Page:Black's Law Dictionary (Second Edition).djvu/225

This page needs to be proofread.
COLLYBISTA
*
*


one of them shall commit, or appear to have committed, or be represented in court as having committed, acts constituting :1 cause of divorce, for the purpose of enabling the other to obtain a. divorce. Civil Code Cal. 5 11-.L But it also means connivance or conspiracy in initiating or prosecuting the suit, as where there is a compact for mutual aid ill a-iirvlng it through to a decree. Beard V. Beard. 65 Cal. 354, 4 Pac. 229; Polilniiin v. Pohiman, 60 N. J. Eq. 28, 46 Atl. 658; i)iu_vton \'. Drayton, 5-1 N. J. :1. 295. 33 AU. 25.

COLLYBISTA. In the civil law. ey-changer; a. dealer in money.

A X11011‘

COLLYBUM. change.

In the civil law. Ex-

COLNE. In Saxon and old English law An account or calculation.

COLONY. A dependent political com- munity. consisting of a number of citizens of the same country who have emigrated therefrom to people another, and remain subject to the mother-country. U. S. v. The Nancy, 8 Wash. C. C. ‘.587. Fed. Cas. No. 15,854.

A settlement in I1 foreign country pos-

sessed and cultivated, either wholly or partially, by iiiiiiiigrauts and their (lcscendaiits, iiho have I1 politics] connection with and subordination to the mother-country, whence they ernigiiited. In other words, it is a place peopled from some more ancient city or country. Wharton. —Cn!onial laws. In America, this term designsies the body of law in force in the thirteen original colonies before the Declaration of Indiyendence. in England, the .term sii,-nifies the laws enacted by Lanadn and the other present British coionies.—0alunial office. In the English gnveinment, this is the department of slate through which the sovereign appoints co_io- nial governors, etc., and communicates with thi-m. Until the year 1864, the secretary for the colonies was also secretary for war.

OOIDNUS. In old European law. A hushandm-an; an inferior tenant employed in cultivating the lord's land. A term of Ro- man origin, corresponding with the Saxon ceort 1 Spence, Ch. 51.

COLOR. An nppesrance, semblance, or umuiacram, as distinguished from that which is real. A prima facie or apparent right. Hence, a deceptive appearance; a plausible, a -uiiicd exterior, concealing a lack of reality: a disguise or pretext. Railroad Co. v. Aiilree, 6-1 Iowa. 500, 20 N. W. 779; Berks County v. Railroad Co.. 167 Pa. 102, 31 Atl. 474. Broughton v. Haywood, 61 N. O. 383.

In pleading. Ground or action admitted to subsist in the opposite party by the pleading of one of the parties to an action, which is so set out as to be apparently valid, but Wllifil is in reality lecally insufficient.

This was a term of the ancient rhetori-

217

COLOR OF TITLE

-cinns, and early adopted into the language of pleading. It was an apparent or prima facie right; and the meaning of the rule that pleadings in confession and avoidance should give color was that they should confess the matter adversely alleged, to such an extent, at least, as to admit some appiireiit right in the opposite piirty, which required to be ecnountered and avoided by the allegation of new mutter. Color was either express, L e., inserted in the plendl ", or inipiied, which was naturally inherent in the structure of the pleading. Steph. Pi. 233; Merten v. Bzinli, 5 01:1. 585, 49 Pac 913.

The Word also menus the dark color of the skin showing the presence of negro blood; and hence it is equivalent to African descent or parentage.

COLOR OF AUTHORITY. That semblance or presumption of authority sustaining the acts of a public othcer which is de- rived from his apparent title to the office or from a writ or other process in his hands apparently valid and regular. State v. Oates, 86 Wis. 634, 57 N, w. 296, 39 Am. St. Rep. 912; Wyatt v. Monroe, 27 Tex. 268.

COLOR OF LAW. The appearance or seniblance, without the substance, of legal right. McCain v. Des Moines, 174 U. S. 168, 19 Sup. Ct. 644, 43 L. Ed. 936.

COLOR 0!‘ OFFICE. An act unjustly done by the countenance of an oihce, being grounded upon corruption, to which the oliice is as a shadow and color. Plow. 64.

A ciiiim or assumption of right to do an act by virtue of an office, made by a person who is legally destitute of any such right Feiler v. Gates, 40 Or. 5-13, 67 Pac. -.116, 56 L. R. A. 630, 91 Am. St. Rep. 492; State V. Fowler, BS Md. 601, 42 All. 201. 42 L. I1. A. 849. 71 Am. St. Rep. 452; Bishop v. Mc-

Giiiis, 80 Wis. 575, 50 N. W\ 779, 27 Am. St. I

Rep. 63; Decker v. Judson, 16 N. Y. 439; Mason v. Crahtree. 71 Ala. 481; Morton v. Cumpheli, 37 Barb. (N. Y.) 181, Luther V. Banks, 111 Ga. 374. 36 S. E. 826; People v. Schuyier, 4 N. Y. 187.

The phrase implies, we think, some oilir-iai power vested in the actor,4he must t least otiicer de Iuiriu. We do not understand that an act of a mere pretender to an office, or false persomitor of an officer, is said to_be done by color of office. And it implies an illegal claim of authority, by virtue of the office, to do the act or thing in question. Buri-all v. Ackcr, 23 Wend. (N. Y.) 606. 35 Am. Dec. .>S2

COLOR OF TITLE: The appearance, semblance, or simulncrum of title. Any fact, extraneous to the act or mere will of the ciiiimant, which has the amlearance, on its face, of supporting his claim of a present title to land, but which, for some defect. in reality falls short of establishing it. Wri ht V. Mittison, 18 How. 56, 15 L. Ed. 2 Cameron v. U. S.. 148 U. S. 301, 13 Sup Ct.


K