaper, having particular title, has a right to such title, an an injunction will lie to prevent its use un lawfully by another. 8 Paige, 75. See Pardess. n. 170.

TITLE, pleading, rights. The right of action which the plaintiff has; the declaration must show the plaintiff's title, and if such title be not shown in that instrument, the defect cannot be cured by any of the future pleadings. Bac. Ab. Pleas, &c. B 1.

TITLE DEEDS. Those deeds which are evidences of the title of the owner of an estate.

2. The person who is entitled to the inheritance has a right to the possession of the title deeds. 1 arr. & Marsh. 653.

TITLE OF A DECLARATION, pleading. At the top of every declaration the name of the court is usually stated, with the term of which the declaration is filed, and in the margin the venue, namely, the city or county where the cause is intended to be tried is set down. The first two of these compose what is called the title of the declaration. 1 Tidd's Pr. 866.

TO WIT. That is to say; namely; scilicet; (q. v.) videlicet. (q. v.)

TOFT. A place or piece of ground on which, a house formerly stood, which has been destroyed by accident or decay; it also signifies a messuage.

TOGATI. Rom. civ, law. Under the empire, when the toga had ceased to be the usual costume of the Romans, advocates were nevertheless obliged to wear it whenever they pleaded a cause. Hence they were called togati. This denomination received an official or legal sense in the imperial constitutions of the fifth and sixth centuries, and the words togati, consortium (corpus, ordo, collegium,) togatorum, frequently occur in those acts.