NUL

5 definitions found across Law Mind sources

NULAuthored
The Law Mind • 1084 words
Definition
A Law French negative particle meaning "no" or "none." NUL does not stand alone as a substantive legal term but functions as a prefix that opens a family of formal pleading phrases, each denying the existence of a particular legal fact or event alleged by the opposing party. The particle derives from the Latin *nullus* and entered English legal usage through the Anglo-Norman legal vocabulary that shaped common law pleading through the nineteenth century. Its significance today is almost entirely historical: researchers encounter NUL primarily in reading the record of pre-reform common law pleadings and in older treatises on the forms of action. Principal phrases in which NUL appears: NUL AGARD — "No award." A plea in an action on an arbitration bond by which the defendant denies that any legal award was in fact made. The plea puts the legal sufficiency and existence of the alleged award directly in issue. NUL DISSEISIN — "No disseisin." The general issue plea in a real action, by which the defendant denies that a disseisin (wrongful ouster from freehold possession) ever occurred. Functionally analogous to the general denial in modern civil procedure but confined in operation to the real actions of the old common law. NUL TIEL CORPORATION — "No such corporation." A plea by which a defendant denies the legal existence of the corporation named in the pleading as a party. This phrase persisted longer than most NUL compounds because corporate existence remained a contested factual matter long after the abolition of the real actions. NUL TORT — "No wrong." A general issue plea in certain trespass actions, denying the commission of the wrong alleged. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): NUL is not a recognized word in ordinary modern English. The closest common term is "null," meaning zero, void, or of no effect. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "No; not any; as, nul disseizin; nul tort." Webster's 1913 treats NUL as a legal term of art and illustrates it exclusively with law phrases, reflecting the degree to which Law French vocabulary was still encountered in legal writing at that time. Researchers should not conflate NUL (a pleading particle denying a fact) with NULL or NULLITY (substantive legal concepts addressing voidness or invalidity). The words share a Latin root but operate in entirely different legal registers. ---
Common Confusion
NUL is sometimes loosely grouped with NULL and NULLITY in legal research, but the relationship is genealogical, not functional. NULL and NULLITY speak to the legal status of a transaction or act — whether it is void or voidable. NUL, by contrast, is purely a pleading particle: it denies a predicate fact, not legal validity. A defendant pleading NUL DISSEISIN is not arguing that the disseisin was void; the defendant is denying the disseisin happened at all. Conflating these terms produces errors of analysis when reading early common law cases or treatises. ---
Why It Matters in Research
The practical research value of NUL lies almost entirely in reading historical sources. Researchers working with pre-Hilary Rules (pre-1834 England) or pre-Field Code (pre-1848 U.S.) pleading records will encounter these phrases routinely in case reports, court rolls, and pleading manuals. Understanding that a NUL phrase is a general issue denial — not a special plea and not a challenge to legal validity — is essential to correctly characterizing what was actually at issue in historical litigation. NUL TIEL CORPORATION is the phrase with the longest active life. Challenges to corporate existence appeared regularly in American case law well into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the phrase appears in equity practice materials and treatises beyond the abolition of the old real actions. Researchers tracing corporate law history, franchise litigation, or early insurance law should watch for it. NUL DISSEISIN connects directly to the real actions — novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor, and related writs — which were the primary means of resolving freehold title disputes in English and early American common law. Researchers exploring land law, property history, or the development of ejectment as a substitute action should understand this plea as the baseline general denial in that procedural context. The Anderson's Dictionary entry in the source material is an anomaly: it addresses legalized nuisances rather than NUL proper. This appears to be a cataloguing artifact. Researchers relying on Anderson's for NUL-family phrases should consult Black's and Burrill's instead, both of which treat the pleading phrases systematically. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's 1st edition offers only a brief identification of NUL as a Law French negative particle. The 2nd edition expands meaningfully, providing distinct sub-entries for NUL AGARD, NUL DISSEISIN, and NUL TIEL CORPORATION with short definitional phrases. This progression reflects the 2nd edition's greater comprehensiveness on pleading vocabulary rather than any change in the law itself. Burrill's Law Dictionary connects NUL explicitly to its Latin root (*nullus*) and situates it within the broader vocabulary of civil law–influenced common law pleading, cross-referencing nudum pactum in the adjacent entries. Burrill is the most etymologically careful of the shelf sources on this term and the most useful for researchers trying to trace conceptual lineage from Latin to Law French to English practice. Anderson's Dictionary, as noted above, does not address NUL in any useful sense in the extracted passage; the entry appears to have been drawn from a nuisance-adjacent passage unrelated to the pleading term. No shelf source provides substantive historical commentary on how NUL phrases were argued in practice or how courts resolved disputes over their sufficiency — for that material, researchers should look to the pleading treatises (Chitty, Stephen on Pleading, Gould on Pleading) directly. ---
Jurisdictional Note
NUL DISSEISIN and the real actions in which it appeared were formally abolished in England by the Real Property Limitation Act 1833 and accompanying reforms. American states abolished the real actions on varying timelines; many had done so by the mid-nineteenth century, with code pleading displacing the old forms. NUL TIEL CORPORATION persisted as a recognized plea in American practice considerably longer and appears in state court decisions through the early twentieth century. ---
Related Terms
Null and void — Nullity — Disseisin — Real actions — Novel disseisin — Nul tiel corporation — General issue — Plea in bar — Common law pleading — Code pleading — Law French — Arbitration award (NUL AGARD context) — Corporate existence
NULmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
No; none. A law French nega- tive particle, commencing many phrases.
NULmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
No; none. A law French negae tive particle, commencing many phrases. —Nul agard. No award. The name of a plea in an action on an arbitration bond, by which the defendant traverses the making of any legal award.—Nul disseisin. In pleading. No disseisin. A plea of the general issue in a real action, by which the defendant denies that there was any disseisin—Nul tiel corporation. No such corporation [exists.) The form of a plea denying the existence of an alleged corporation.—Nul tiel record. No such record. A ee denying the existence of any such record as that alleged by the plaintiff. It is the general plea in an action of debt on a judgment. Hoffheimer v. Stiefel, 17 Mise. Rep. 236, 39 N. Y. Supp. 714.—Nul tort. In pleading. A plea of the general issue to a real action, by which the defendant denies that he committed any wrong.—Nul waste. No waste. ‘The name of a plea in an action of waste, denying the committing of waste, and forming the general issue. Nul charter, nul vente, ne nul done vault perpetualment, si le donor n’est seise al temps de contracts de deux droits, sc. del droit de possession ct del droit de propertie. Co. Litt. 266. No grant, no sale, no gift, is valid forever, unless the donor, at the time of the contract, is seised of two rights. namely. the right of possession, and the right of property. Hundley v. Harrison, . -NULLI ENIM RES SUA SERVIT Nul ne doit s’enrichir aux depens des autres. No one ought to enrich himself at the expense of others. Nul prendra advantage de son tort demesne. No one shall take advantage of his own wrong. 2 Inst. 713; Broom, Max. Nul sans damage avera error ou attaint. Jenk. Cent. 323. No one shal] have error or attaint unless he has sustained damage.
NULmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
Cases of nuisance which rest for their sanction upon the intent of the law under which they are created, the paramount power of the legislature, the principle of the "greatest good of the greatest number," and the importance of the public benefit and convenience involved in their continuance, are termed "legalized nuisances."1 Private nuisance. Anything done to the hurt or annoyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of another. Public or common nuisance. Doing a thing to the annoyance of the public, or neglecting to do a thing which the common good requires.2 Examples: a house so close to another as to cause rain-water to fall upon its roof; animals kept so near a dwelling-house that the stench taints the air; any offensive trade, as, a tanner's, a tallow-chandler's, lead-works the fumes of which poison the herbage; diverting water that naturally runs to another's land; corrupting or poisoning running water by maintaining a dye house or a lime-kiln; obstructing a right of way; a ferry or bridge unlawfully near another; disorderly houses; and all lotteries. 3 A business which is lawful, carried on reasonably, and does not necessarily affect health, comfort, or the ordinary uses and enjoyment of property in the neighborhood, is not a nuisance in fact or in anticipation. As the atmosphere cannot rightfully be infected with noxious smells or exhalations, so it should not be caused to vibrate by ringing bells, in a way to wound the sense of hearing. 5 Noise (as, the ringing of a factory bell), which constitutes an annoyance to a person of ordinary sensibility to sound, such as materially to interfere with the ordinary comfort of life, and impair the reasonable enjoyment of his habitation, is a nuisance to him, the continuance of which may be restrained by injunetion. See NOISE. If a party may acquire a prescriptive right to con. tinue a nuisance, it can only be by continuous use for twenty years. No acquiescence short of that period will bar one from complaining of the nuisance, unless by some act or omission he has induced the party causing the nuisance to incur large expenditures, or to take some action upon which an estoppel may be based.7 Relief is had by abatement, injunction, action for damages, or criminal prosecution. A public nuisance can only be redressed by public prosecution, unless the complainant suffers damage differing in kind from that sustained by the public at large.2 In regard to public nuisances, the jurisdiction of courts of equity seems to be of a very ancient date. The jurisdiction is applicable not only to public nuisances, strictly so called, but to purprestures upon public rights and property. An indictment lies to abate public nuisances, properly so called, and to punish the offender; and an information lies in equity to redress the grievance by injunction.3 The ground of this jurisdiction is the ability of courts of equity to give a more speedy, effectual, and permanent remedy than can be had at law. They cannot only prevent nuisances that are threatened, and before irreparable mischief ensues, but arrest or abate those in progress, and, by perpetual injunction, protect the public against them in the future; whereas courts of law can only reach existing nuisances, leaving future acts the subject of new proceedings. This is a salutary jurisdiction, especially where a nuisance affects the health, morals, or safety of the community. Though not frequently exercised, the power undoubtedly exists. Courts of law afford redress by giving damages against the wrong-doer, and, when the cause of the annoyance is continuous, courts of equity will restrain the nuisance. Grants of privileges or powers to corporate bodies confer no license to use them in disregard of the private rights of others, and with immunity for their invasion. The measure of damages is not simply the depreciation of the property; the jury may take into consideration personal discomfort, and any causes which produce a constant apprehension of danger. See ABATEMENT, 3; AIR; BLACKSMITH SHOP; DAMAGES; HEALTH; INJUNCTION; PARDON; POLICE, 2; PURPRESTURE; UNDERTAKER. No, no one, none. from Latin nullus, q. v. Nul agard. No award, q. ν. Law-French, See Bowden v. Lewis, 13 R. I. 191 (1881); 19 Cent. Law J. 42-45 (1884), cases. 2 School District v. Neil, 36 Kan. 619-20 (1887), cases; Fertilizing Company v. Hyde Park, 97 U. S. 670 Hogan v. Central R. Co., 71 Cal. 86 (1886). (1878), Swayne, J. 23 Bl. Com. 216; 4 id. 166; 40 Ark. 87; 49 Conn. 117; 7 Ga. 311; 80 Ky. 138, 146; 30 Me. 174; 74 id. 271; 34 Mich. 473; 80 N. Y. 582; 37 Ohio St. 516; 17 Tex. 502; 1 McLean, 381. 33 Bl. Com. 216-20; 4 id. 167-69. Rhodes v. Dunbar, 57 Pa. 290 (1868); Strawbridge v. Philadelphia, 13 Rep. 216 (1882). 32 Story, Eq. §§ 921-22. 4 Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 672-73 (1887), cases, Harlan J. That an injunction will not be granted where there is a remedy at law, see Sellers v. Parvis Co., 30 F. R. 164 (1887). * Baltimore & Potomac R. Co. v. Fifth Baptist Church, 108 U. S. 331 (1883); Georgetown v. Alexandria Canal Co., 12 Pet. 91 (1838); Pennsylvania v. Wheeling • Harrison v. St. Mark's Church, 3 W. N. C. 384 (1877): Bridge Co., 13 How. 518 (1851); Mississippi, &c. R. Co. 15 Alb. Law J. 248, 245. • Davis v. Sawyer, 133 Mass. 290 (1882), cases. See further, as to a planing-mill, Hurlburt v. McKone, 55 Conn. 31 (1887), cases. Campbell v. Seaman, 63 N. Y. 568, 584 (1876), cases. v. Ward, 2 Black, 485 (1862); Parker v. Winnipiseogee Co., ib. 545 (1862); 49 Md. 277; 50 id. 516; 10 Oreg. 170, 172; 2 Bish. Cr. L. § 856; Whart. Cr. L. § 1410. • Baltimore & Potomac R. Co. v. Fifth Baptist Church, 108 U. S. 835 (1883).
NULa.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
No; not any; as, nul disseizin; nul tort.

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