Custom (practice)

“ If there is a custom which differs from any provisions of Acts or subordinate statutes which are not concerned with good morals or other social order, and if the intention of the parties to a juristic act is not clear, such custom shall prevail. ”

“ Regarded as creative of rights, it is called a judgment; regarded as creative of law, it is called a precedent. So also immemorial custom does upon occasion give rise to rights as well as to law. 125In respect of the former operation, it is specifically distinguished as prescription, while as a source of law it retains the generic title of custom. That an agreement operates as a source of rights is a fact too familiar to require illustration. ”

“ Established customs, rules, and maxims, I take to be one and the same thing. For the authenticity of these maxims rests entirely upon reception and usage; and the only method of proving that this or that maxim is a rule of the common law, is by showing that it hath been always the custom to observe it. But here a very natural and very material question arises: how are these customs or maxims to be known; and by whom is their validity to be determined? ”

“ We have no laws, but we have five or six thousand volumes on the laws. We are governed in general by customs; for it is known that a custom, having been established by chance, is the wisest principle that can be imagined. ”

“ It must be introduced by the repeated acts of the greater portion of a community or corporate body which is capable of being the subject of law. How many acts are required to form a custom depends much on the matter, and must be left to the prudent judgement of experts. ”

“ Therefore a custom, that all the inhabitants shall be rated toward the maintenance of a bridge, will be good; but a custom, that every man is to contribute thereto at his own pleasure, is idle and absurd, and, indeed, no custom at all.
7. Lastly, customs must be consistent with each other: one custom cannot be set up in opposition to another. For if both are really customs, then both are of equal antiquity, and both established by mutual consent: which to say of contradictory customs is absurd. ”

“ But as it certainly requires more labour to plead a whole cause, than only a part of it, and as many advantageous connections are formed by assisting in a suit in which several persons are interested, the custom, however preposterous in itself, has been readily adopted. ”

“ The importance of custom as a source of law continuously diminishes as the legal system grows. As an instrument of the development of English law in particular, it has now almost ceased to operate, partly because it has to a large extent been superseded by legislation and precedent, and partly because of the very stringent limitations imposed upon its law-creating efficacy, the legal requirements of a valid custom being such as few customs can at the present day conform to. ”

“ Why was there a house of peers, in which noble lords formed a part of the legislature? Why were there commoners, who sat as representatives of the [Pg 314] people? Precisely because custom had ordered it so. Custom was the author of the law and the law-makers. Custom authorized the king, lords, and commons, to enact laws for the government of this realm. All property, all dignity, all offices existed, because they were sanctioned by prescriptive custom, or because custom gave a prescriptive right to create them.
Saturday.—The Privy Council resumed this morning, soon after ten o'clock. ”

“ But though this is the most likely foundation of this collection of maxims and customs, yet the maxims and customs, so collected, are of higher antiquity than memory or history can reach: nothing being more difficult than to ascertain the precise beginning and first spring of an antient and long established custom. Whence it is that in our law the goodness of a custom depends upon it's having been used time out of mind; or, in the solemnity of our legal phrase, time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. ”

“ The custom is to run rapidly over the account of each man in his presence. If he remembers the purchases and is satisfied, as he is in the majority of cases, well and good. If he does not remember or is not satisfied after reasonable explanation he is tendered a check and told to see a lawyer. ”

“ A pious custom existed formerly—which, one is sorry to say, has of late years fallen almost entirely into disuse—no man ever commenced a new work, or even began the usual routine work of the season, without making use of these words “Au nom de Dieu soit!” Wills and many other legal documents, the books in which the Acts of the Royal Court and of the States of the island are registered, as well as those used by merchants and tradesmen in their business, all commenced with this formula. ”

“ "The existence of any method, standard, custom, or practice is no reason for its continuance when a better is offered." ”

“ The proper office of a custom or usage in trade is to ascertain and explain the meaning and intention of the parties to a contract, whether written or in parol, which could not be done without the aid of this extrinsic evidence. It does not go beyond this, and is used as a mode of interpretation on the theory that the parties knew of its existence, and contracted with reference to it. It is often employed to explain words or phrases in a contract of doubtful signification, or which may be understood in different senses, according to the subject-matter to which they are applied. ”

“ It is a rule of general application, both at law and in equity, that a suit upon a written instrument must be brought in the name of all who are formal parties to it, and who retain an interest in it. ”

“ As, however, the matters not specified are not in dispute and the want of precision referred to is not so fundamental as to mislead or confuse, we are of opinion the duty rests upon us to answer the questions and we come to discharge it, making the statements, however, which we have made as an admonition concerning the duty not to be negligent and ambiguous but to be careful and* precise in preparing certificates as the basis for questions propounded to obtain our instruction. ”

“ Just as soon as he has selected his law office and set painters and glaziers and paper-hangers and upholsterers and such to fit it up. For no expense is to be spared, and the young lawyer is to set up in style. ”

“ Custom should be followed only because it is custom, and not because it is reasonable or just. ”

“ The vivid pictures of a leading jurisconsult's daily practice which abound in Latin literature—the clients from the country flocking to his antechamber in the early morning, and the students standing round with their note-books to record the great lawyer's replies—are seldom or never identified at any given period with more than one or two conspicuous names. ”

“ The line of discrimination between fabrics and articles approaching near to each other in quality, or component materials, or commercial denominations, is often very nice and difficult, and sometimes exceedingly obscure. ”

“ Therefore, since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor, to obtain good customs. ”

“ Justice Daniel, in delivering the judgment of this court, said that it must be understood as being the intention of the legislature to comprise 'every article which in its design and completion and received uses is an article of wearing apparel,' 'no matter of what material composed either in whole or in part, or by whom composed or made up.' 16 How. ”

“ In ascertaining the amount which is so applicable, the plaintiffs contend that one of the learned professions may be taken as the standard, with as much propriety as the trade or art of a mechanic. The Court does not think so. The distinction between a profession and a trade is well understood ”

“ Notice of the time when the person possessed the knowledge or use of the invention is not required by the act; the name of the person, and of his place of residence, and the place where it has been used, are sufficient. ”

“ The greater portion of the law consists of the customs of the people, as evidenced and preserved by the written decisions of the courts. These customs, to be recognized as law, need not be found in written decisions, but the most important ones have become embodied therein. New customs are necessary and are recognized to meet new and changing conditions. These new customs are continually adding to our unwritten law. ”

“ The words of the statute are to be taken in the sense in which they will be understood by that public in which they are to take effect. Science and skill are not required in their interpretation, except where scientific or technical terms are used. ”

“ He claims a product; and all else is a description of the mode of obtaining that product, which would enable a skilled mechanic to make the article, and which the law requires him to set forth in his specification. ”

“ How many things, both just and unjust, are sanctioned by custom!89 Now I’m 183 obliged, neglecting my business, to look out for some one on whom to bestow my property, that has been acquired by my labor. ”

“ The article, we think, is chargeable with a duty of twenty per centum ad valorem, under the twenty-fourth section of the act of March 2d, 1861, which imposes this duty 'on all articles manufactured, in whole or in part,' not otherwise provided for. ”

“ There is no court of last resort to which appeal can be made as to the better method. Each house must use its own judgment. The important thing is to secure uniformity.
Rules should govern the name of the addressee, whether it should be prefaced by such titles as "Mr." or "Messrs." The form of the salutation, the size of the margin, the spacing between lines and between paragraphs, the indentation of paragraphs, if any—all of these points should be covered by rules. The subscription, the placing of the dictator's and the stenographer's initials are all proper subjects for the instruction book. ”

“ This formula, 'or his legal representatives,' embrace representatives of the original grantee in the land, by contract, such as assignees or grantees, as well as by operation of law, and leaves the question open to inquiry in a court of justice as to the party to whom the certificate, patent, or confirmation, should enure. ”

“ This sketch would, of course, have to be modified in many ways if we attempted to treat the unofficial fragments of customary law in the same way as the paragraphs of royal codes, and even more so if we were able to tabulate the indirect evidence as to legal rules. ”

“ The conformity to standard of manufactures was enforced either by the officers of companies which were established under the authority of the government or by government officials or patentees, and many of the methods and standards of manufacture were themselves defined by statutes or proclamation. ”

“ Frequently such groupings may be made with respect to the general nature of the business in which the work is performed; and, where a distinction based on the nature of the business is not an unreasonable one, considered in its general application, the classification is not to be condemned. ”

“ The property or the status is treated as being what has been so declared or decreed. For judgments in personam, decreeing the payment of a certain sum, the test of competence for the present purpose is again that the person against whom it was pronounced was subject to the jurisdiction by nationality or domicile; the judgment may then be sued on as giving of itself a good title to the sum decreed by it to be paid. For domestic purposes the competence may exist on quite other grounds. ”

“ That each and every imported article, not enumerated in this act, which is similar, either in material, quality, texture, or the use to which it may be applied, to any article enumerated in this act as chargeable with duty, shall pay the same rate of duty which is levied on the enumerated article which it most resembles in any of the particulars before mentioned ”

“ The first word describing the prohibited paper is 'similar.' Unless th paper possessed is 'similar' to the distinctive paper of the government, its possession is not prohibited. Genuine obligations can only be made from the genuine distinctive paper, with a genuine design ”

“ I have already suggested that the normal conditional entries represent cases in which the wardens of the Stationers’ Company, while not prepared to license a book on their own responsibility, short-circuited as far as they could the procedure entailed. Properly they ought to have seen the corrector’s hand before adding their own endorsement. ”

“ Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters: and his circumstances or his character may be uncustomary. ”

“ The English judges early held that protection "could not depend upon the form of the publication"; " that a composition on a single sheet might well be a book within the meaning of the legislature"; and that "any composition, whether large or small, is a book within the meaning of this act." ”

“ The English Courts of Justice, it must be remembered, have peculiar rules if their own for the construction of statutes. When the >lain man wants to know what a document means, he seeks very available explanation of the intention of the author. ”

“ The new duties merely take the place of the old, and are to be acted on by existing laws as the former duties were acted on; and among these existing laws is that which affords a rule of denomination, so to speak; which determines under what designation in certain cases a manufacture shall come, and how it shall be ranked ”

“ When instructions are asked, they should be precise and certain, to a particular intent; that the point intended to be raised may be distinctly seen by the court, and that error, if one be made, may be distinctly assigned. ”

“ The uniform law upon bills and notes, indeed, already mentioned, is treated with more respect; because, as has been said above, they regard that as a matter of business, and they have some respect for the expert knowledge of business affairs possessed by business men. ”