- Warrant. Fictio cedit veritati. Fictio juris non est ubi veritas: Fiction yields to truth. Where there is truth, fiction of law exists not. A Fictio legis inique operatur alicui damnum vel injuriam (3 Co. 36): legal fiction does not properly work loss or injury, i. e. In fictione juris semper æquitas existit. to another imposes on him the obligation of transferring it to a third person. The obligation was not created by words of legal binding force (civilia verba), but by words of request (precative), such as fidei committo, peto, volo dari, and the like, which were the operative words (verba utilia). If the object of the fidei-commissum was the hæreditas, the whole or a part, it was called fidei-commissaria hæreditas, which is equivalent to a universal fidei-commissum; if it was a single thing, or a sum of money, it was called fidei-commissum singulæ rei. The obligation to transfer the former could only be imposed on the heir; the obligation of transferring the latter might be imposed on a legatee. It appears that there were no legal means of enforcing the due discharge of the trust called fidei-commissum, till the time of Augustus, who gave the consuls jurisdiction in fidei-commissa. Fidei-commissa seem to have been introduced in order to evade the civil law, and to give the hæreditas, or a legacy to a person who was either incapacitated from taking directly, or who could not take as much as the donor wished to give. Gaius, when observing that peregrini could take fidei-commissa, observes, that "this" (the object of evading the FICTION.-A fiction is a rule of law which assumes as true, and will not allow to be disproved, something which is false, but not impossible. (Best Ev. 419.) Formerly the practice and jurisdiction of the courts rested largely on fictions; thus, the law) "was probably the origin of fidei-commissa;" Court of King's Bench acquired jurisdicbut by a senatus-consultum, made in the time of Hadrian, such fidei-commissa were claimed by tion in actions for debt, &c., by surmising the fiscus. Fidei-commissa were ultimately as- (i. e. feigning) that the defendant had been similated to legacies. (2 Gaius 247-289; Ulp. arrested for a trespass which he had never Frag. tit. 25; Sand. Just. (5 edit.) 246-259).- committed, and then allowing the plaintiff Wharton. to proceed against him for debt. (3 Bl. Com. 43.) Fictions are now of little importance. As to importance of fictions in the history of law, see Maine Anc. L. 21 et seq. See COLOR; COLORABLE.