COMPASSING. Imagining or contriving, or plotting. In English law. "compassing the king's death" is treason. 4 Bl. Comm. 76.
COMPATERNITAS. In the canon law. A kind of spiritual relationship contracted by baptism.
COMPATERNITY. Spiritual affinity, contracted by sponsorship in baptism.
COMPATIBILITY. Such relation and consistency between the duties of two offices that they may be held and filled by one person.
COMPEAR. In Scotch law. To appear.
COMPEARANCE. In Scotch practice. Appearance; on appearance made for a defendant; an appearance by counsel. Bell.
COMPELLATIVUS.An adversary or accuser.
Compendia sunt dispendis. Co. Litt. 305. Abbreviations are detriments.
COMPENDIUM. An abridgment, synopsis, or digest.
COMPENSACION. In Spanish law.Compensation; set-off. The extinction of a debt by another debt of equal dignity.
COMPENSATIO. Lat. In the civil law. Compensation, or set-off. A proceeding resembling a set-off in the common law, being a ciaim on the part of the defendant to have an amount due to him from the plaintiff deducted from his demand. Dig. 16, 2; Inst. 4, 6, 30. 39; 3 Bl. Comm. —Compensatio criminis. (Set-off of crime or guiit.) in practice. The plea of recrimination in a suit for a divorce; that is. that the complainant is guilty of the same kind of offense with which the respondent is charged.
COMPENSATION. Indemnification : payment of damages; making amends; that which is necessary to restore an injured party to his former position. An act which a court orders to be done, or money which a court orders to be paid, by a person whose acts or omissions have caused loss or injury to another, in order that thereby the person damaged may receive equal value for his loss or be made whole in respect of his injury. Railroad Co. v. Denman, 10 Minn. 250 (Gli. 208).
Also that equiialent in money which is p.iid to the (muers and occupiers of i:inds taken or iiijiiriousiy alifectui by the operations of companies exercising the power of e.I.ui_nent (loniaiu.
In the uinstitutionzil provision for "just couipeiisiition" for property taken under the
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COMPETENOY
power of eminent domain. this term means a payment in money. Any benefit to the re» majning property of the owner, arising from public works for which a part has been tak- en, cannot be considered as compensation. Railroad Co. v. Bnrkett, 4?. Ala 83.
As compared with consideration and rlnmuu compensation. in its most careful usc. srenza (D be between them. Consideration is amends lur something given by consent, or by the oirncfs choice. Damages is amends exacted {mu I wrong-dorr for n. tort. Compensation is anxni for something which was taken without the ownei"s choice, yet without comniissir-i of a tort. Thus, one should say. L-onsideraiion for innd sold; compensation for land taki-ii for a rail- way: damages for a trespass But such - tinctions are not uniform. Land I]an1:1_'_n:I is A common exprcssion for compensation for land: taken for public use. Abbott.
The word also signifies the rerniineialion or wages given to an empiové or othcer. But it is not exactly synonymous vritb "saiary." See People v. Wemple. 115 N. Y. 302. 22 N. E. 272; Com. v. Carier, 55 S. W. 701, 21 Ky. Law Rep. 1.709; Crawford County V. Lindsay. 11 iii. App. 261-. Kilgore v. Peo- ple, 70 Iii. 548.
In the civil, Scotch, and French law. Recnuiimeut: set off. The meeting of two debts dne by two parties, where the debtor in the one debt is the creditor in the other; that is to say, where one peison is irtb debtor and creditor to another, and there fore, to the extent or what is due to him. claims allowance out of the sum that be is due. Bell; 1 Kames, F‘ . 395. 396.
Compensation is of three kinds.—ic::zii, or by operation of law: compensation by way of ex- ception; and by recoiirention. Stewart v. Harper, 16 La. Ann. 181. —Compenss.tory damages. See Dunn!-:5.
COMPERENDINATIO.}} In the Roman law. The adjournment of a cause. in order to hear the parties or their advocates a sec-
ond time; a second hearing of the parties to a cause. Calvin. COMPERTORIIIM. In the civil ii"!
A judicial inquest made by delegates orc:uimissioneis to find out and relate the truth of a cause.
COMPERUIT AD DIEM. In pructlre. A plea in an action or debt on a baii bond that the defendant appeared at the day re- quired.
COMPETENCY. In the law of evi- dence. The presence at those characteristics or the absence of those disabillflla which render a witness legally fit and qimllo tied to give testimony in a court or justlm The term is also applied, in the s-inie v-‘me. to documents or other written evidence
Competency differs from credJbility. The former is :1 question \\hiCiJ arises before considering the evidence given by the witness; the latter concerns the degree of credit to be
