ASSIGNEE of a bankrupt. [BANKRUPT.] ASSIGNEE of an insolvent debtor's estate. [INSOLVENT DEBTOR.] ASSIGNEE of bill of lading. [BILL OF LADING.] paper was soon so much discredited, that it never got into general circulation, and was not able to drive out the coined money, which was now almost universally employed in transactions between individuals. The only holders of mandats were speculators, who took them from the government and sold them to purchasers of national lands. By this entire discredit of the government-paper the prosperity of individuals had been in some measure restored, and trade revived a little from its long sleep. The government was destitute of all resource; its agents received nothing but worthless paper, and refused any longer to do their duties. The armies of the interior were in a state of extreme misery; while those of Germany and Italy were maintained only from the countries where they were quartered. The military hospitals were shut, the gens-d'armes were not paid or equipped, and the high roads were infested with bands of robbers, who some-mises leased, ceases with such enjoyment. times even ventured into the towns. ASSIGNEE of a lease is the party to whom the whole interest of the lessee is transferred by assignment, which assignment may be made without the privity or consent of the lessor, unless the lessee is restrained by the lease from assigning over. The assignee becomes liable to the lessor, from the date of the assignment, for the payment of the rent and performance of the covenants in the lease; but such liability is limited to breaches of covenant during the existence of the assignee's interest, and may be got rid of by assigning over all his interest, and this even to an insolvent; for his liability, arising only from privity of estate, that is, from the actual enjoyment of the pre whereas the lessee remains liable to the rent and covenants during the whole term. It results also from the circumstance of the assignee's liability arising from pri In a short time the government were forced to abandon the mandats, as they had abandoned the assignats, and to declare that they should be received in pay-vity of estate, that he is not liable to mere ment of taxes and national lands only at their real value. Having fallen to near a seventieth of their ostensible value, they were, in the course of 1796, returned to the government in payment of taxes and for the purchase of lands; and with them ended the revolutionary system of paper-money, which probably produced more wide-spreading misery, more sudden changes from comfort to poverty, more iniquity in transactions both between individuals and the government, more loss to all persons engaged in every department of industry and trade, more discontent, disturbance, profligacy, and outrage, than the massacres in September, the war in La Vendée, the proscriptions in the provinces, and all the sanguinary violence of the Reign of Terror. From the extinction of the mandats to the present time the legal currency of France has been exclusively metallic. (Thiers, vol. viii. pp. 85-9, 103-19, 15862, 177, 183-91, 334-44, 423-4; Storch, Cours d'Econ. Pol. vol. iv. p. 164.) ASSIGNATION. [ASSIGNMENT.] personal covenants which the lessee may have made with the lessor (as for instance, to build on premises not demised, or to pay a sum of money in gross), but only to such covenants as run with the land, as for instance, covenants to pay rent, to repair, to reside on the demised premises, to leave part of the land in pasture, to insure premises situate within the weekly bills of mortality, to build a new mill on the site of an old one, &c. The assignee, in order to become liable to the covenants, must take the whole estate and interest of the lessee; for if the smallest portion is reserved, he is merely an under-lessee, and not responsible to the original lessor. The interest of the assignee must also be a legal, not merely an equitable interest; and therefore if the lessee devise the premises leased to trustees in trust for A B, A B will not be chargeable as the assignee of the lessee's interest. The interest must also be an interest in lands or tenements; for if a lease is made of chattels (as for instance of sheep or cows, which sometimes happens), and the lessee cove nant for himself and his assigns to redeliver | tates for years are the principal interests them, the assignee is not liable to the in land which are passed by an assignowner on this covenant; for there is no ment; and by the statute of Frauds and privity between the assignee and the Perjuries (29 Charles II.) the assignment owner, such privity only existing where of such estates is required to be in writing. the subject of the demise is real estate. An assignment differs from a lease, in Wilmot, C. J., says, in Bally v. Wells, being a transfer of the entire interest of "The covenant in this case is not colla- the lessor; whereas a lease is an estate teral; but the parties, that is, the lessor for years taken out of a greater estate, and assignee, are total strangers to each creates the relation of landlord and tenant, other, without any line or thread to unite and reserves to the lessor a reversion. If, and tie them together, and to constitute however, a deed in effect passes the whole that privity which must subsist between interest of the tenant, it operates as an debtor and creditor to support an action." assignment, though it be in form a lease, (Wilmot, 345.) The assignee may ac- and though it reserve a rent. If A, havquire his interest by operation of law, as ing a term of twenty years in land, grants well as by an actual assignment from the to B the whole twenty years, reserving a lessee, and therefore a tenant by elegit, rent: in such case B is assignee of the who has purchased a lease under an ex- whole term and interest, and not underecution, is liable as assignee to the lessor lessee to A; and A, for want of having a in respect of his privity of estate. reversion, cannot distrain for the rent. ASSIGNEE. In the long leases pecu- A, in such case, can only sue B for the liar to the agricultural system of Scotland, rent as for money due upon a contract. the law affecting the right of transference In all under-leases, therefore, it is neto assignees has been held to be of pecu-cessary that part of the original term should liar importance. In an agricultural lease of ordinary length, assignees are excluded without stipulation; a lease beyond the ordinary length may be assigned where there is no stipulation to the contrary. It is usual to divide such leases into periods of nineteen or twenty-one years, a lease of one such period being considered an ordinary, and a lease of two or more such periods being an improving lease and in its nature assignable. A lease specially excluding assignees cannot be conducted for the benefit of the lessee's creditors should he become bankrupt, unless under the administration of the lessee himself. In leases of houses, gardens, or other premises not let for agricultural purposes, the right to assign is assumed, if not excepted by stipulation; but where the lease is for a particular purpose, the lessee cannot assign it for a totally different purpose: thus one who became tenant of a shop as a silk-mercer, was not allowed to assign his lease to an exhibiter of wax figures. ASSIGNMENT, a deed or instrument of transfer, the operative words of which are to "assign, transfer, and set over," and which transfers both real and personal property. Estates for life and es remain in the lessor: a day is sufficient. (Sheppard's Touchstone, 266; Blackstone, Comm. v. ii. 326; Bacon, Ab. 7th edit. tit. Assignment. An Assignment of Goods, Chattels, &c. is frequently made by BILL OF SALE. As to all goods and chattels in possession, no objection ever existed to their transfer and assignment by deed of writing; but with respect to things in action, choses in action, as they are technically called (as debts, for instance), according to an ancient rule of the common law, now considerably modified, they could not be assigned over by the party to whom they were due, since the assignment gave to a third party a right of action against the debtor, and thus led to the offence of maintenancethat is, the abetting and supporting of suits in the king's courts by others than the actual parties to them. In the courts of common law this rule exists (with some exceptions) at the present day. Thus, if the obligee in a bond assign over the bond to a third party, the assignee cannot sue on the bond at common law in his own name; but such an assignment generally contains (and ought always to do so) a power of attorney from the obligee to the assignee, to sue in the obligee's name on the bond. Courts of equity have always protected such assignments, and regarded the assignee, for valuable consideration, as the actual owner of the bond; and the courts of common law so far recognise the right of the assignee, that if the obligor, after notice of the assignment, pay the money on the bond to the obligee, the courts will not permit him to plead such payment to an action brought by the assignee in the obligee's name on the bond. There are various things that are not assignable even in equity, for various legal reasons. A husband is entitled to sue for his wife's choses in action, and he can assign them, that is, sell them, to another person; but as his right to assign is founded on his power to obtain the wife's choses in action by legal means, it follows that if at the time of the assignment the husband has not the power to obtain possesion of his wife's choses in action, the assignment has no immediate effect. Neither the future whole-pay nor the future half-pay of an officer is capable of being assigned, it being considered contrary to public policy that a stipend given to a man for his public services should be transferred to another man not capable of performing them. The exceptions to the rule that choses in action are not assignable at law are many. The king might at all times become the assignee of a chose in action; and after such an assignment he was entitled to have execution against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor. But this prerogative, having been abused by the king's debtors, was restrained by stat. 7 James I. c. 15, by a privy seal in 12 James I., and by rule of court of 15 Charles I.; and the practice of actually assigning debts to the king by his debtors has long become obsolete. Bills of exchange are assignable by indorsement, in virtue of the custom of merchants [BILL OF EXCHANGE]; and promissory notes, by virtue of the 3 & 4 Anne, c. 9. Bail bonds are assignable by the sheriff to plaintiff in the suit under 4 Anne, c. 16, s. 20. Replevin bonds, by the 11 Geo. II. c. 19. The petitioning creditor's bond under a fiat of bankruptcy, by 6 Geo. IV. c. 16. The word assignment contains the same elements as the Roman word 66 In assignatio," or "adsignatio," which among other significations had that of an "assignment" of land, that is, a marking out by boundaries (signa) portions of public land which were given by the state to its citizens or veteran soldiers. Also it was used to signify the scaling of a written instrument, from which notion we easily pass to the potion of the effect of the sealed instrument, which is the sense that the word has obtained among us. ASSIGNMENT. The term assignment is in colloquial use in Scotland, but the word which supplies its place in legal nomenclature is assignation. some instances, however, where statutes employing the phraseology of the English law have been extended to Scotland, the word assignment has necessarily obtained a partial technical use in that part of the empire, e. g. in the transference of property in copyright, patents, and registered vessels. Assignations are a feature of considerable importance in the law of Scotland, both with reference to heritable or real, and to moveable property. The definition of an assignation as distinguished from any other species of conveyance is, that it conveys not a thing, but a title to a thing. Thus a bill of exchange comes within the character of an assignation, because it is, or professes to be, a conveyance in favour of the payee of a right in the person of the drawer to a sum due to him by the drawee. There is no rule known in the law of Scotland equivalent to that which affects the conveyance of a chose in action in England; and except in those cases when from public policy, from the delectus personce involved in the obligation, or from some other special cause, a transferance is invalid, a right exigible by one person is capable of being made over by assignation to another. Assignations are of great importance in the conveyance of heritable or real property. The old system of subinfeudation being still in operation in Scotland, a proprietor of heritable subjects whose right is indisputable, is frequently not in the position of having received feudal investiture from his superior. He is said in such a case to have a mere personal right, as holding in his hands the authority for making his title real by investiture. | formâ prædictâ assessa." It is possible This authority he transfers by assignation, that the word assize, in cases where it and property is thus frequently passed signifies an ordinance, decree, or assessthrough several hands by assignation be- ment, may be derived from this word. fore it is found expedient or necessary to This etymology is not, however, given complete the investiture. In conveyances by Du Cange, Spelman, or any learned of landed property such title-deeds as the writer on this subject; though it obparty conveying has agreed to give to the viously leads much more distinctly to party receiving, are transferred by assig- several meanings of the word assize than nation. For assignations to leases see the derivation from assideo. With reASSIGNEE. ference to English law, the word assize has been called by Littleton nomen aquivocum, on account of its application to a great variety of objects, in many of which neither the etymology of the word nor its original meaning can be readily traced. In this article it is proposed to enumerate and explain in a summary manner the various significations of the term. As the transfer of moveable property is completed by delivery, the person who has the possession cannot convey (as in the case of land) his right to the thing as separate from the thing itself, and thus an assignation affecting moveable property can only take place when it is in the hands of a third party. The simple act of assignation may be effectual in all questions between the cedent and the assignee, but to make the third party who holds the property in his hands responsible as holding it for the latter and not for the former, the further ceremony of a formal intimation is necessary; and until such intimation be made, the cedent's creditors may attach the property in the hands of the holder. Presentment is the proper form of intimation in the case of a bill of exchange. In its most formal shape, an intimation of an assignation is made by the reading of the document to the debtor in presence of a notary and witnesses, and the evidence of the ceremony is the notarial certificate; but in the general case, other circumstances which put the fact of intimation beyond doubt, such as the debtor's admission of his liability to the assignee, are held as equivalents. ASSIZE. This word has been introduced into our legal language from the French assis, and is ultimately derived from the Latin verb assideo, to sit by, or, as Coke incorrectly translates it, to sit together. The word assido is also found in legal records, and has a different meaning from assideo, signifying to assess, fix, or ordain. Thus in the postea, or formal record of a verdict in a civil action, it is said that the jury find for the plaintiff, et assidunt damna ad decem solida-"and they assess the damages at ten shillings;" and then the judgment of the court is given for the damages "per juratoris in 1. The term assize also signified an ordinance or decree made either immediately by the king or by virtue of some delegation of the royal authority. Thus the Assizes of Jerusalem were a code of feudal laws for the new kingdom of Jerusalem, formed in 1099, by an assembly of the Latin barons, and of the clergy and laity, under Godfrey of Bouillon. (Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. xi. p. 93.) In this sense also, in ancient English history, Fleta speaks of "the laws, customs, and assizes of the realm" (lib. i. cap. 17); and the ordinances made by the great council of nobles and prelates assembled by Henry II. in 1164, and commonly known as the "Constitutions of Clarendon," are called by Hoveden "Assisæ Henrici Regis factæ apud Clarendonum." In like manner the assizes of the forest were rules and regulations made by the courts to which the management of the royal forests belonged. 2. Analogous to these were the assizes or ordinances regulating the price of bread, ale, fuel, and other common necessaries of life, called in Latin assisæ venalium. The earliest express notice of any regulation of this kind in England is in the reign of King John (1203), when a proclamation was made throughout the kingdom enforcing the observance of the legal assize of bread; but it is probable that there were more ancient ordinances of the same kind. In very early times these "assisæ venalium" appear to have been merely royal ordinances, and their | arrangement and superintendence were under the direction of the clerk of the market of the king's household. But subsequently many statutes were passed regulating the assize of articles of common consumption; the earliest of these is the assize of bread and ale, "assisa panis et cervisia," commonly called the stat. of 51 Henry III., though its precise date is somewhat doubtful. The provisions of the act with regard to ale, which established a scale of prices varying with the price of wheat, were altered in some measure by 23 Henry VIII. c. 4, which left a discretionary power with the justices of the peace of fixing the price of ale within their jurisdiction [ALE]; but the assize of bread was imposed by this act, and enforced from time to time by orders of the privy council until the reign of Queen Anne. In cities and towns corporate the power of regulating the assize of bread and ale was frequently given by charter to the local authorities, and the interference of the clerk of the king's household was often expressly excluded. Books of assize were formerly published, under authority of the privy council, by the clerk of the market of the king's household. The stat. 8 Anne, c. 19, repealed the 51 Henry III. and imposed a new assize of bread, and made various other regulations respecting it. Several subsequent acts have been passed on the subject; but by the 55 George III. c. 99, the practice was expressly abolished in London and its neighbourhood, and in other places it has fallen into disuse. There was also an assize of wood and coal (stat. 34 & 35 Henry VIII. c. 3); and in the reign of Queen Anne, we find an act (9 Anne, c. 20) enforcing former regulations for the assize of billet (firewood). Besides these, various other articles, wine, fish, tiles, cloth, &c., have at different times been subject to assize. Indeed the legislature of this country for a long time supposed that they could and ought to fix the price of the necessaries of life. But experience has shown that to attempt to fix by law the prices of commodities, is not only useless and mischievous, but impracticable; and that when government has established a uniform scale of weights and measures, and, so far as it can be done, a uniform measure of value, the rest may safely be left to competition, and to the mutual bargaining which takes place between the buyer and the seller. There is an assize of bread in several parts of the Continent at the present time. In Paris, since 1825, the assize of bread has been fixed every fifteen days by an order of the police. This assize is regulated according to the prices of corn and of flour, which are published between the dates of each order. In the city of Cologne, and probably elsewhere in Prussia, the price of the loaf of black bread weighing eight (German) pounds is now (1844) fixed weekly by an order issued from the "royal police-office." Kent, in his Commentaries on American Law,' says that "Corporation ordinances, in some of our cities, have frequently regulated the price of meats in the market;" and he states that "the regulation of prices in inns and taverns is still the practice in New Jersey and Alabama, and perhaps in other states; and the rates of charges are, or were until recently, established in New Jersey by the county courts and affixed up at inns, in like manner as the rates of toll at tollgates and bridges." (Vol. ii. p. 330, ed. 1842.) 3. The word assize also denoted the peculiar kind of jury by whom the writ of right was formerly tried, who were called the grand assize. The trial by the grand assize is said to have been devised by Chief Justice Glanville, in the reign of Henry II., and was a great improvement upon the trial by judicial combat, which it in a great degree superseded. Instead of being left to the determination by battle, which had previously been the only mode of deciding a writ of right, the alternative of a trial by the grand assize was offered to the tenant or defendant. Upon his choosing this mode of trial, a writ issued to the sheriff directing him to return four knights, by whom twelve others were to be elected, and the whole sixteen composed the jury or grand assize by whom the matter of right was tried. The act of parliament, 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27, has now abolished this mode of trial. |