DEED POLL, contracts. A deed made by one party only is not indented1, but polled or shaved quite even, and is, for this reason, called a deed poll, or single deed. Co. Litt. 299, a.
2. A deed poll is not, strictly2 speaking, an agreement between two persons; but a declaration of some one particular person, respecting an agreement made by him with some other person. For example, a feoffment from A to B by deed poll, is not an agreement between A and B, but rather a declaration by A addressed to all mankind, informing them that he thereby3 gives and enfeoffs B of certain land therein described.
3. It was formerly4 called charta de una parte, and, usually began with these words, Sciant praesentes et futuri quod ego5 A, c.; and now begins, Know all men by these presents, that I, A B, have given, granted, and enfeoffed, and by these presents do give, grant and enfeoff, c. Cruise, Real Prop6. tit. 32, c. 1, s. 23.
DEFALCATION7, practice, contracts. The reduction of the claim of one of the contracting parties against the other, by deducting9 from it a smaller claim due from the former to the latter.
2. The law operates this reduction , in certain cases, for, if the parties die or are insolvent10, the balance between them is the only claim; but if they are solvent11 and alive, the defendant12 may or may not defalcate13 at his choice. See Set off. For the etymology14 of this word, see Bracken. Law Misc. 186; 1 Rawle's R. 291; 3 Binn. R. 135.
3. Defalcation also signifies the act of a defaulter. The bankrupt act of August 19, 1841, , declares that a person who owes debts which have been created in consequence of a defalcation as a public officer, or as executor, administrator15, guardian16 or trustee, or while acting8 in any other fiduciary17 capacity, shall not have the benefit of that law.
DEFAMATION18, tort. The speaking slanderous20 words of a person so as, de bona fama aliquid detrahere, to hurt his good fame. Vide Slander19.
2. In the United States, the remedy for defamation is by an action on the case, where the words are slanderous.
3. In England, besides the remedy by action, proceedings21 may be instituted in the ecclesiastical court for redress22 of the injury. The punishment for defamation, in this court, is payment of cosplayts and penance23 enjoined24 at the discretion25 of the judge. When the slander has been privately26 uttered, the penance may be ordered to be performed in a private place; when publicly uttered, the sentence must be public, as in the church of the parish of the defamed party, in time of pine service,, and the defamer may be required publicly to pronounce that by such words, naming them, as set forth27 in the sentence, he had defamed the plaintiff, and, therefore, that he begs pardon, first, of God, and then of the party defamed, for uttering such words. Clerk's Assist. 225; 3 Burn's Eccl. Law, Defamation, pl. 14; 2 Chit. Pr. 471 Cooke on Def.
